Papal Bull Document (Pope Callistus III)

[Romanorvm]

I would like to thank everyone for helping with this document. I have owned it for about 4 years but have never been able to get anyone to accurately translate it. My original post here last year didn't result in much interest. I'm amazed that it is now being looked at and translated.

As for the question to the spelling of Pope Calistus III. I think this is a good question since I have found it spelled at least 3 different ways. With 2 L's, 1 L, and sometimes with an X instead of S.

Since the lead seal is spelled Calistus with one L, I would assume this is the correct spelling. But I am not an expert as many of you are so I will wait to see what the consensus is.

Scott

 

[echidnas brown]

Scott provided some information from one of his friends regarding the date.

It is dated, as the document states, Anno incarnationis dominice, ie from the Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March. So it is 22 Jan 1456 AD, which explains the anomaly.

 

[Akela]

Scott, I have edited your previous posts to belong to your new account, as the old one was lost in our last purge

I would like to thank everyone for helping with this document. I have owned it for about 4 years but have never been able to get anyone to accurately translate it. My original post here last year didn't result in much interest. I'm amazed that it is now being looked at and translated.

The amount of interest generated depends too much on who is online at the moment, I am afraid. For this reason, sometimes it is good to bump a thread, which a spammer is to be thanked for this time

 

[Imprecator]

Here is a compilation with some of my additions:

Calistus episcopus servus servorum dei Venerabili fratri episcopo Othauen Salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Romanus pontifex ad illorum provisionem apolosticae liberalitatis dexteram libenter extendere consuevit per quem in locis quibuslibet Christi fideles ab infidelium et piratarum incursibus valeant esse tutiores. Exhibita siquidem nobis nuper pro parte dilectorum filiorum Consiliariorum et universitatis Civitatis Calaritanae petitio continebat quodd ipsii ut portus dictae Civitatis ab infidelibus et aliis piratis qui nonnumquam per illa maria discurrere et fideles incolas earundem partium levare consueverunt tutior existat quandam turrim cum aliis muris iam fundari incohatis pro munumine? portus permaxime necessariis opere satis insigni construere intendunt. Cum autem sicut eadem petitio subiungebat partes ipse lapidum ad murandum aptorum valde (pe???osi) sunt (duas dies?) Calaritan plures ecclesiae (easdem?) dirutae (earum?) edificia penitus ad terram prostratam existunt de quibus reparandis et reedificandis nulla prorsus spes remanet nec earum materia dictis ecclesiis in aliquo utilis existit

Quare pro parte Consiliariorum et universitatis predictorum nobis fuit humiliter supplicatum ut lapides ecclesiarum dirutarum huiusmodi eis pro fabrica turris et murorum predictorum concedere et donare de benignitate apolostica dignaremus Nos igitur de premissis certam notitia(m) non habentes huiusmodi supplicationibus inclinati fraternitati (tunc?) per apolostica scripta mandamus quatinus de premissis omnibus et singulis de eorum circumstantiis universis auctoritate nostra te diligenter informes et si per informationem huiusmodi ita esse inveneris super quo tua ? (onesimus?) Consiliariis et universitati predictis lapides eccesiarum dirutarum huiusmodo de quarum reedifiaitione et reparatione spes non existat pro dicta fabrica sine qua? solutione levandi et capiendi illosque in fabricam huiusmodi poni et murum faciendi auctoritate nostra licentiam largiaris Non obstantibus Constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis ceterisque contrariis quibuscumque. Datum Rome apud Sanctum petrum Anno incarnationis dominice Millesimo quadrigentesimo quinquagesimo quinto Undecimo Kal Februario Pontificatus in Anno Primo

 

[echidnas brown]

And another go, having had the benefit of some more photos from Scott

Bishop Calistus servant of the servants of God to his venerable brother Bishop Ottana greetings and papal blessing. The Roman pontiff has been accustomed to freely extend the right hand of papal generosity to the provision of those things through which (hand) the faithful of Christ in whatever places can become safer from the raids of the infidels and pirates. A petition has accordingly been shown to us recently on behalf of the beloved children the council members and community of the City of Cagliari stating that in order that the harbour of the mentioned City may become safer from the infidels and other pirates who have been accustomed sometimes to wander through those seas and to rob those same inhabitants of the region they intend in the greatest necessity to construct with a suitably conspicuous fortification a certain tower with other walls which have begun already to have foundations laid as a fortification of the mentioned harbour. Since as the same petition added, those parts are extremely short of stones suitable for fortification and there exist many churches of the diocese at Cagliari completely destroyed with their buildings thoroughly struck to the ground from about which utterly no hope remains for repair and rebuilding nor does there exist in the mentioned churches any useful material of them, wherefore on behalf of the council members and aforementioned community there was a humble petitioning to us that out of papal kindness we should deem it worthy that the stones of the ruined churches of this kind could be yielded and given to them for the construction of the tower and the aforementioned walls. We therefore not having certain acquaintance of this kind about that reported in these supplications command you through papal writings with brotherly condescendence to be diligently informed with our authority about all and sundry of these reports with regard to the their surrounding community and if through information of this kind you should find it to be thus on top of this we charge your conscience towards the aforementioned counsellors and community that the stones of churches ruined in this fashion for which there is not hope for their rebuilding and reparation that you grant them licence through our authority for works without payment of any kind for the carrying away and taking and for placing them in a work of this kind and for the makings of walls, whatever decrees and papal ordinances to the contrary nonwithstanding. Dated at Rome at Saint Peters in the One Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Fifth Year of the Lords Incarnation In the First Year of his Papacy.

