Ebraisti e bibliofili europei a caccia di manoscritti ebraici in Italia fra Sette e Ottocento: Bernard de Montfaucon e David Kaufmann

• Main Author: Mauro Perani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fabio D'Angelo 2019-11-01
• Series: Viaggiatori
• Subjects: grad tour; hebrew manuscripts in italy; bernard de montfaucon; david kaufmann
• Online Access: http://www.viaggiatorijournal.com/cms/cms_files/20191107080343_bqxs.pdf

The author illustrates two cases of scholars and bibliophiles, one Christian, Bernard de Montfaucon, a French ecclesiastic, and one Jew, David Kaufmann, who in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively made some Grand Tours in Italy in search of Hebrew manuscripts. After a note explaining how, between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, about half of the Jews of Europe were concentrated in Italy, and consequently even half of the Hebrew manuscripts then in their hands, the author illustrates the visit of the French scholar in 1700 to various Italian libraries, and in particular to that of the Dominicans Friars of Bologna. In it he could see the ancient Scroll of the Hebrew Pentateuch, copied in the late twelfth century, brought to Bologna by Aimerico Giliani, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, where it was held up to 1802 when was brought by Napoleon to Paris, from which he returned with the anti-Napoleonic Restoration of 1915. In the mid-nineteenth century the ancient scroll was erroneously exchanged which a similar Torah scroll, but mutilated and of no importance, until in 2013 when the author re-identified it. Finally the paper describes the enormous acquisitions of Hebrew manuscripts made during several tours in Italy by Kaufmann, among which stands out the code of the Mishnah, copied in Puglia around 1200 CE, from there transferred to northern Italy, in Lugo, where it was possessed by the Fano and then by Del Vecchio families. At the late nineteenth century Alessandro Esdra Del Vecchio, owner of the precious code inherited from his father, moved to Padua, where, after two failed attempts, the bibliophile of Budapest managed to acquire it and succeeded in his task.