The collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma is one of the largest and most important of its kind in the world. The great majority of the 1,600 manuscript volumes housed in this collection were written in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period and date from the 11th to the 16th centuries. While almost all fields of Jewish intellectual activities are represented in this collection, it is most rich in Biblical and liturgical manuscripts. Most of the volumes in the Palatina Library derive from the collection assembled by G.B. De Rossi, an 18th century Italian Bible scholar, who acquired many of the codices for his own research. Close to half of the 1,432 manuscripts that belonged to De Rossi are Bibles or biblical commentaries. About 250 of the manuscripts in the Palatina Library are liturgical - half of them Roman rite prayer books. The De Rossi collection includes two of the oldest and most important codices of the Mishnah and one of the oldest copies of the Sifra, all three manuscripts dating to the 11th or 12th centuries. Another collection of 111 manuscripts mostly from the collection of Moses Foa was acquired in 1846.
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