A Bifolium from the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Zevahim, [Ashkenaz, late 12th-early 13th century]

A rare fragment of a Talmudic manuscript carbon-dated to the period of the Tosafists.

In premodern times, it was common for bookbinders and archivists to reuse sturdy parchment leaves cut out of old manuscripts to protect newer tomes or archival documents. Many Hebrew manuscripts suffered this fate, having either been pillaged during persecutions and expulsions or, in rare cases, been sold by their Jewish owners. Scholars have been aware of the value of this “binding genizah,” also known as the “European Genizah” (on the analogy of the Cairo Genizah), for over a century and a half, and discoveries of new material continue to be made as private collectors, librarians, and archivists carefully review their holdings.

The present lot comprises a large portion of the inner bifolium of a quire from a manuscript of the Talmudic tractate Zevahim. Beginning with the central column of the recto and proceeding leftward through the verso before returning to the rightmost column of the recto, the text covers the equivalent of today’s Zevahim 74a (end) through 80a (end), minus 77b (middle) through 79b (middle), which treats the consequences of animals designated as various types of sacrifices getting mixed up with one another. The binder evidently sliced the bifolium down the middle of each of its two inner columns, as well as across the bottom, and then seems to have pasted the resulting sheets to the boards of a new book.

The document has been carbon-dated to ca. 1161-ca. 1218. Considering that the earliest explicitly dated Talmudic manuscript (Florence, National Central Library, Ms. Magl. II.I.7) was transcribed in 1177, these approximately five columns of text constitute important early witnesses to this section of the Talmud.

Physical Description

One bifolium split in two (approx. 13 5/8 x 11 in.; approx. 347 x 278 mm) on parchment; ruled in blind, with prickings visible in outer margin only; double-column text written in an elegant Ashkenazic square script in dark brown ink (originally) in 39 lines; justification via abbreviation, use of anticipatory letters, and dilation and contraction of final letters; marginalia and corrections in a later hand. Portions stained and abraded, making text harder to read; small holes and slits affecting legibility of a few words.

Literature

Simcha Emanuel, “The European Genizah: Its Character and the History of Its Study,” Materia giudaica 24 (2019): 587-624.

Simcha Emanuel, “The ‘European Genizah’: Between Hope and Reality,” in Mauro Perani with Emma Abate (eds.), Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Reused as Book-bindings in Italy (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2022), 109-124.

Simcha Emanuel, “The European Genizah,” Tablet Magazine (December 23, 2022), available at: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/european-genizah.

Andreas Lehnardt (ed.), ‘Genizat Germania’: Hebrew and Aramaic Binding Fragments from Germany in Context (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2010).  

Andreas Lehnardt and Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (eds.), Books within Books: New Discoveries in Old Book Bindings (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014). See also: http://www.hebrewmanuscript.com/.

Andreas Lehnardt (ed.), European Genizah: Newly Discovered Hebrew Binding Fragments in Context (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2020).  

Mauro Perani and Cesarino Ruini (eds.), Fragmenta ne Pereant: Recupero e Studio dei Frammenti di Manoscritti Medievali e Rinascimentali Riutilizzati in Legature (Ravenna: Longo, 2002).

Mauro Perani and Enrica Sagradini, Talmudic and Midrashic Fragments from the Italian Genizah: Reunification of the Manuscripts and Catalogue (Florence: Giuntina, 2004).

Yaaqov Sussmann, “The Talmudic Fragments of the ‘European Genizah’,” in Mauro Perani with Emma Abate (eds.), Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Reused as Book-bindings in Italy (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2022), 183-195.