Torah with Targum Onkelos – nine parchment fragments removed from a "bindings genizah". [France or Germany, 13th/14th century].
Calligraphic square Ashkenazic script, on thin parchment, in a hand typical of the 13th century, in France or Germany. Two columns per page. A central column with the text of the Torah, with vocalization and cantillation notes (the vocalization and cantillation marks are faded), alongside a narrow column in small characters containing Targum Onkelos. One leaf contains Masorah notes in the outer margin.
The script and typography resemble that of a Torah with Targum manuscript written in Crest (South-East France) in 1296, by the scribe Menachem son of Aharon (Mss. 95-97, Jesus College, presently in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. See: Edna Engel and Malachi Beit-Arie, Asufat Ktavim Ivriim MiYemei HaBeinayim, Vol. III – Ashkenazic script, The Israel Academy of Sciences, Jerusalem 2017, plate 31).
This lot comprises nine leaf-fragments from the Book of Bereshit (Parashiot Vayigash-Vayechi) and the Book of Shemot (Parashiot Shemot-Beshalach). One leaf contains the conclusion of the Book of Bereshit (with an inscription in tiny letters: "The total of verses in the book of Bereshit…") and the beginning of the Book of Shemot. The Song of the Sea in laid out in a "brickwork" pattern.
9 leaves. Size varies (maximum size: approx. 23 cm). Condition varies (various degrees of damage due to use in binding. Dark stains, worming and tears, affecting text, with loss).