Capitoli (Regulations) of Rome

Comprising the Circumstances of Their Formation

These are the statutes created by the entire association of the Jews of Rome—Italian and foreigners—organized by Daniel da Pisa, acting on behalf of everyone, in order to end the infinite turmoil and to eradicate the evil wails of sinful, wicked men, to be won over by the straight path and by honest living, as it pleases God and men, and which does not preclude anyone, from the youth to the elderly, the ignoble to the noble, and the ignorant to the sage—and in order for every man to maintain his place, according to the charge of his business, and according to his quality—to rise in the ranks of youths indebted and suited to the dealings of the Association; and so that all are united together as brothers, in our hearts and words, for the universal good; so that no one will turn toward his own interests, but instead in every mishap we have a sole communal outlay that will accordingly afford us the opportunity of time—so as not to be afflicted by the many errors caused and spread by evil men and so that justice is not consumed by those men, who have lied in the name of blessed God—but for each one following the direct and beneficial path to living virtuously politically and to being praiseworthy, obligating ourselves completely to our Creator to watch over justice as well as reason, in every time. Praised be Glorious God who incited and roused the spirit in us all to the road of perfection of justice and reason, subduing the disorder of earlier times and evil deeds of litigious men, unruly and offensive impediments spurting venom, as anyone who has heard and the unruly voices of men with sinful souls can attest; these God destroyed and removed, but good Men lived, happy and content, with peace and with love.

Yet they requested that the mf. [“magnificent”] master Daniel assist them in creating orders and commands and statutes for the public and universal good, which the mf. Daniel did gladly, as a free soul undergoing this endeavor so that everyone may bring perfection to his soul, accountable before blessed God, and thus the mf. Daniel, to commence the present business in limited fashion, first gathered around him all the Jewish financiers of Rome, beseeching and persuading them of all these things in order to establish that to which everyone will consent, according to that which will appear clearly written in this deed, with the help of the Lord.

And thus, likewise, he gathered with twenty other men, patriarchs of their families and most rich in all ways and worthy, persuading them like the others, who happily and likewise consented, like the first, as they will appear in the remaining deed.

Then he likewise convened twenty other men from the multitude of Jews, thus ordinary men but all men of intellect and prudence, who likewise agreed, as the first men had done.

Thence he still sought after and asked from the great to the small, at all of the confraternities, if they wanted to consent to that which the reported men consented, along with the nobles, and thus all consented. And therefore, everyone with a soul and will has given and consented his authority to the mf. Daniel, that he alone can make order, [or institute] statutes and reforms, as blessed God will guide his knowledge, since it will appear written in said deed, obliging them and their assets and their heirs who would succeed them, and those who will succeed them, to maintain all order, restraint, and statutes that he will constitute, nor will they abandon them, but will observe them as eternally true laws, and thus God our Universal Father will conserve them in sweetness, and peace, and long life.