Ptolemy of Lucca

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Tolomeo Fiadoni, better known as Ptolemy of Lucca, sometimes Bartholomew of Lucca (c. 1236 – c. 1327), was an Italian historian.

Biography

Ptolemy was born in Lucca in the 1230s. The year 1236 is given in late sources, but may well stem from an accurate tradition.[1] His Italian given name was Tolomeo, variuosly spelled "Tolomeus", "Tholomeus", "Thollomeus", "Ptolomeus" and "Ptholomeus" in the Latin documents of the time. One document gives his name as Bartolomeus de Luca and several modern scholars have called him Bartholomew, but this is probably a hypercorrection of his unusual name.[2] His family name was Fiadoni. They were a non-noble but wealthy merchant family. Ptolemy's relationship to other recorded Fiadonis is uncertain. He was probably the son of Rayno and brother of Homodeo.[3] He had a niece named Tolomea.[2]

At an early age Ptolemy entered the

Fossa 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 prevent Pope Celestine V
from resigning.

In 1301 he was elected Prior of

John XXII, who appointed him Bishop of Torcello, March 15, 1318. A conflict with the Patriarch of Grado concerning the appointment of an abbess of Sant'Antonio di Torcello [it] led to his excommunication in 1321, and exile. In 1323 he made peace with the patriarch, returned to his see, and died there in 1327.[5]

Works

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The best-known work of Ptolemy is his Annales (1061–1303), finished about 1307, wherein are recorded in terse sentences the chief events of this period.

Christ till 1294; considering as appendixes the lives of Pope Boniface VIII, Pope Benedict XI, and Pope 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 Ptolemy. He is also well known for his completion of the De Regimine Principum ("On the Government of Rulers"), which Aquinas had been unable to finish before his death. This was no small task, for the share of Ptolemy begins with the sixth chapter of the second book and includes the third and fourth books (vol. XVI, in the Parma, 1865, edition of Aquinas). Though he does not follow the order of the saint, yet his treatment is clear and logical. A committed republican, Ptolemy was central to developing a theory for the practices of Northern Italian republicanism and was the first writer to compare Aristotle's examples of mixed constitutions - Sparta, Crete, and Carthage - with the Roman Republic, the ancient Hebrew polity, the Church, and medieval communes, yet he remained a staunch defender of the absolute secular and spiritual monarchy of the pope.

A work on the

fables now exploded, e.g. the Popess Joan
, must be attributed to the uncritical temper of his time.

Editions

  • Ptolemy of Lucca. On the Government of Rulers (De Regimine Principum). Tr. James M. Blythe. Philadelphia, 1997.
  • Ptolemy of Lucca. Historia Ecclesiastica Nova: Nebst Fortsetzungen Bis 1329 [= New Ecclesiastical History, with continuations until 1329], ed. Ottavio Clavuot and Ludwig Schmugge. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores, vol. 39 (Hannover, 2009).

References

  1. ^ James M. Blythe, The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) (Brepols, 2009), pp. 49–51.
  2. ^ a b James M. Blythe, The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) (Brepols, 2009), pp. 56–57.
  3. ^ James M. Blythe, The Life and Works of Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) (Brepols, 2009), pp. 52–54.
  4. ^ Ptolemy of Lucca, Historia ecclesiastica, XXIII.viii.
  5. ^ On the life of Ptolemy, see Ludwig Schmugge, "Fiadoni, Bartolomeo (Tolomeo, Ptolomeo da Lucca)", in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 47 (1997).
  6. ^ Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, XI, 1249 sqq.; or in the better edition of C. Minutoli, Documenti di Storia Italiana, Florence, 1876, VI, 35 sqq.
Attribution
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1907). "Bartholomew of Lucca". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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