The only known copy of a 17th-century Bologna printing of the full text of the papal bull De Usuris et de Montibus pietatis, promulgated during the tenth session of the Fifth Lateran Council in Rome, on 4 May 1515. The bull formally condemned the practice of usury, and established the norms and regulations for the Montes pietatis, a system of charitable financial institutions operated by the Church that made zero-interest or low-interest loans against objects in pawn. The montes, following certain rules inspired by Christian solidarity, attempted to neutralize, or at least moderate, the usurious practices that were current throughout the European economy, and any monies realized by charging interest or fees was channeled into the overhead needed to operate the montes. Called monti di pietà in Italy, and montes de piedad in Spain, montes were first established in Perugia in 1462, and their example was quickly imitated throughout the HRE. Montes were essentially charitable, meant to benefit the poor, and they represented one of the earliest systems of microcredit in Europe. (They can be considered an antecedent to the modern theories of micro-finance, pioneered in the 21st century by Bangladeshi Nobelist in Economics, Mohammad Yunus, whose experiments with microcredit in his home country were met with success and partial alleviation of the burden on the poor.) The bull's main value is in its introduction of a laudable principle of ethics in financial practices, by endorsing only those loans "that cannot be considered usurious." (For the record, Leo X—Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici—had emptied the Vatican coffers during his reign as pontiff, and was in desperate need of money.) The bull was first printed at Rome by Marcellus Silber (and others) in 1515 and 1516, but apparently not reprinted until our c1650 Bologna edition. This is the earliest obtainable text of this important document in the history of micro-finance in Europe.  

4to: 211 x 146 mm. A⁴; 7, [1] pp. Disbound. Finger-soiling and light foxing. Watermark mirrored sirena, not in Bernstein, but consistent with the Fabriano firm.  

Unrecorded. 

Item #366