Francesco della Rossa Bartholi

Friar Minor and chronicler, died c. 1372

Friar Minor

and chronicler, died c. 1372. Little is known of his life save what may be gathered from his own writings. A native of

Assisi

, he is found in 1312 as a student in

Perugia

, and in 1316 at

Cologne

, whence he returned to Umbria bearing many

relics

, including those of St. Louis, King of

France

, given him by the latter's daughter, Princess Blanche, who had become a

Poor Clare

. In 1320 and in 1326, he was

lector

of

theology

at the Porziuncula, in 1332 guardian at S. Damiano and in 1334 he was at the Sacro Convento. He appears to have lived to a great age. He was acquainted with Marinus of

Assisi

, Blessed John of La Verna,

Alvarus Pelagius

and other well-known

Franciscans

. Whether he is to be identified with the Francesco Rubea who is mentioned among the partisans of Michael de Cesena or with the Franciscus de Assisio who was long

imprisoned

at Florence on a charge of

heresy

is a matter of conjecture. Although Bartholi wrote several works including a history of the Passion, he is best known for his "Tractatus de Indulgentiâ Sanctae Mariae de Portiunculâ" composed about 1335. He spent many of his later years in retouching and completing this treatise, which is of great importance for the history of the origin and evolution of the

Indulgence

, in so far as it comprises a complete collection of the

ecclesiastical

information and popular legends then obtainable on the subject. It was first published by Paul Sabatier with a wealth of critical apparatus in the Collection d'Etudes" (Paris, 1900, Vol. II). (See

PORTIUNCULA

.)

Sources

Wadding, Script. Ord. Min. (1650), 114; Sbaralea, Supplementum (1806), 245; Mazzuchelli, Scrittori d'Italia (1758), II, 1, 441-442; Narducci, Giunte al Mazzuchelli (1884), 60; Faloci in Miscell. Francescana (1887), II, 149-153; Van Ortroy in Annalect. Bolland. (1902), XXI, 372-380.