Bullae Diversorum Romanorum Pontificum Incipientes a Bonifacio VIII usque ad S.D.N.D. Paulum IIII. [“Diverse Papal Bullae Commencing with Boniface VIII through Paul IV”]

(TALMUD).

Ant[oni] Bladu

Rome

1559

Architectonic title-page in red and black. Historiated initials. On the front, the names of the popes under whose rule the bulls were issued (commencing with Bonifacius VIII (1294-1303) and concluding with Paul IV (1555-1559). Scattered Latin marginalia.

Adams B-3184; Fumagalli I, 216

Rare Compendium of papal bullae, including several directed against the Jews, most notably the bull responsible for the Burning of the Talmud and that confining Jews to a ghetto. Contains all the bulls against the Jews issued by Paul III (1534-49), Julius III (1550-55), Marcellus II (April 9, 1555-May 1, 1555), and Paul IV (1555-59), including the infamous Cum nimis absurdum of 1555, in which the ghettos were instituted. The texts of the following documents regarding the Jews appear in the collection: 1) Quod Iudei, caeterisque infideles ad agnitionem catholicae fidei venienetes bona patrimonialia…Paul III, March 21st 1542 (ff. 97v.-98r). 2) Privilegia et Facultates Hebraeis concessae. Julius III, June 14th 1551 (f. 115). 3) Decretum DD. Inquisitorum hereticae pravitatis quod comburi debeant omnes Libri Thalmud Hebraeorum. Julius III, August 12th 1553 (ff. 121v.-122r.), [Burning of the Talmud]. 4) Contra Hebraeos retinentes libros in quibus alquid contra fidem catholicam notetur, vel scribatur. Julius III, May 29th 1554 (f. 122). 5) De Prorogatione Subsidii…Vigesimarum Hebraeorum ad Triennium. Marcellus II, April 14th 1555 (f.125v.-126v). 6) De solutione singulis Sinagogis, etiam demolitis, vel ad unam redactis, vel redigendis imposita, & per Hebraeos Archiconfraternitati Cathecu minorum facienda. Paul IV, March 23rd 1555 (Part II, ff.1r.-2r). 7) Bulla contra Iudaeos aedita…Cum nimis absurdum… Paul IV, July 12th 1555 (Part II, f.8). [Establishing the Ghetto of Rome, prohibiting more than one synagogue in a town, forbidding contact between Jews and Christians, and imposing on Jews distinctive clothing]. 8) Bando sopra gli Hebrei, de l’ordine che hanno da tenere. Paul IV, July 24th 1555 (Part II, ff. 8v.-9r). The calamitous event of the burning of the Talmud on the Jewish New Year (September 9) 1553, in Rome's Campo de Fiori, brought about much soul-searching on the part of the Jewish community, just as the public burning of the Talmud by the Dominican friars in the streets of Paris in 1242 provoked a similar reaction. Ironically, whereas traditionally the earlier book-burning was interpreted as divine retribution for the French rabbis' condemnation and burning of Maimonides' philosophical work, Guide of the Perplexed, there were those rabbis who viewed the Italian rampage as a display of heavenly wrath for the very printing of Maimonides' Guide in Venice in 1551. See Yaari, “The Burning of the Talmud in Italy” in idem, Mechkarei Sepher (1958), p. 216; EJ, Vol. IV, col. 1496; Vol. XV, cols. 768-71