Correction: Italy-Old Torah Scroll Story In a story May 29 about the discovery of the oldest known Torah scroll, The Associated Press reported erroneously the surnames of two Hebrew scholars. The correct names are James Aitken, not Aiken, and Stephen Pfann, not Phann. Old Torah scroll found in Italy university library Oldest known Torah scroll found hidden in plain sight in university library ROME (AP) - An Italian expert in Hebrew manuscripts said Wednesday he has discovered the oldest known complete Torah scroll, a sheepskin document dating from 1155-1225. Few such scrolls have survived since old or damaged Torahs have to be buried or stored in a closed room in a synagogue. The 1889 cataloguer, a Jew named Leonello Modona, had described the letters in the scroll as "an Italian script, rather clumsy-looking, in which certain letters, as well as the usual crowns and strokes show uncommon and strange appendices," according to the University of Bologna release. Perani, however, saw in the document an elegant script whose square letters were of Babylonian tradition, the statement said. Perani told The Associated Press it was "completely normal" for a cataloguer to make such a mistake in the late 1800s, given the "science of manuscripts was not yet born." "It is fairly big news," said James Aitken, a lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament studies at Cambridge University.