Collezione Foa — Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea

The Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea of Ferrara holds the Foà collection, comprising Hebrew manuscripts bequeathed by the Foà family, one of the great Jewish families of Ferrara. This collection includes kabbalistic, philosophical, and liturgical works copied in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries in northern Italy. Ferrara was a major centre of Hebrew publishing in the sixteenth century, and these manuscripts testify to that intellectual vitality. The collection is partially described in the Italian national catalogues of Hebrew manuscripts.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan