The oldest Torah in the world, uncovered at the University of Bologna.

Scholars at the University of Bologna in Italy announced last week that they discovered that a Torah in their possession is, in fact, the oldest known copy of the text in the world. Mauro Perani, a professor of Hebrew, made the announcement via a press release available on Facebook, explaining that the Torah at the university’s library has been found to date back to somewhere between 1155-1225.

The document, referred to as “Scroll 2,” had been mistakenly identified as being written in the 17th century by a librarian at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, cataloging its collection in 1889. The librarian noted the scroll’s “Italian script, rather clumsy-looking, in which certain letters, as well as the usual crowns and strokes show uncommon and strange appendices,” but Perani deduce that the writing was actually in a Babylonian script that would have to have been much older.

Thanks to carbon dating at the University of Salento and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Perani was able to prove that he was correct about the Torah’s origin. He also points out that this particular copy does not follow the rules for copying the Torah set forth by the medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides, who died in 1204, suggesting that it had been written before then.

“Scroll 2” is written on soft sheep leather and measures 36 meters long by 64 centimeters high, and includes the full text of the five books of the Torah. Unfortunately, it is unknown exactly how it made its way to the University of Bologna, but it will be on display this month, and uploaded in digital format on the university library’s website.