Capitoli & Riforma delli Banchieri Hebrei [Chapters and Agreements with the Jewish Bankers: Papal Bull of Pope Sixtus V]

(ITALY).

Stamperia della Camera Apostolica

Rome

1613

Papal crests at top. Latin and Italian texts

A, Milano, Il ghetto di Roma (Rome, 1964), plate no. 12

Bull issued January 4th, 1589, but published as a broadside only in 1613. Instead of the conventional Latin, the Bull was issued in Italian so that none could profess ignorance of its contents. Sixtus V, not content with simply permitting the practice of moneylending, virtually organized it throughout the area under his rule, providing for the establishment a system of Jewish loan-institutions for the benefit of the poor. From 1587 onwards, ‘absolutions’ began to be issued by the Apostolic Chamber for Jews to open such institutions in various places in the Papal States and Northern Italy at a rate of interest which was not to exceed 18 per-cent. Consequently, Jewish life in Central Italy experienced a revival. This is the second bull of Pope Sixtus V concerning Jews. The first, “Christiana pietas” (Christian piety), dated October 1586, relieved the Jews of many oppressive social and economic restrictions that had been imposed upon them by Popes Paul IV and Pius V. (Sold by Kestenbaum & Company, June 26th, 2001, lot 275.) RARE BULL OF A BENEVOLENT POPE. (Only one copy recorded in the Vatican Archives)