BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS (DE GLANVILLA), Eng lish Franciscan, who joined the Order in France. After studying at Oxford, he became a lector at Paris (c. 1220) and later at Magdeburg (c. 1230), whither he was invited by the general of the province of Saxony. About 1250—not 1350, as often stated— he wrote his famous De Proprietatibus Rerum, an encyclopaedia giving a good idea of the general culture of his day. In seeking to summarize the theories of the saints and philosophers concern ing things which bear on the Scriptures, Bartholomew treats of everything from God to the lowest element, earth. Of special interest are his views on everyday life, geography, psychology, physiology, anatomy and disease, plant and animal life, cosmology and meteorology. The trend of his scientific tendencies and his metaphysical views suggest that he may have been a pupil of Grosseteste at Oxford.
The popularity of his book is attested by the early translations into many European vernaculars and by the numerous incuna bula. It was translated into English by Trevisa in 1398 and was well known to Elizabethan writers. Selections from Trevisa are incorporated in R. Steele's Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus (1905) and in G. C. Coulton's Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation (1919).