“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite.”

-Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet”

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers to the current manga story and the Dressrosa arc.

When Bartolomeo is introduced, he’s portrayed as a nasty character with a green cockscomb hair who enjoys trolling everyone around him. With his ability to create barrier, it gives him a way to shield himself from the consequences to most of his action. Despite his antagonistic behavior, he was later revealed to be a massive fanboy of the Straw Hats, while he is also shown to maintain some sense of personal honor. But why, you may ask, is he named Bartolomeo?

Bartolomeo, Doff Thy Name!

Being the sociopathic character that he is, it is quite fitting that Bartolomeo’s epithet is “The Cannibal” (人食い Hitokui), which is formed by the combination of hito (人 “man”) and kui (食い “eating”). The base verb kuu (食う “to eat”) has various meanings. One of which is “to torment” or “to taunt”, thus giving his epithet a double meaning of both Cannibal and Taunter.

As for his name, Bartolomeo written in English incidentally starts with the same three letters as the word barrier, referring to his ability to create them. The name of his crew — “The Barto Club” (バルトクラブ Baruto Kurabu) — is derived from a clipping of his own name. Interestingly, Barto in Japanese shares the same spelling as the Baltic Sea (バルト海 Baruto Umi), a body of water between the Scandinavian peninsula and the European mainland. Incidentally, the Baltic Sea was terrorized by pirates of Slavic descent, which relates to how Bartolomeo is also a pirate.

O’ Bartolomeo, Where Art Thou Bartolomeo?

In one chapter, the title referred to him as Lomeo, a name that eliminates the first two syllables of his full name. In Japanese, the name shares the same spelling as Romeo, one of the two eponymous characters of the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. Due to the international influence of the play, the name Romeo has often been associated with a passionate male lover. While he’s not exactly playing the role of a lover, Bartolomeo was quite passionate in serving the Straw Hats, to the point of almost giving up his life to protect Robin in one chapter.

What is in a Fanboy’s Name Anyway?

Delving into etymology, the name Bartolomeo is the Italian cognate of Bartholomew. Having a similar name to One Piece’s Bartholomew Kuma, some minor confusion between the two names would be inevitable for the English fandom. This confusion, however, is mostly avoided in Japanese due to the vastly different spelling between the two, where the Bartholomew is spelled as Bāsoromyū (バーソロミュー) and Bartolomeo is spelled as Barutoromeo (バルトロメオ). Both names are ultimately of Aramaic origin, meaning son of the furrow, son of Talmai, or son of Ptolemy. Incidentally, Ptolemy is a name of Greek origin, possibly meaning warlike.

Looking through the maritime history of Europe, there are a number of pirates and explorers with similar names. One explorer who shares his name is Bartolomeu Dias (spelled as Bartolomeo Diaz in Italian), a Portuguese nobleman who is known as the first European to sail to the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean. Sailing alongside the western coast of Africa, they arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa, where he originally named it the Cape of Storms (Cabo das Tormentas). After which, he subsequently reached the Indian Ocean.

While Dias wanted to sail further toward India, his crew refused to continue any further, and they returned to Lisbon after a few months. The discovery of a direct route to India made a significant impact on European trade, allowing the traders to cut down on the need to deal with expensive overland middlemen in the Middle East.

Dias later assisted Vasco da Gama in the construction on his ships and participated in the first leg of his expedition serving as his adviser. Coincidentally, there is also a character named Dagama who appeared in Dressrosa, where the character played a role of a strategist in aiding the rebellion. Unfortunately for Dias, while he was leading his second expedition, his ships encountered a storm near the Cape of Good Hope, where he and his crew had eventually perished.

Like Kuma, he may also be named after Bartholomew Roberts, who is also known as Black Bart. Roberts was considered to be one of the most successful pirates in history due to the amount of vessels he obtained in his career. Bartolomeo also shares a similar namesake with two buccaneers: Bartholomew Sharp and Bartolomeu Português. In particular, buccaneers are pirates who attacked Spanish shipments in the Caribbean Sea. This may parallel to Bartolomeo’s assistance in the impromptu rebellion against Doflamingo.

Bartholomew Sharp was an English buccaneer known for his venture in South America and the Caribbean, where he would raid Spanish towns and ships within the area. As Spain and England were not at war that time, the Spanish authorities demand that he be persecuted. He was later pardoned by the English after presenting them with valuable maps taken from Spanish ships, which proved useful for English navigators. Similarly, Bartolomeo was despised by the audience of the Corrida Colosseum, but his assistance to the Straw Hats would later prove important to the rebellion.

On the other hand, Bartolomeu Português is a Portuguese buccaneer who had established a set of rules known as the Pirate Code. His base of operations was near Campeche, a colonial city established by Spain in Mexico. Ships in this port had also attracted other pirates such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake. As a pirate who had made a number of violent attacks against the Spaniards, Português had also suffered a series of bad luck throughout his career. At one time, he encountered strong winds after raiding a large ship, leading him to go off-course and subsequently be captured by Spanish ships. Português resorted to stabbing the sentry and floating off wine bottles to escape. Like Português, Bartolomeo tends to make violent attacks toward his enemies, considering how he stabbed the tongue of one man for insulting Luffy. Coincidentally, Português is also similar to Portgas, which is possibly referenced in One Piece when Bartolomeo entered the Corrida Colosseum in order to win Ace’s fruit.

Considering how Português had his operations in the same region as Drake and Hawkins, there may be a chance that Bartolomeo will be working along those two fellow Rookies with whom he shares his namesake. Whatever happens, it’s clear that Bartolomeo will continue to be an ally to the Straw Hats and will make more appearances in future arcs. Let’s hope that he is careful around storms and doesn’t die while declaring his unrequited love for Luffy.

“Chao Time” is a bi-weekly editorial feature that is posted every other Tuesday only at The One Piece Podcast website.