Group of early Hebrew manuscript fragments recovered from book-bindings.

(HEBRAICA).

Manuscript on vellum.

Three larger fragments have been identified: * A text of I Samuel 20. This is a non-Yemenite text that includes supralineal pointing. * A text of Targum Onkelos to Numbers 2. Non-Yemenite with supralineal pointing. * A text of the Lechem Mishnah Hilchoth Shechita 7, a commentary on the Code of Maimonides by R. Abraham de Boton (1560-1605) of Salonica. These fragments are written on vellum and have suffered through the vicissitudes of time, apparently having been wet and dried, but many are quite legible. Supralineal - so-called Babylonian - pointing, indicates significant age. For outside of Yemen, the familiar Tiberian nikkud dominated quite early. This cataloguer concludes that these mss are not from Yemen itself as the scribal style looks nothing like Yemenite manuscripts - which moreover are never composed on vellum. Outside of Safrut, vellum, or parchment, always indicates Europe, as paper was exclusively used by the scribes of Islamic lands.