77889 - Hebrew Epigraphy and Palaeography

Learning outcomes

The course aims to illustrate the characteristics and peculiarities of the Hebrew language, starting from the history of writing and the alphabet, following the pictographic signs and consonant sequences. We will also examine the graphic signifier and the acoustic signifier which can be found in ideographic signs, hieroglyphics, syllabic cuneiforms and therefore in the consonant signs of the Phoenician alphabet. Part of the course is devoted to the study of epigraphs, useful for the oldest phase to illustrate the position of Hebrew among the Semitic languages. There will be some lessons dedicated to the material forms of the evolution of the book (clay tablet, papyrus roll, codex). At the end of the course the student acquires the necessary skill to orient himself in the reading of the Hebrew scriptures pertinent to the three writing traditions of the West - Italian, Sephardi and Ashkenazi - in their three types: square, semicursive and cursive. The student is also able to read medieval Jewish manuscript sources

Course contents

The course aims to illustrate to the student a history of Hebrew writing, starting from its birth from the Phoenician alphabet, from which he initially took the consonant letters. We will follow the evolution of this script, called archaic Hebrew, which in fact is none other than the Phoenician used by the Jews, of which only a few stone inscriptions have survived. As with all the other alphabets born from the Phoenician matrix, the consonant letters of Hebrew also underwent a notable evolution over the course of six or seven centuries. Of particular interest is the form it took in the fifth century BCE (before the Common Era) in the Aramaic Elephantine papyri, written by Jews who settled in Egypt when they returned from Babylonian exile in the 5th century BCE. These texts have come down to us. In them the form of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet has already developed into a form that we will see two or three centuries later perfected in the Dead Sea scrolls, discovered at Qumran in 1947 and in the following years, and datable between the III century BCE and the I CE.

The course will then illustrate the history of the Hebrew book in its evolution of writing media, engravings stone, papyrus and parchment, and in the evolution of the form from scroll to code.
It will also illustrate the harsh persecution of the Church and the Roman Inquisition against the Jewish book in the late Middle Ages and in the Modern age, repeatedly seized and burned incredible quantities of Jewish books.

Finally, mention will be made of the reuse of parchment manuscripts, Hebrew and in other languages, which in the mid-sixteenth century, due to the spread of the printed book, were massively dismembered to reuse their robust membranes for the purpose of binding registers and books.

Readings/Bibliography

Gabriele Mandel, L'alfabeto ebraico. Stili, varianti, adattamenti calligrafici, Mondadori - Electa 2007.

Lettere ebraiche come simboli. Ideologia e simbolica della lingua parlata da Dio nel suo viaggio da simbolo a lettera e ritorno, in P. Degni (cur.), Lettere come simboli. Aspetti ideologici della scrittura tra passato e presente, Udine, Forum, 2012 (Libri e Biblioteche, 29), pp. 119-170 (disponibile in Academia.edu Perani).

Mauro Perani, Il manoscritto ebraico miniato nell’Italia del Rinascimento, in Giulio Busi e Silvana Greco (a cura di), Il Rinascimento parla ebraico, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo, Milano, 2019, pp. 78-95 (disponibile in Academia.edu Perani).

Mauro Perani, A trentasette anni dal decollo della ricerca dei frammenti ebraici riusati come legature in Italia. Il tutto nel frammento, in Caterina Tristano (cur.), Frammenti di un discorso storico. Per una grammatica dell’aldilà del frammento, “Fondazione Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo” (CISAM), 2019, pp. 285-323 (disponibile in Academia.edu Perani).

Teaching methods

Investigations with students, in the Epigraphy and Hebrew Paleography Laboratory, on scrolls and manuscripts. Visit to the Hebrew manuscripts reused as bindings at the State Archives of Bologna.

Assessment methods

Through exercises and oral.

Teaching tools

Videos and Powerpoints on the indicated topics.

Office hours

See the website of Mauro Perani