Italian Hebrew Script of the Eleventh to Twelfth Centuries in the Fragments Reused as Bindings from European and Italian Archives

The Hebrew script developing between the eleventh and twelfth centuries begins to move towards a local characterisation and to distance itself from the Eastern-Oriental tradition.

The survey of the fragments reused as bindings conducted in the Italian and European Archives, reveals that many belong to a old Italian type. Some one hundred fragments of this type have been discovered so far, and probably more await identification. Among these, a limited number displays a typical writing style, which is attributed to the scholars of rabbinical academies of Southern Apulia. The comparison with dated and datable manuscripts has allowed the assignment of the so-called school of Otranto.

However, this local variety is probably not the only Hebrew script in Italy in this period, but rather other sub-types were used and developed locally. Books within books bring an important contribution to the study of these different local early Italian script sub-types.