BARTHOLOMEW OF LUCCA

Called also Ptolomeo, Tolomeo, and de Fiadonibus, Dominican bishop of Torcello, historian and theologian;b. Lucca, Italy, c. 1236; d. Torcello (near Venice), 1327. He was born of a middle-class family and became a do minican in lucca. A student and associate of thomas aquinas from 1261 to 1268, Bartholomew traveled with him and lived with him in Naples during the last year of Thomas's life. In the 1280s and 1290s Bartholomew was prior of various houses in Tuscany and was occupied with teaching and preaching. From 1309 to 1319 he was almost continuously at the papal court in Avignon (see avi gnon papacy) engaged in research and writing, and, some think, acting as papal librarian. Appointed bishop of Torcello in 1318, he came into conflict with the patriarch of Grado, who imprisoned him. He was released on orders of Pope john xxii. At Avignon in March of 1323, he was acquitted of all guilt; it is thought he was there for the canonization of Aquinas (July of 1323). He died in Torcello, aged 91 years.

His works include the following: Determinatio compendiosa (Turin 1924), written in 1280, a study on the limits of imperial jurisdiction in Italy; Annales (Scriptores rerum Germanicarum. New Series. 8), finished in 1307, a description of main events from 1061 to 1303; Historia ecclesiastica (L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores 11:740–1242), a work in 24 books on the history of the Church from the birth of Christ to 1314, books 22 and 23 being one of the most important sources for the life of St. Thomas [tr. K. Foster, The Life of St. Thomas (Baltimore 1959)]; Exaemeron [ed. P. Masetti (Siena 1880)], a work showing his wide acquaintance with the natural science of his day; Tractatus de jurisdictione ecclesiae super regnum Siciliae et Apuliae (Mansi, Miscellanea 1). The Historia tripartita to which Bartholomew often referred is not extant. The completion of St. Thomas's De regimine principum, with which he used to be credited, is now questioned [I. T. Eschmann, On Kingship (Toronto 1949) ix–xxv].

Bibliography: j. quÉtif and j. echard, Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum (Paris 1719–1723) 1:541. I. taurisano, I Domenicani in Lucca (Lucca 1914) 44–77; ed., S. Tommaso d'Aquino, O.P.: Miscellanea storico-artistica (Rome 1924) 163–170. Introduction, "Life and Works," in Die Annalen des Tholomeus von Lucca, ed. b. schmeidler (2d ed. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum. New Series. 8; Berlin 1955).

[p. f. mulhern]