In June 2013, when Professor Mauro Perani of the University of Bologna announced that he discovered the oldest existent Torah scroll – some eight hundred years old – the feat was celebrated across the world. In fact, his “discovery” is a testament to scholarly error. Apparently, the scroll was stored away in the university archives, mislabeled as a scroll from the eighteenth century. Great and learned scholars are just as prone to make mistakes as anyone. The issue is what to do when those mistakes are uncovered.
