Papal Bull: Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia (The Blind and Obdurate Perfidy of the Jews), Pope Clement VIII, Rome: 1593; together with a Contemporary Fair Copy of Cardinal Gaetano's Regulation of Jewish Housing in Rome, ca. 1589

1 Bifolio (12 x 8 1/4 in.; 305 x 210 mm), four pages. Printed on three of four sides. Large papal arms on first page. Deckle edge preserved; crease fold weak and starting. + 1 Bifolio manuscript (11 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.; 285 x 190 mm), written in brown ink on paper in an elegant Italic script. Creased at folds with minor holing; ink bleeding. Notations in Hebrew and Italian on verso  

On February 25, 1593, Pope Clement VIII promulgated a papal bull entitled Caeca et Obdurata Hebraeorum perfidia (the blind and obdurate perfidy of the Hebrews), decreeing the expulsion of the Jews from the Papal States, effectively revoking the bull Christiana pietas (1586) of his predecessor Pope Sixtus V. 

The bull was a culmination of Clement VIII's tightening of the anti-Jewish measures of his predecessors which began with his elevation to the papacy in 1592. The bull gave Jews three months to leave the Papal States (with the exception of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon). The main effect of the bull was to evict Jews who had returned to areas of the Papal States (mainly Umbria) after 1586 (following their expulsion in 1569 as a result of Pope Pius V's bull Hebraeorum gens sola) and to expel Jewish communities from cities like Bologna, which had more recently been incorporated under papal dominion.

For the Jews remaining within Rome, Ancona, or Avignon, the bull re-established mandatory weekly sermons. The bull also resulted in the relocation of Jewish cemeteries to Ferrara and Mantua. 

The bull alleged that Jews in the Papal States had engaged in usury and exploited the hospitality of Clement VIII's predecessors "who, in order to lead them from their darkness to knowledge of the true faith, deemed it opportune to use the clemency of Christian piety towards them" (alluding to Christiana pietas). Three days later, on February 28, Clement VIII promulgated yet another anti-Jewish bull, Quum Hebraeorum malitia, which ordered that the Talmud should be burnt along with Kabbalistic works and commentaries.

The accompanying manuscript is a fair copy of the decree of June 12, 1589, issued by Cardinal Enrico Gaetano (1550-1599), confirming regulations concerning housing in the Roman Ghetto.