Pope LEO X .

Bulla concilii in decima sessione super materia Montis Pietatis.

      n.p.,n.p.,n.d. (Rome, 1515). A large folio broadside, verso of central fold reinforced. In 1462 thefirst Monte di Pietà was established at Perugia to lend money to the poor against pledged property. Unlike earlier endeavours which had relied on charitable support, the Franciscan founders charged a small interest on the loan to defray administrative expenses. Bitter opposition was aroused, both from the Jewish money lenders defending their monopoly and from the Dominicans who held that the Church's strict laws against usury were thus contravened. The fifty-year long dispute was officially brought to the Lateran council: Leo X ruled that the Monte di Pietà was a lawful and valuable institution and threatened with excommunication those who expressed doubts on the subject. See further, Sapori, Bibliografia delle banche in Italia. Like all broadside Bulls, this important document for the history of economics is very rare.