The Jewish manuscripts copied in the area of Lecce during the fifteenth century are valuable sources of information on the intellectual life of the local community and on relations between families active in Apulia. The Salentine codes dated and with indication of the place of transcription are quite numerous (at least in the standards of the Hebrew manuscript production).

They were mainly the work of scribes of Iberian, Provençal and Balkan origin and contain mostly medical and scientific treatises, texts of exegesis of Scripture and extensive rabbinic literature and liturgical materials.

Nothing remains of this surprising production in the Salento area: codes can be admired today in New York, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Parma... basically the most important collections of Jewish codes around the world can boast one or more pieces copied in medieval Salento. An extraordinary case is that of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, whose Jewish collection is largely made up of witnesses copied in Puglia or transited by the Adriatic region during the fifteenth century.

The absence of Jewish documents in the local collections has led us to use the vast amount of digital data now accessible on the internet to make known some manuscripts that can be considered particularly significant to understand in depth the intellectual self-perception of the Salentine Jewish scholars of the fifteenth century. To that end, the consultation of the individual codes is accompanied by illustrative notes that will allow visitors to contextualize the artifacts.

The production of Jewish manuscripts in Apulia seems to assert itself with surprising vigour especially in the period of Aragonese rule over Naples (second half of the 15th century), but already in the last phase of the Angevin age (late 14th - first half of the 15th century) Lecce took on particular cultural importance, when new waves of refugees escaped persecution and forced conversions in Catalonia and Provence. It is precisely to these first phases of the fifteenth-century Jewish settlement in the southern Adriatic area that we owe the first manuscripts that have survived. These are mostly works aimed at personal use by scholars who moved frequently because of the instability of the political conditions of the regions in which they tried to find accommodation. Many of them practiced medicine and in the new Apulian headquarters succeeded in restoring the cultural liveliness that had been lost in previous centuries, restarting valid educational institutions in which from then on would operate teachers mostly from the Iberian-Provençal area.

For the students of these academies, texts were composed for instruction in the various disciplines of the curricula of the most common studies of contemporary Sephardic Judaism. Since, as has been said, many of the pupils belonged to families of physicians and were themselves intended for Hippocratic practice, a fair number of copies, made within the schools or for personal use within the family, it focused on subjects of medicine or on disciplines traditionally associated with it (astronomy, astrology, mathematics, natural sciences...). Hebrew translations of texts originally composed in Arabic or Latin were often used; for the same educational purposes medical and pharmaceutical terminology lexicons were prepared in several languages (including vernacular).

Among the main Sephardic families that operated in the Apulian territory and that had a main base in Lecce were the De Balmesthe best known are the two Avrahàm, grandfather (ca. 1420 – 1489) e grandson (ca. 1470 - ca. 1523). The first was responsible for a large intellectual commission that produced a large number of manuscripts copied especially in the Salento area. But his library collection was also to consist of codices imported to Puglia from previous locations.

A significant example of this second typology is manuscript 2601 (Adler 1743) of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York.The codex contains a miscellany of astrological and astronomical treatises (disciplines aimed at the study of medicine in the Middle Ages), copied by various hands, in Provençal and Italian fifteenth century Jewish graphs. The first part of the codex is the work of a scribe active in Lecce in the second half of the 15th century who also executed another manuscript, now kept at the National Library of Paris (hébr. 1073)). At c. 89v there is a list of Jewish works that belonged to the owner. It is interesting that the editor of the list mentions a certain Rabbi Dawid who would have borrowed (?) two works from his collection: it could be the famous astrologer Dawìd Qalònimos, who we know in relation to the De Balmes.

Along with the list of books there is a register in which the writer recalls that Moshè was born in 1440, Me'ìr in 1442 and Astrùc in 1444. Since these are the names of the sons of Avrahàm De Balmes senior there is no doubt that he is the author of the notes; since the handwriting of the register is the same as that which wrote the list of books, The collection is necessarily that of the illustrious Lecce doctor of whom we have here an autograph document. Provençal Sephardic script allows us to understand how the formation of De Balmes took place in southern France before its transfer to southern Italy.

The list of books reveals the variety of cultural interests of the owner, who associates philosophical and scientific works with biblical and rabbinic texts. It is interesting that the list distinguishes codes by subject: Bibles, liturgical books, biblical commentaries and grammars, rabbinic literature and Talmudic commentaries, philosophy and science, for a total of 78 titles.

