Description
Book SynopsisThis richly illustrated volume offers the most comprehensive and updated survey on about sixteen thousand Hebrew manuscript fragments reused as book-bindings and preserved in hundreds of libraries and archives in Italy. Contributions by the leading scholars in the field elucidate specific collections and genres no less than individual fragments, bringing to new life a forgotten library of medieval Jewish books, as almost 160 Talmudic codices, which include the Mishna, Tosefta, Palestinian Talmud and, for the most part, the Babylonian one, and several hitherto unknown texts. The contribution of these fragments to the ongoing research on the “European Genizah”, as the Books within Books Project, and to Jewish Studies in general cannot be overestimated.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations 1 Foreword Israel Ta-Shma, zal 2 Introduction Mauro Perani Part 1: General Description and History 3 Manuscripta manent: “Books within Books”, an Overview Emma Abate and Judith Olszowy-Schlanger 4 “The Italian Genizah”: an Unexpected New Source of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Benjamin Richler 5 Death and Rebirth of Hebrew Manuscripts Mauro Perani 6 Ashkenazic Responsa in the Italian Genizah Simcha Emanuel 7 The “Italian Genizah”: Features and Report on Forty Years of Research Mauro Perani 8 The “European Genizah”: Between Hope and Reality Simcha Emanuel Part 2: Bible and Its Commentaries 9 11th–12th-Century Biblical Manuscripts from the “Italian Genizah” and Their System of Vocalization Chiara Pilocane 10 The Importance of the “Italian Genizah” for the Study of Yosef Qara’s Biblical Commentaries Avraham Grossman Part 3: Talmudic and Halakhic Texts 11 The Talmudic Fragments of the “European Genizah” Yaaqov Sussmann 12 An Important Manuscript of the Mishnah in the “Italian Genizah” Gad Ben-Ammi Sarfatti, zal 13 The Most Ancient Fragment Found in the “Italian Genizah”: the Tosefta of Norcia (ca. 1000 BCE) Mauro Perani and Günter Stemberger 14 Eight New Pages of an 11th-Century Talmud Yerushalmi Megillah and Ḥagigah from the State Archives of Bologna Mauro Perani 15 The Talmud Yerushalmi from Bologna, Probable Vorlage of Ms. Leiden: the New Fragments from Megillah and Ḥagigah Günter Stemberger 16 The She’iltot de-Rav Aḥai from the 10th–11th Century Found in Ravenna Pinchas Roth 17 The Travel of the 10th–11th-Century She’iltot de-Rav Aḥai from Sicily-Maghreb to Ravenna via Ferrara and an Important Purchase Note Mauro Perani 18 Juridical Books Bound in 16th-Century Bologna with Folios from a 12th-Century Manuscript of Halakhot Gedolot, Found in Bologna and in Leipzig University Library Mauro Perani 19 The Bologna Fragments of Halakhot Gedolot and Their Relation to the Italian Textual Tradition of the Book Roni Shweka Part 4: Midrashic Texts 20 The Pages of the Halakic Midrashim in the Nonantola and Modena Archives Menahem Kahana 21 Pages from a New Manuscript of Sifre on Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Estense Library in Modena Menahem Kahana Part 5: Kabbalah 22 Fragments of Kabbalistic Works from the “Italian Genizah”: An Updated Survey Saverio Campanini Bibliography on the “Italian Genizah” and “European Genizah” 1915–2021 Mauro Perani and Emma Abate Index
