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A: Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The University of Bologna Preserves the Oldest Complete Torah Scroll of the Pentateuch

Circa 1150 to 1225

In May 2013 the University of Bologna announced that it had identified in its library a complete Torah scroll which carbon dating proved to more than 850 years old. This would make it the oldest complete surviving text of the Torah. Written in the oriental Babylonian tradition, the text of this Torah contains many features forbidden in later copies under rules laid down by Maimonides in the 12th century.

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