(b Florence, 1410; d Florence, 1479). Italian illuminator and stationer. He is documented from 1440, when he enrolled in the Arte de Medici e Speziali, and began to work for the Badia in Florence with his brother Giovanni. When the latter died, Bartolomeo entered the bottega of his younger brother, Chimenti. Bartolomeo was not an innovator and was of second rank compared to such skilled illuminators as Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico, Gherardo di Giovanni di Miniato del Foro, Monte di Giovanni di Miniato del Foro and Attavante degli Attavanti. His handling of volume, the sculptural quality of his scrolls and his use of large, densely hatched areas in landscapes, beards and hair, are reminiscent of contemporary sculpture; the influence of Donatello’s low reliefs is especially evident in Bartolomeo’s use of the ‘heroic putto’ (e.g. initial S, Florence, Bib. Medicea-Laurenziana, MS. S Marco 616, fol. 4r). Bartolomeo worked mainly on liturgical manuscripts and Books of Hours, sometimes in collaboration with other artists. For example he came into contact with Battista di Niccolò da Padova and Ser Ricciardo di Nanni while working on the four-volume Lectionary (Florence, Bib. Medicea-Laurenziana, MSS Edili 141–7) for Florence Cathedral. Among his large-scale works are two Missals (Florence, Bib. Medicea-Laurenziana, MSS Edili 103–4), also commissioned by the cathedral authorities, in June 1456 and March 1458, respectively. His other patrons included the Stamperia (press) di Ripoli, for which between 1474 and 1480 he produced four Libri di compagnia, two copies of the Life of St Catherine and a Psalter written by Frate Matteo da Pistoia. In his Books of Hours the repetitiveness of certain compositional schemes marks Bartolomeo as a conservative artist; nonetheless, his works do not lack original illustrative ideas (e.g. Catania, Bib. Reg. U., MS. F. 109, fol. 56r; Rome, Bib. Casanatense, MS. 244, fol. 155r).