Papal bull, bulla Early Printing 1512

Bulla ultima convocationis et invitationis Cardinalium absentium et prelatorum gallice nationis ad celebrationem concilii Lateranen. cum declaratione nullitatis gestorum per conciliabulum Pisanum per S. D. N. Julium II. Pont. Rome 1512. Silber or Beplin?

The Fifth Council of the Lateran, held between 1512 and 1517, was the eighteenth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church and was the last council before the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent. It was convoked by Pope Julius II to restore peace between Catholic rulers and assert the authority of the Pope


This bull is also interesting for the history of printing.


Sixtus' practice of issuing bulls against political opponents and rivals and broadcasting them through the medium of the press. Over the ten years of Julius' pontificate, dozens of bulls, briefs, and other ecclesiastical documents would appear in print at a steadily increasing rate.

Julian printed bulls, were innovative in both form and content. Though produced by different printers, they were all small, pamphlet-size productions that feature distinct titles explaining their contents, and most of them included Julius' name in type and his papal stemma in woodcut on the first page, as well as the titles set in either large type or shaped type (or both); in most cases, the first page of the pamphlet functioned as a true title page.

During Julius' reign, however, printers chose (or perhaps, were instructed) to use Julius' personal stemma, not the figures of the apostles, as the authenticating image for each bull, and to give the papal arms far greater prominence on the cover of the pamphlet than earlier authenticating signs had held on the original document. The arms visually branded the front cover of the pamphlet (the page that would have been on most visible as the book was displayed in booksellers' stalls or as it passed from reader to reader) with the most recognisable emblem of the reigning pop