Some prayer books appear "according to the order (sèder) of Lecce". This is the only known evidence of the existence of a specific rite followe d by the Jews of Lecce. Was this the minhàg according to which the community gathered in the synagogue that once stood in the place of Palazzo Personè?

The manuscript now in New York contains: cc. 1-72: Abu Màshar, Mavò ha-gadòl le-hokhmàt ha-tekhunà tekhunà (Introduction to the astronomy science); ch. 73~80: List of constellations; ch. 81-82: Arnaldo da Villanova, De judiciis astronomiae, summarized by the translator, Ya'aqòv ben Yehudà Cabret; ch. 83-85: Pseudo-Ippocrate, De esse aegrotorum secundum lunam, Hebrew translation by Le’òn Yosèf; ch. 86-88: Sèfer ha-tequfà (Book of the calculation of time); ch. 89v: list of manuscripts; ch. 90-147a: Levì ben Avrahàm, Sèfer ha-kollèl (Full book), ch. 36-40; cc. 147-151: Arnaldo da Villanova, De judiciis astronomiae, translation by Sol Avigdor; ch. 152: Immanuel Bonfils, Bi’ùr mo’aznè Hanòkh (interpretation of Bilancia di Enoch); cc. 153-155: Tolomeo, Sèfer ha-perì (Libro del frutto = Centiloquium)Hebrew translation by Ya’aqòv ben Eliyyà.

Among the topics that a doctor must know in the Middle Ages was of primary importance astronomy and the relationship of the macrocosm with individuals, for the treatment of which was certainly helpful the interpretation of the signs resulting from the observation of celestial bodies.

Hippocratic art was transmitted within Jewish families from father to son, from grandfather to grandson, and the study of Hebrew texts allowed learners to master discipline in their own language of identity. In reality they spoke several languages and were perfectly able to study the Latin and vulgar texts that formed the basis of the university curriculum . However, since the medical faculties were under the aegis of the Church, non-Christians could often only go there to take examinations, as "private". For this reason, it was necessary to have independent medical libraries, whether these were collections of schools within the community or within the family.

Artist: Avrahàm de Balmes junior remains the extraordinary document, unique of its kind, of his diploma as doctor artium et medicinae at the Studium of Naples on July 4th, 1492.

The beautiful parchment is now part of the Braginsky collection in Zurich..

At the bottom right is an elegant heraldic decoration, a shield with a hand holding a palm, a clear reference to the family name of the graduate (often Latinized in De Palmis).

The The New York manuscript shows how the Salento Jewish collections have been dispersed over time.

A miscellaneous codex preserved in Moscow, certainly belonging to Avrahàm De Balmes senior, contains medical texts in Hebrew translation, multilingual lexicons and scientific materials aimed at the study of medicine.

The miscellany is contained in the current manuscript Moscow, Russian State Library, Günzburg 573. There are three different Jewish hands, of which two of the well-known scribes Yesh'ayàhu ben Dawìd ha-Kohèn and Ya'aqòv ben Avrahàm ha-Kohèn, active in Salento.

The manuscript contains: ch. 1-126: Avicenna, Canon of Ben Sina, first book; ch. 126-129: Guglielmo da Saliceto; ch. 129-131: Rhazes, Hanhagàt ha-ne‘arìm (The guide of teenagers); ch. 132-257: Avicenna, Canon of Ben Sina, second book, translation by Natàn ha-Me’atì (missing the end that perhaps is preserved in a miscellaneous today at the Bodleian Library of Oxford, dated 1441 and transcribed by Amòn bar Yitzchàq Yaqo? In Lecce; therefore he would be the third scribe); ch. 258-396: Ibn Wafid, Sèfer ha-samìm ha-nifradìm (Book of the Simple); possession note of "ha-tza’ìr [the young] Natàn Nòach” ch. 129v.

The first colophon is at ch. 126v: "I completed the first book of the Canon of Ben Sina , I Ya'aqòv bar Avrahàm Kohèn here in Lecce on the 27th of the month of Iyyàr of the year 201 [=1441]. according to the count minor." To ch. 258v and 296v reads: "Completed the book composed by Ibn Wafid of the simple, praise the Lord. The writing of this book has been completed here in Taranto for the universal essay... Master Avraham, may God protect him, De Balmes, on the 15th of the month of Shevàt, in the year "who trusts in the Lord" [= 225 / 1465] ... by Yesh'ayà Kohèn bar Dawìd Kohèn, peace be with him."