The "Ezra Scroll" of Bologna. Vicissitudes of an Archetype Between Memory and Oblivion

The so-called Ezra Scroll, a Sefer Torah preserved at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna, recently redescovered, is made the object of a historical survey as to its numerous and very prestigious Readers along the centuries. After its donation, at the beginning of the XIV century to the General of the Dominican Order Aymeric Giuliani, the Scroll has been preserved at the Dominican convent of San Domenico in Bologna and has been the object of scholarly attention, for example by FitzRalph, François Tissard, Montfaucon, Kennicott, but also of a sort of tourism, as proven by its presence in travelogues and guides through the entire modern era. Moreover, it has been the object of special veneration and political use by the sovereigns from the Bentivoglios to the Emperor and the Pope Clement VII, to Christian of Sweden. The archetypical character of this artefact is studied in depth as well as its vicissitudes from public veneration ot utter oblivion, especially after its return to Bologna from the French revolutionary "captivity" among the treasures sequestrated by Napoleon during his Italian campaigns. An exemplary history of how a cultural Heritage can be lost and re-found and the forms of attention needed to understand its changing value through time.