- Bartholomew of Lucca
Bartholomew of Lucca [ Ptolemy or Tolomeo da Lucca, Tolomeo di Lucca, Bartolomeus de Fiadonibus.] (c. 1227 – c. 1327) was a medieval Italian historian.
Born in
Lucca , at an early age he entered theDominican Order . He was distinguished for piety, and his intense application to study, for which reasons he won the respect and warm friendship ofSt. Thomas Aquinas . He was not only his disciple, but also his confidant andconfessor ["Ptolom., H. E., XXIII, viii".] . In 1272 he accompanied St. Thomas fromRome toNaples where he still was in 1274, when the news of his master's death atFossa Nuova reached him. He was elected prior of the convent of his native city in 1288. At Naples (1294), he took an active part in the public demonstration which was made to preventPope Celestine V from resigning.In 1301 he was elected Prior of
Santa Maria Novella atFlorence . Later he removed toAvignon where he was chaplain for nine years (1309-18) toCardinal Patrasso ,Bishop of Albano , and after the Cardinal's death in 1311 to his fellow-religiousCardinal William of Bayonne .Jacques Échard affirms that he was the close friend and often the confessor ofJohn XXII , who appointed him Bishop ofTorcello ,March 15 ,1318 . A conflict with thePatriarch of Grado concerning the appointment of an abbess of St. Anthony's at Torcello led to hisexcommunication in 1321, and exile. In 1323 he made peace with the patriarch, returned to his see, and died there in 1327.Works
The best-known work of Bartholomew is his "Annales" (1061-1303), finished about 1307, wherein are recorded in terse sentences the chief events of this period. [Muratori, "Rer. Ital. Script.," XI, 1249 sqq.; or in the better edition of C. Minutoli, "Documenti di Storia Italiana," Florence, 1876, VI, 35 sqq..] His "Historia Ecclesiastica Nova" in twenty-four books relates the history of the Church from the birth of
Christ till 1294; considering as appendixes the lives ofPope Boniface VIII ,Pope Benedict XI , andPope Clement V , it reaches to 1314 (Muratori, loc. cit., XI, 751 sqq.; the life of Clement V is in Baluze, "Vitae pap. Aven.," 23 sqq.).He also wrote a "Historia Tripartita" known only from his own references and citations. The "Extract [us] de chronico Fr. Ptolomaei de Luca" and the "Excerpta ex chronicis Fr. Ptolomaei" are no longer considered original works by separate authors, but are extracts from the "Historia Ecclesiastica Nova" by some unknown compiler who lived after the death of Bartholomew. He is also well known for his completion of the "De Regimine Principum", which Aquinas had been unable to finish before his death. This was no small task, for the share of Bartholomew begins with the sixth chapter of the second book and includes the third and fourth books (vol. XVI, in the Parma, 1865, edition of St. Thomas). Though he does not follow the order of the saint, yet his treatment is clear and logical.
A work on the "Hexaemeron" by him was published by Masetti in 1880. With a few exceptions, the writings of Bartholomew have always been held in high esteem. He showed great care in verifying his statements. The lives of the Avignon popes were written from original documents under his hands and were controlled by the statements of eyewitnesses. His acceptance of
fables now exploded, e.g. the Popess Joan, must be attributed to the uncritical temper of his time.Notes
External links
*en icon [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02316a.htm Bartholomew of Lucca] at the
Catholic Encyclopedia
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.