Vatican Ebr 133 Talmud Yerushalmi Manuscript is finally available for download in a single PDF file on the Manuscripts Page.
Fragment of Talmud Yerushalmi Bikkurim Ch. 2 Halacha 1-2 from the Cairo Geniza in the University of Geneva
The collection of Cairo Geniza fragments in the University of Geneva Library (Bibliotheque Publique et Universitaire de Geneve) include about 350 documents. It was acquired for the University of Geneva, in Cairo in 1896-1897 by Professor Jules Nicole, who went to Egypt to search for Greek manuscripts. Besides the Greek manuscripts that Nicole bought, he also acquired a tin box which was full of Jewish writings. Since then this tin box was hidden in the University in Geneva Library and no one knew about its existence. Finally, in 2005 Nicole’s finding were being reviewed by the university and among the documents that he has left this tin box was rediscovered. Shortly after, Professor David Rosenthal from Hebrew University went to Geneva to investigate the findings. In the box there were many fragments of Tanach, Mishna, both Talmuds, Midrashim, works of the Rishonim and many other documents. In 2010, Professor Rosenthal published a book in Hebrew called The Cairo Geniza Collection in Geneva: Catalogue and Studies (Osef HaGeniza HaKahirit BeGeneva: Katalog UMechkarim), published by Magnes Press of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The book can be purchased directly from a few online booksellers:
The Cairo Geniza Collection in Geneva
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In the book there is a short article about a fragment of Talmud Yerushalmi Bikkurim Ch. 2 Halacha 1-2. Rosenthal compares the text in this fragment to the text in the Leiden manuscript and shows why he prefers the reading of the fragment over the Leiden manuscript. I have posted the article on the Articles page.
Below are high resolution photos of both sides of the fragment.
Leiden Yerushalmi Manuscript is Online
The Leiden Yerushalmi manuscript is online and can be viewed here. Click on the METS icon to view the actual folios.
The description of the manuscript from University of Leiden’s website:
The Jerusalem Talmud: a gem from the Leiden Hebrew collections
The Talmud is the great repository of the Jewish rabbinic tradition. The most prominent collection originated in ‘Babylonia’ (Mesopotamia) in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, but a second, less voluminous collection was compiled in Palestine, the so-called Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud.
The first edition was printed in Venice in 1523-1524 by Daniel van Bomberghen from Antwerp, more commonly known as Daniel Bomberg, who was active in Venice between 1511 and 1538.
This codex in two volumes, Leiden Or. 4720, is the only surviving manuscript that was used by Bomberg for his edition, and indeed the only complete manuscript of the text to have come down to us at all. Written on parchment and dated in the year 5049 of the Jewish calendar (1289 CE), it was made by the copyist and scholar Jechiel ben Jekutiel ha-Rofe, most probably in Rome.
In the mid-sixteenth century the manuscript was bought from Bomberg by the French ambassador and bibliophile Jean Hurault de Boistailler, who paid twelve gold pieces for his prize. After his death it passed into the hands of the famous humanist scholar Josephus Justus Scaliger, who moved from his native France to Leiden in 1593 and died there in 1609. It now rests among Scaliger’s bequest of Oriental manuscripts and books.
In the early 1970s the manuscript was lovingly restored by sister Lucie Gimbrère, who replaced the old, but not original vellum binding with one of sturdy oak boards. Now, for the first time, this literally unique manuscript is available online to the scholarly community.