BARTHOLI (BARTOLI), FRANCESCO. – Franciscan preacher and writer, also erroneously called, according to A. Mercati, Della Rossa or Rubeae. A native of Assisi, he became a Franciscan toward the end of the thirteenth century. He was studying at Perugia in 1312 and at Cologne in 1316, returning to Italy the following year and bringing with him numerous relics of saints. In 1320 and until 1325 he resided at S. Maria degli Angeli and expounded Holy Scripture to the people; guardian of the small convent of S. Damiano in 1332, he is found at the sacred convent of Assisi in 1334. In the years 1328–1329 he had fervently adhered to fra' Michele da Cesena, to whom he had also addressed several letters; but, captured by the Inquisition and tried on 23 January 1330, he confessed his faults, obtaining penance and forgiveness.
Toward the end of 1334 he wrote his famous work, Historia or Tractatus de Indulgentia S. Mariae de Portiuncula (ed. P. Sabatier [*Opuscules*], Paris 1900, no. 2), which, although not free from defects, errors, and anachronisms, nevertheless possesses considerable historical interest, especially because of the documents it contains and various pieces of information drawn from ancient Franciscan legends and memories (he had known and heard fra' Marino, a disciple and nephew of the celebrated fra' Masseo, one of St. Francesco’s favorites). It is the first historical work on the important indulgence, about which so many others subsequently wrote.
B. also wrote his Sermones (for feast days and weekdays), delivered at the Porziuncola, and a Historia passionis Christi pro die Veneris Sancti concordata per 4 Evangelistas (manuscripts in the library of Assisi). He died at a very advanced age, around the end of the fourteenth century.
Lorenzo Di Fonzo