chapter 4 The Making of the Bologna Scroll: and Scribal Traditions

Judith Olszowy-Schlanger

The recent rediscovery of Scroll 2 (Rotulo 2)1 of the University Library of Bologna has given a new impetus to the study of scribal traditions of the pro- duction of scrolls in the Middle Ages. The Bologna Scroll was ‘sanctu- arised’ and kept under double lock in the San Domenico Convent of Bologna since the beginning of the 14th century, where it was revered as an autograph of Ezra the Scribe, and visited by major scholars and even monarchs. This scroll was virtually forgotten after the tribulations of the Napoleonic wars that had caused an unfortunate qui pro quo: this scroll was confused with its less impres- sive neighbour, Rotulo 1. It took a new catalogue description by Mauro Perani and Giacomo Corazzol,2 a detailed study of the history of the by Rita De Tata and a double C14 dating to reestablish the scroll’s mistaken iden- tity.3 The date, provenience and scribal tradition of Scroll 2, had long been a

1 I thank Professor Mauro Perani for inviting me to study the Bologna Scroll and sharing with me the images of the manuscript. 2 M. Perani – G. Corazzol, Nuovo catalogo dei manoscritti ebraici della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, in BUB, Ricerche e cataloghi sui Fondi della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, III, Minerva Edizioni, Argelato 2013, [pp. 13–191], esp. pp. 18–19, 30–33. This de- scription corrects the confusion between Rotulo 1 and Rotulo 2, which was not noticed by the previous catalogue of Leonello Modona, Catalogo dei codici ebraici della Biblioteca della R. Università di Bologna, in Cataloghi dei codici orientali di alcune biblioteche d’Italia stampati a spese del Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, 4 vols., Le Monnier, Florence 1878–1889, vol. 4: Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna: Codici ebraici; Biblioteca Nazionale di Palermo: Codici orientali, Florence 1889, p. 4. For a detailed description of the Bologna Scroll, see M. Perani, Il più antico rotolo del Pentateuco ebraico integro: una scoperta alla Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Teca ¾, 2013, pp. 87–97; Id., Il più antico Sefer Torah intero del secolo XII–XIII riscoperto nella Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna / The oldest known entire Torah scroll from 12th–13th century rediscovered at the Bologna University Library, in B. Antonino, R. De Tata and M. Perani (eds.), Il Rotulo 2 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna: il Pentateucho più antico del mondo, Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna 2015, pp. 37–78. 3 R. De Tata, L’occhio dello studioso e la lente del bibliotecario. Breve storia del Rotulo ebraico della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, in “Quaderni di Storia” 80 (2014), reprinted with an English translation as The scholar’s eye, the librarian’s lens. A short history of the Torah scroll of Bologna University Library, in Antonino, De Tata and Perani (eds.), Il Rotulo 2, cit.,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004415614_005 108 Olszowy-Schlanger matter of discussion since its legendary association to Ezra the Scribe in the Middle Ages. The palaeographical analysis of the scroll presented in this shows that it was produced in a Sephardi cultural context. This palaeographi- cal analysis, together with the C14 dating to between the last quarter of the 12th and the first quarter of the 13th century, confirms the opinion of Giovanni Bernardo de Rossi who, in his Variae lectiones veteris Testamenti published in 1784, stated briefly and in a matter-of-fact way that the script of the scroll was Iberian and that it was not much older than the 13th century.4 This dating makes the Bologna Scroll one of the earliest fully preserved medieval Torah scrolls. In addition, it is a very rare extant witness of a scribal in medieval Iberia. Only one (אותיות משונות) ”tradition of “modified letters other early Sephardi scroll of this type, dated by C14 to the 1270s–1300, sold by Sotheby’s in 2009 and described by Shlomo Zucker5 (henceforth Sotheby’s ‘kabbalistic’ scroll) is known to us but its original modified letters were sub- sequently corrected to fit a more recent scribal practice. As shown below, my own analysis of the Bologna Scroll, including its palaeography and tradition of modified letters, confirms its Sephardi affiliation. More specifically, it con- firms its origin in Christian Spain, Roussillon or Southern France, and places it within a specific scribal tradition of the Torah Scrolls. The following pages de- scribe the physical aspects of the Bologna Scroll and its script. These features are compared with some examples of the extant from the same cultural area, with a few Oriental manuscripts following the North-Eastern tradition of Hebrew calligraphy,6 and with the main normative texts dealing

pp. 7–35. See also the article of R. de Tata, The many lives of the ‘Bible of Esdras’. Proposals for a long-term investigation in this volume. 4 G.B. De Rossi, Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti, I, Parma 1783, p. LXXXVI, n° 527. B. Kennicott for his part dated the scroll to the 11th century, see Dissertatio generalis in Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum, Oxford 1780, p. 504, n° 527. 5 Sh. Zucker, A Torah-Scroll from Northern Spain following the tradition of curved letters, from a circle of 13th century Kabbalists, at http://rachelstomb.gov.il/userfiles/file/Zucker%20 Report.pdf, and the Sotheby’s presentation of the scroll at http://www.sothebys.com/fr/ auctions/ecatalogue/2009/important-judaica-n08606/lot.142.html. 6 For the distinction between two main subgroups of the early Oriental square script, the South-Western group (Egypt and the Land of Israel) and the North-Eastern group (Iraq, Iran and communities of Babylonian origin or rite in Egypt and North Africa), see J. Olszowy-Schlanger, Typologie des écritures hébraïques I: écritures carrées orien- tales du IXe au XIIe siècle, Annuaire de l’EPHE, 2013–2014, Paris 2015; N. Tchernetska, J. Olszowy-Schlanger, N. de Lange, An early Hebrew-Greek biblical glossary from the Cairo Geniza, in “Revue des études juives” 166 (2007), pp. 91–128; J. Olszowy-Schlanger, An early scroll of the of Kings from the Cairo Geniza, in B.M. Outhwaite, S. Bhayro (eds.), “From a Sacred Source”. Genizah Studies in Honour of Professor Stefan C. Reif, Brill, Leiden-Boston 2010, pp. 237–247; J. Olszowy-Schlanger, R. Shweka,