Description
This is one of the most important collections in the world of Hebrew manuscripts and printed works from the Library of the Abbot Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (1742-1831) who taught oriental languages in the theological faculty of the University of Parma from 1769 to 1821.
The collection, purchased in 1816 by Maria Luigia of Austria as a gift to the Royal Library of Parma, is made up of 1,432 codices from the 11th to the 16th centuries, many of which are splendidly illuminated, and 1,464 printed volumes, whose publication date is between the 15th and 18th centuries; to these are added 10 Greek manuscripts, 85 Latin ones, 31 in the vernacular and several in various other languages.
The Fund, which stands out for the antiquity and quality of its texts as well as for the preciousness of its miniatures, houses, in addition to the Bibles, numerous Psalters, philosophical, legal and Kabbalistic texts, testimony to the intellectual and spiritual wealth of the Jewish groups of the Diaspora and their many cultural activities.