Cultural Collaboration between Israel and the Holy See

H2Onews: In recent days the Catalog of Hebrew Manuscripts was presented at the Vatican Library, created by Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, which collects microfilms of ancient Jewish documents from all parts of the world including the National and University Library in Jerusalem.

This is a catalog of almost 800 pages with detailed descriptions of 813 manuscripts, dating mainly from the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries.

There are over 50 Biblical codes, many liturgical manuals, philosophical treatises, and Kabbalist texts, as well as volumes of medicine and astronomy.

Among the treasures of the collection is what is probably the oldest known Hebrew code, a copy of a Rabbinic commentary to Leviticus, which dates to years between the end of the ninth and early tenth century.

Mordechay Lewy, Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, has praised the presentation as a very important opportunity to demonstrate the valuable cultural cooperation between Israel and the Holy See.