Jerusalem Talmud textual-witness ledger

Epistemic status

Inferred L3 evidence-packet article.

This article describes an entity that is not directly attested. It is an inference from the evidence listed below.

Summary

A source-backed ledger for Jerusalem Talmud manuscript and fragment witnesses, to be split by witness or tractate before article drafting.

What is being inferred

What this ledger infers is the actual shape of the Jerusalem Talmud's surviving witness landscape: the claim is that the text exists today through exactly one complete manuscript plus a scattering of partial manuscripts and Genizah or binding fragments, and that this bounded, thin landscape (not the text's content) is what the ledger records.

What is attested

• Evidence 2147 records: The article summary gives a bounded witness landscape for the Jerusalem Talmud: one complete manuscript, partial manuscripts, and Genizah/binding fragments.
• Evidence 2148 records: The Leiden codex record supplies catalog-level control for the only complete surviving Jerusalem Talmud manuscript witness.
• Evidence 4095 records: Offline judge treated existing inferon 282 (source_dependence) as support for Jerusalem Talmud textual-witness ledger. Evidence strength: bounded but below-publication structural/source inferon; sufficient for L2 review, not for article promotion. The accountable path is EvidencePath 1498.

Why infer this entity

The article summary on a newly discovered binding fragment (Evidence 2147) is the source for the landscape claim itself: it frames the Jerusalem Talmud's witnesses as one complete manuscript, some partial manuscripts, and Genizah/binding fragments, which is a direct statement about the transmission state rather than about any Talmudic content. The Leiden Codex record (Evidence 2148) supplies catalogue-level control confirming that this one manuscript is specifically the only complete surviving witness, which is the anchor point the rest of the ledger is built around. Because the claim here is deliberately narrow — about how many witnesses survive and in what condition, not about textual variants between them — the two sources are sufficient to support it at the level of specificity claimed. The packet carries no counterevidence item; nothing in it disputes the witness count, and that absence is recorded as a limit on independent verification rather than as confirmation.

Evidence ledger

• Evidence 2147: A Newly Discovered Binding Fragment of Talmud Yerushalmi Shevuot, article abstract/metadata summary. The article summary gives a bounded witness landscape for the Jerusalem Talmud: one complete manuscript, partial manuscripts, and Genizah/binding fragments. Role: Supporting evidence.
• Evidence 2148: Detailed Record for Talmud Yerushalmi Leiden Codex, Leiden codex resource record. The Leiden codex record supplies catalog-level control for the only complete surviving Jerusalem Talmud manuscript witness. Role: Bibliographic control.
• Evidence 4095: Offline existing-inferon judge ledger control source, existing_inferon_judge_promote:inferon:282. Offline judge treated existing inferon 282 (source_dependence) as support for Jerusalem Talmud textual-witness ledger. Evidence strength: bounded but below-publication structural/source inferon; sufficient for L2 review, not for article promotion. The accountable path is EvidencePath 1498. Role: Noetic interpretation.

Counterarguments

• The packet contains no separate counterevidence item; this absence does not remove the need for challenge.

Confidence scores

• Direct attestation: 15
• Existence warrant: 76
• Specificity confidence: 58
• Reconstruction dependence: 70
• Counterevidence pressure: 0

What would change the score

• A direct attestation would move this out of the inferred catalogue.
• Stronger independent evidence would raise the warrant or specificity.
• Better counterevidence would lower the warrant or force retirement.