Auction 106 Incunabula and First Editions | Illuminated Manuscripts | Jewish Ceremonial Art
Papal Bull of Pope Julius III – Rome, 1554 – Burning of the Talmud and Establishment of Official Censorship – Rare Historical Document
Opening: $8,000
Sold for: $35,000
Including buyer's premium
Printed papal bull – Cum sicut nuper, by Pope Julius III (1550-1555). Rome: Antonio Blado, May 29, 1554. Latin.
A rare document of extraordinary historical importance, maintaining and expanding the ordinances to burn the Talmud in Italy, and establishing an official censorship body responsible for examining Hebrew books.
The bull was published about nine months after the public burning of the Talmud in Campo de' Fiori, Rome, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah (1st Tishrei), September 9, 1553. It is addressed to Church authorities throughout the Christian world (patriarchs, archbishops, bishops and local authorities). The bull reinforces the directive to collect and burn all copies of the Talmud, and expands the prohibition to any Hebrew book – print or manuscript – that makes any statement or insinuation against Jesus, or contains blasphemy and censure of the Christian faith. Other Hebrew books are declared permitted, providing their content is officially condoned by an authorized Church censorship committee.
The bull instructs Church authorities to inform all Jewish communities within their jurisdiction that in four months' time, synagogues, community institutions and private homes were to be thoroughly searched for prohibited books. These offending books will be publicly burned, and their owners severely punished by heavy fines, confiscation of property and the "utmost corporal punishment", up to the death penalty, as apostates. It annuls any previous privilege or indulgence in contradiction to it, and permits invoking the secular authorities for enforcement.
Despite its severity, the bull in fact granted some leniency as opposed to the existing conditions: it forbids molestation of Jews for books that do not contain censure of Christianity, and determines a regulatory system for the deletion of anti-Christian content. In point of fact, the Jews of Italy were indeed relieved, as the policy did not demand a wholesale burning of the Talmud and Hebrew books, but only expurgation of passages viewed as blasphemous or otherwise offensive.
Large woodcut with coat of arms on first page (papal tiara with two crossed keys).
[1] folded leaf (3 printed pages). 29.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and minor defects. Open tear to top of first leaf (not affecting text). Bound (sewn) in new paper wrapper, with front endpaper.
Reference:
1. Attilio Milano, Il ghetto di Roma, Roma: Staderini, 1964, p. 64 and fig. 9.
2. Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, Documents: 1546-1555, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1990, pp. 2920-2921.
3. Kenneth R. Stow, "The Burning of the Talmud in 1553", Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance, XXXIV, 3 (1972), pp. 435-459.
Rare. To the best of our knowledge, this bull has never before been offered at auction.