Italy: Oldest Known Torah Scroll Found, Scholar Says
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Version 0 of 1. An Italian scholar said Wednesday that he had discovered the oldest known complete Torah scroll, dating from the 12th to the 13th century. The roll, which contains the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, was stored in the library of the University of Bologna and mistakenly catalogued as a document from the 17th century. Mauro Perani, a professor of Hebrew, said that the scroll was written and its segments of sheepskin sewed together between 1155 and 1225. He said that it was not the oldest known biblical text, but it was the oldest scroll of the Pentateuch found so far. Two independent studies corroborated the scroll’s age through carbon-dating tests, the university said. |