Mauro Perani, Ph.D. h.c. by the Hebrew University, was full professor of Hebrew at the Bologna University until 2019 and has served as director and editor of the Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Giudaismo's review Materia giudaica since 2000. In 2008 he founded the Corpus Epithaphiorum Hebraicorum Italiae book series. He has published dozens of books and hundreds of articles on themes pertaining to Judaism. His publications can be found on the website https: //unibo.academia.edu/MauroPerani.

The book represents the largest treasure trove of fragments of medieval Hebrew manuscripts found in book-bindings in Italian libraries and archives. It presents a complete bibliography and several articles by the leading scholars in the field bringing to light a large number of new discoveries.