Here are some more photos from Scott, which clear up some words

 

[echidnas brown]

I still can't figure out the last word 4th line 3rd photo like mununune

 

[Maffeo]

The 3rd photo 4th line last word is munimine .
Note the ending of date: pontificatus n(ost)ri anno primo = (in) the first year of our pontificate

Mike

 

[echidnas brown]

Aha, fantastic thanks! I shall amend my translation.

Can I ask about line 6 of the fourth photo? I have transcribed fuit ? in divisione Capelli gives divisione for this abbreviation, but would dioecese be better? Also can you read the word before in?

 

[Maffeo]

the opening words of the sixth line seem to me to be:
sint autem diocensis

Still lots of errors in transcription suggested above, but, hey guys, get to work!!

Mike

 

[echidnas brown]

Thank you for your patience Here is a new transcription with the corrections we made. I must confess although there must be errors, I am struggling to find them!

Calistus episcopus servus servorum dei Venerabili fratri Ep(iscop)o Othauen(si?) Sal(u)t(em) et ap(osto)licam ben(edictionem). Roman(us) pontifex ad illorum provisione(m) ap(osto)lice [=apostolicae] liberalitatis dextram libenter extendere consuevit per que(m) in locis quibuslibet Christi fideles ab infidelium et piratarum incursibus valeant esse tutiores. Exhibita siquidem nobis nuper pro parte dilectorum filiorum Consiliariorum et universitatis Civitatis Calaritan(ae) petitio continebat q(uo)d ip(s)i ut portus dicte [=dictae] Civitatis ab infidelibus et aliis piratis qui nonnumqua(m) per illa maria discurrere et fideles incolas earundem partium levare consueverunt tutior existat quandam turrim cum aliis muris iam fundari incohatis pro munimine dicti portus permaxime necessariis opere satis insigni construere intendunt. Cum autem sicut eadem petitio subiungebat partes ipse lapidum ad murandum aptorum ualde penuriose sint autem diocensis Calaritan plures ecclesiae totaliter dirute earumque edificia penitus ad terram prostratam existunt de quibus reparandis et reedificandis nulla prorsus spes remanet nec earum materia dictis ecclesiis in aliquo utilis existit.
Quare pro parte Consiliariorum et universitatis predictorum nobis fuit humiliter supplicatum ut lapides eccl(es)iarum dirutarum huiusmodi eis pro fabrica turris et murorum predictorum concedere et donare de benignitate apostolica dignaremus. Nos igitur de premissis certam notitiam non habentes huiusmodi supplicationibus]inclinati fraternitati tunc per apostolica scripta mandamus quatinus de premissis omnibus et singulis de eorum circumstantiis universis auctoritate nostra te diligenter informes et si per informatione huiusmodi ita esse inveneris super quo tuam consaentiam oneramus Consiliariis et universitati predictis lapides eccesiarum dirutarum huiusmodo de quarum reedifiaitione et reparatione spes non existat pro dicta fabrica sine quavis solutione levandi et capiendi illosque in fabricam huiusmodi poni et murari faciendi auctoritate nostra licentiam largiaris Non obstantibus Constitutionibus et ortinationibus apostolicis ceterisque quos contrariis quibuscumque. Datum Rome apud Sanctum petrum Anno incarnationis dominice Millesimo quadrigentesimo quinquagesimo quinto Undecimo Kal Februario Pontificatus nostri Anno Primo

I confess, to my shame, that I don't have that much experience with legal documents, but I am not happy that I have the translation of the sentence Cum autem... correct. In particular, I can't figure out what ipse refers to. Do you have any clues?

