The Torah Scroll Fragment from the Parochial Archives in Romont (Switzerland)
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chapter 8 The Torah Scroll Fragment from the Parochial Archives in Romont (Switzerland) Justine Isserles, Josef M. Oesch and Franz D. Hubmann This article is a tripartite cooperation on the examination of a recently discov- ered medieval Hebrew Torah scroll fragment from the Parochial Archives of the town of Romont, Switzerland. Now detached from its host volume, this me- dieval fragment from the geo-cultural region of Ashkenaz, was used as a bind- ing cover for an account book for the years 1496 to 1533. The present study has been subdivided into five sections, each written by one, two or three authors, whose respective initials (JI),1 (JO)2 and (FH)3 have been signaled next to the heading of each chapter. Firstly, the historical context (JI) of the fragment will be approached, attempting to establish the fragment’s unknown provenance through several hypotheses. Secondly, the codicological and paleographical specifications of the fragment will be described (JI, JO, FH), including sev- eral observations on the erasures, corrections and the state of preservation of certain letters and words on the fragment. Thirdly, is the delineating of the text division of the fragment (JO), which will address the division markers of the spaces between verses in the fragment and are divided into the three categories of Setumah, Petuḥah and Sedurah. The fourth section unfolds as a brief survey of the sources and extant manuscripts of the post-Talmudic Work Sefer Tagi (JI), followed by the fifth and last part, focusing on rare forms of letters in the fragment (FH). This section gives the detailed description of the crowns adorning several letters as well as the unusual shapes of some of the letters themselves, revealing some of the scroll’s particular textual intricacies and letter variants in comparison to other codices and Torah scrolls from medi- eval Europe. This last chapter is accompanied by an appendix made up of two 1 Justine Isserles, Postdoctoral Associate Researcher in medieval Jewish studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes – Saprat (Paris) and Fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation (Düsseldorf). The introduction, edition and preparation of this article for publication was done by this author. Many thanks to Sofer STaM Mordechai Pinchas Michaels and Sofer STaM Micah Yerushalmi for their input and comments on this Torah fragment. 2 Josef Oesch, retired Professor of the University of Innsbruck, department of Theology. 3 Franz Hubmann, Professor Emeritus of the Katholische Privat Universität in Linz, depart- ment of Theology. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004415614_009 200 Isserles, Oesch and Hubmann tables with the letter variants in the corpus of comparative texts (FH) and a list of siglas with corresponding shelfmarks of manuscripts and Torah scrolls (FH, JO), mentioned in sections two, three and five of the article. Three illustrations of the fragment complete this study.4 1 Historical Context (JI) A unique medieval Torah scroll fragment of Ashkenazi origin dated around the first half of the 14th century was recently discovered in the Parochial Archives of Romont, a town presently in the Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland.5 Founded in 1238 by Count Peter II of Savoy (1203–1268) on a strategic hill dominating the region, the town of Romont6 stayed under the jurisdiction of the House of Savoy until the conquest of the Pays de Vaud7 in 15368 by the Bernese, who had entered a phase of territory expansion in the name of the Reformation. Unwilling to surrender its catholic faith, Romont then integrated the still cath- olic Canton of Fribourg, where it remains till today.9 Thanks to a central geographical situation, between Lake Leman, Fribourg and Bern, Romont was well positioned on pilgrimage and commercial routes which crossed the Alps to and from Italy during the Middle Ages.10 It is prob- ably in this manner that Jews may have come to do business in Romont, 4 Many thanks to the Parochial Archives in Romont for allowing us to publish images of this Torah scroll fragment. 5 The Torah scroll fragment was discovered by Florian Defferard, archivist at the Parochial Archives of Romont. The fragment was first identified as a portion from a Torah scroll by Mary-Gabrielle Roth-Mouthon, a doctoral student at the Theology department of the University of Fribourg. 6 The name Romont comes from a 15th century French vulgarization of the Latin Rotundus Mons; see F. Defferard, La maison et l’homme: Histoire sociale de Romont au Moyen Age, Neuchâtel 2016, p. 11. 7 Jews are first mentioned in the region of Villeneuve in the Pays de Vaud around 1278–79 and by 1285–86, six families were living there; see A. Nordmann, “Les juifs au Pays de Vaud au Moyen Age”, Revue des Etudes Juives, t. LXXX1, 1925, n° 162, pp. 146–168 (esp. p. 147). 8 The town of Romont was part of the ‘Pays de Vaud’, which was under House of Savoy rule since 1207. See Defferard, ibid., pp. 12 and 23. 9 See Defferard, ibid., p. 12. 10 See Defferard, ibid., p. 13 and J.-F. Bergier, “Le trafic à travers les Alpes et les liaisons transalpines du Haut Moyen Age au XVIIe siècle”, in Il sistema alpino, vol. 3, Bari 1975, p. 26..