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Country
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IT
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Name of institution (English)
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University Library of Bologna
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Language of name of institution
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ita
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Contact information: postal address
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Via Zamboni 33/35, 40126 Bologna
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Contact information: phone number
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0039 0512088306
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Contact information: email
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bub.info@unibo.it
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bub.biblioteca@pec.unibo.it
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Reference number
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Ms.
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Hebrew Manuscripts
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Title (official language of the state)
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Manoscritti Ebraici
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Language of title
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ita
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Creator / accumulator
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Biblioteca universitaria di Bologna
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Date note
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12th century/19th century
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Language(s)
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heb
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ita
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lad
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lat
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Extent
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38 storage units
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The Manoscritti Ebraci is not a formal collection in the organisational structure of the Biblioteca universitaria di Bologna. Its items are dispersed by several manuscript collections. It is composed of 32 Hebrew manuscripts, five Hebrew-Italian and Hebrew-Latin manuscripts and a miscellany of documents (letters and other commercial records) in Judeo-Spanish from the 17th and 18th centuries (3574 XX). Among the Hebrew manuscripts, there is a prevalence of Bibles (13 codices), followed by manuscripts of liturgical character (5) and other subjects: Medicine (4), Kabbalah (3), Halakah (3), Medieval Rabbinic-Talmudic literature (1), Bible exegesis (1) and Midrash exegesis (1).
One of the highlights of this collection is the so-called Sefer Torah of Bologna, according to Mauro Perani, the oldest whole Sefer Torah found up to present times, dating between the 12th and 13th centuries, and written in an early Sephardic script.
Other Sephardic-related manuscripts:
Ms. 2297: Avicenna's Canon, copied in Spain in the 14th century. The codex came from the library of the convent of San Salvatore in Bologna.
Ms. 2559: a 14th-century Mahazor of Sephardic rite with Sephardic script.
Ms. 2658: codex with Maharšaq's Sefer keritut and Maimonides' Ma'amar tehiyyat ha-mettim, dated from the 15th or 16th centuries and written in Sephardic script.
Ms. 2950: 15th-century scroll of the Book of Esther in Sephardic script.
Ms. 3569: 15th- or 16th-century Torah scroll in Sephardic script.
Ms. 3571: 13th- or 14th-century copy of the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah in Sephardic script.
Ms. 3572: 15th-century Targum Onkelos in Sephardic script.
Ms. 3574B: Writings on Medicine by Maimonides, Yehudah ben Ya‘aqov and Abu Marwan ben ‘Abd Al-mala’k ibn Zuhr, copied in 1306, in Sephardic script.
Ms. 3574C: Bernard de Gordon's medical work, copied in the 15th century, in Sephardic script.
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Archival history
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The origins of the collection of Oriental manuscripts of the Biblioteca della Università di Bologna date back to the foundation of the Istituto della Scienze in 1712 and the donation given by Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli of his private library. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the collection increased with donations and incorporations of codices from convent libraries. It is the case of the manuscripts of the libraries of San Salvatore and San Domenico convents that had been taken to Paris during the Napoleonic period and returned to Bologna in 1815. Then, they were deposited in the Biblioteca Pontificia, the predecessor of the University of Bologna library. Although these manuscripts had been restituted to the original convents in the late 1820s, they returned to the library (then Biblioteca Regia Universitaria) in 1866, after the extinction of the religious congregations.
In 1889, Leonello Modona published the first catalogue of the Hebrew collection. In 2013, a new catalogue was composed by Mauro Perani and Giacomo Corazzol.
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Administrative / Biographical history
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In 1712, Luigi Ferdinando Marsini (1658-1730) created the Istituto della Scienze and settled it in the Palazzo Poggi. The new institute was then endowed with his private library. Since then, the library's collection was constantly enriched with donations and new acquisitions, such as the manuscripts, printed works, xylographic tablets and watercolours of the Bolognese naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) incorporated in 1742, or the collection of about 25,000 printed volumes and 450 manuscripts donated by Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) in September 1755. In the same year of 1755, it was imposed to Bologna printers the obligation to deliver one copy of every printed work to the library.
In 1756, the library opened to the public. The new incorporations had led to the need of expanding the building. A new monumental reading room, called the Aula Magna, was built according to the design of the architect Carlo Francesco Dotti (1670-1759).
The French domination brought changes, especially after the suppression of monasteries in 1797 and the incorporation of some of their manuscripts and printed books into the library. In 1802, when the University of Bologna was transferred from Archiginnasio to Palazzo Poggi, the Biblioteca became a university library. Later, in 1869, it gained the status of "biblioteca pubblica statale" (state public library).
Already in the 20th century, the Biblioteca was subject to works of expansion and renewal of its facilities. In the 1930s, a connecting wing with a view to the Piazza Puntoni was added, and the Aula Magna was furnished with tables and transformed in a large reading room. The new headquarters were added to the Palazzo Poggi in the 1990s. They accommodated two large reading rooms and the Torre libraria (book tower), in which about 400,000 volumes have been stored.
In 2000, the University of Bologna signed an agreement with the Ministero dei Beni Culturali (Ministry of Cultural Heritage) to manage the Biblioteca. This process of transference of custody ended in 2017.
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(source: Biblioteca universitaria di Bologna website)
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System of arrangement
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The Hebrew manuscripts of the Biblioteca universitaria di Bologna are gathered in one single collection. Their numbering follows the order of the respective collections.
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Existence and location of copies
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Microfilmed copies of the Hebrew collection in the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts of the National Library of Israel.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2022
