BARTHOLOMEW OF RINONICO (or of Pisa). - Franciscan friar, born in Pisa, died there ca. 1401. He has been confused by Mariano da Firenze, Marco da Lisbona, Wadding, etc., with the Franciscan Bartholomew Albisi; by others with the Dominican Bartholomew of S. Concordio or with Bartholomew the Pisan physician. B., already a friar in 1352, was a master in theology and a distinguished preacher, and is renowned for his writings, especially the *De conformitate vitae b. Francisci ad vitam Domini Iesu*, composed between 1385 and 1390.
The informing idea of the book, which B. may have drawn from St. Bonaventure’s *Lignum vitae* or from a work that Salimbene claims (Cronica, ed. O. Holder-Egger, p. 195) to have been composed on the same subject, is to show how Christ made Francis like unto Himself. It is therefore a glorification of grace rather than, as some would have it, an exaltation of the poor man of Assisi. The treatment, divided into 40 Conformities, rich in erudition, is very useful for Franciscan history even if at times embellished with fanciful legends.
The *De conformitate* found a harsh adversary in Erasmus Alber’s *Alcoranum Franciscanorum* with a preface by Luther, but it had apologists among whom was E. Sedulio. Printed in Milan in 1510 and in Bologna in 1590, it received a critical edition at Quaracchi. B. had many imitators, including G. Oddi, Mariano da Firenze, Pelbart of Temesvár, P. Alva y Astorga, and V. Marcè.
Many other works have been attributed to B., among which are critically authentic: *De vita et laudibus B. Mariae Virginis libri sex* (Venice 1596), which has many points of contact with his major work; *Quadragesimale de contemptu mundi* (Milan 1498); and *Sermones lucidissimi et insignes dubitorum et casuum conscientialium contemptivi et elucidativi super evangelii quadragesimalibus* (Lyon 1519).