 

[Maffeo]

Just a few further hints, if I may.
1. When you transcribe this kind of doc. it's customary to leave the orthography as it is - if it's ecclesie you leave ecclesie and not write ecclesiae. Don't use dipthongs if the doc. doesn't.
2. If you find that v is written at times as u and other times v within the one doc. you opt for one and make it consistent throughout.
3. You loosen all standard abbreviations: eccle becomes ecclesie, apla becomes apostolica and so on. When you've loosened a standard abbreviation you do not need to put the inserted letters in brackets, you only place a letter that you supply in brackets in cases where a letter is missing due to some obvious inadvertence.
4. As it stands the sentence starting Cum autem sicut doesn't make grammatical sense. I think it's because you've taken the quare with which you begin a new paragaph as the beginning of a new sentence because the Q there looks like a capital - but that's just the result of capricious calligraphy. So, I would suggest, the sentence starts with Cum autem sicut, place a comma after utilis existit, and continue the sentence till dignaremus and it makes sense.
5. Reading the words in context I've revised the word after sint to be atque rather than autem. We'll never know for sure because of the hole, but this makes more sense to me. Feel free to disagree - at least we'll agree that there's a hole there.
6. I've suggested further corrections of individual words that I've written in bold - in my reproduction of your text that I shall place in the next post.
7. The doc. has certainly Othauen but it should be Othanen, I suspect it to be a lapsus of the scribe - so after Othauen I would insert (sic - Othanen).

 

[Maffeo]

Here's the text of the doc. at this stage. Eventually it will need further revision and you will need to supply proper punctuation.

Calistus episcopus servus servorum dei venerabili fratri Episcopo Othauensi (sic – Othanensi) salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Romanus pontifex ad illorum provisionem apostolice liberalitatis dextram libenter extendere consuevit per quem in locis quibuslibet Christi fideles ab infidelium et piratarum incursibus valeant esse tutiores. Exhibita siquidem nobis nuper pro parte dilectorum filiorum Consiliariorum et universitatis Civitatis Calaritanae petitio continebat quod ipsi ut portus dicte Civitatis ab infidelibus et aliis piratis qui nonnumquam per illa maria discurrere et fideles incolas earundem partium levare consueverunt tutior existat quandam turrim cum aliis muris iam fundari incohatis pro munimine dicti portus permaxime necessariis opere satis insigni construere intendunt. Cum autem sicut eadem petitio subiungebat partes ipse lapidum ad murandum aptorum valde penuriose sint atque diocensis Calaritane plures ecclesie totaliter dirute earumque edificia penitus ad terram prostratam existunt de quibus reparandis et reedificandis nulla prorsus spes remanet nec earum materia dictis ecclesiis in aliquo utilis existit, quare pro parte Consiliariorum et universitatis predictorum nobis fuit humiliter supplicatum ut lapides ecclesiarum dirutarum huiusmodi eis pro fabrica turris et murorum predictorum concedere et donare de benignitate apostolica dignaremus. Nos igitur de premissis certam notitiam non habentes huiusmodi supplicationibus inclinati fraternitati tue per apostolica scripta mandamus quatenus de premissis omnibus et singulis de eorum circumstantiis universis auctoritate nostra te diligenter informetur et si per informationem huiusmodi ita esse inveneris super quo tuam conscentiam oneramus Consiliariis et universitati predictis lapides eccesiarum dirutarum huiusmodi de quarum reedificatione et reparatione spes non existat pro dicta fabrica sine quavis solutione levandi et capiendi illosque in fabricam huiusmodi poni et murari faciendi auctoritate nostra licentiam largiaris. Non obstantibus constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis ceterisque quos contrariis quibuscumque. Datum Rome apud Sanctum Petrum anno incarnationis dominice millesimo quadrigentesimo quinquagesimo quinto undecimo kal februario pontificatus nostri anno primo.

 

[echidnas brown]

I have reworked the translation using the corrected transcription. I am still a bit unsure about a couple of things:

Cum autem sicut eadem petitio subiungebat partes ipse lapidum ad murandum aptorum valde penuriose sint

I can't figure out that ipse relates to grammatically. I must admit too, that I find the sicut eadem petitio subiungebat difficult as well.

quo tuam conscentiam oneramus Consiliariis et universitati predictis... I can't really understand why Consiliariis et universitati are in the dative. Any clues?

 

[echidnas brown]

Here are a couple more photos that Scott sent me. I am really struggling with these two

This I take to be a signature with apud me in ferarii - but I am not sure what the last refers too.


And I can barely read this writing at all. Is it Italian?

 

[Maffeo]

Cinefactus,
The neat writing in the first photo is easy. It's just a reference to the volume of the papal registers where the bull was recorded as being issued:
R. MC.M....

The scribbled paragraph in the second photo will be much harder to decipher. This paragraph is usually the attestation (in Latin) of the notary who did the registring. These are always very poorly written (intentionally so?) and take considerable patience to work out, one can usually identify at least the notary's name though. I'll download the pic so that I can enlarge it and see if I can puzzle it out when I have the time.

Mike

 

[echidnas brown]

My understanding is that Papal Bulls are titled after the first few words after the salutations. So does this mean the title of this particular Bull is, "Romanus pontifex"?