The European Christian countries were still less fit to become the center of Judaism than were the Mahometan kingdoms of Egypt and northern Africa. At that time the greatest barbarity prevailed there, and circumstances were not at all favorable to the development of science and literature. The literary status of the Jews was very low, and the historical reports are therefore silent on the Jewish communities of Europe. Here and there in Italy appeared Talmudical scholars, as in Oria (near Otranto), but scarcely any of them rose above mediocrity. Though the Italian Jews never attained superiority, they were diligent and faithful disciples of foreign teachers. In Babylonia they laughed at "the wise men" of Rome or Italy. Even Sabbataï Donnolo, the head of Jewish science in Italy at the time of Saadiah, could scarcely be described as a moderate scholar. This man is known rather through his career than through his works. Sabbataï Donnolo (913-970) of Oria was taken prisoner when the Mahometans of the Fatimide kingdom pressed forward across the straits of Sicily, invaded Apulia and Calabria, plundered the town of Oria, and either murdered the inhabitants or took them away as captives (9th of Tammuz--4th July, 925). Donnolo was twelve years old at this time. Ten of the chief citizens were put to death, and Donnolo's parents and relations were transported to Palermo and Africa. He himself was ransomed in Trani. Orphaned and without friends, the young Donnolo was thrown upon his own resources. He studied medicine and astrology, in both of which he made himself proficient. He now became physician to the Byzantine viceroy (Basilicus) Eupraxios, who ruled Calabria in the name of the emperor. He became rich through his medical practice, and spent his money in buying up works on astrology and in traveling. In his journeys Donnolo went as far as Bagdad. He embodied the result of his researches in a work published in 946. But little wisdom was contained in this book, if we are to judge by the fragments that still remain to us. The author, however, put so high a value upon it, that he thought that through it the name Sabbataï Donnolo of Oria would be handed down to posterity. Meanwhile, unimportant though Donnolo was compared with his contemporaries Saadiah and others, he appears to have been far superior to the head of the Catholics at this time. This was his countryman, Nilus the Younger, whom the Church has canonized. The relations of the two Italians--the Jewish physician and the abbot of Rossana and Grotto Ferrata--serve as a standard by which we can estimate the condition of Judaism and Christianity in Italy in the middle of the tenth century.