RAMÓN LLULL: BIOGRAPHY, PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT, CONTRIBUTIONS AND WORKS - LITERATURE - 2024

Ramón Llull (1232-1316) was a renowned writer and philosopher of Catalan origin. He stood out for writing topics of technical language in the field of medicine, philosophy and theology, in a vulgar or popular language, for everyone to understand. He positioned himself as the creator of the first novels in Catalan.

It is important to note that his work was not purely literary, it was rather oriented to logically expose everything related to the Christian faith, named by him as art. Llull wrote in Catalan and Latin, accumulating more than 265 works.

Portrait of Ramón Llull

The value of his works is based on the importance Christianity had during medieval times, and the need for many to convert to it. In the middle of the 12th century, a commercial community emerged, little studied, which demanded easy-to-understand texts, an opportunity that Ramón Llull took advantage of.

Biography

Ramón Llull, also known as Raimundo Lulio, was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1235. His parents were Amat Llull and Isabel D´Erill, both belonging to the high elite of Barcelona. From a very young age Ramón was involved in the world of aristocrats. He died in 1315.

A servant of the monarchy

His relationship with the monarchy allowed him to occupy the position of butler in the rooms of the Infante Jaime II, future king. Llull, until then, had lived relaxed, dedicated to his work within the monarchy, and leading a life, if you will, sinful. He spent it from party to party.

Disordered marriage and life

The writer was married to Blanca Picany, who belonged to the nobility, and with whom he conceived two children. Ramón led a disorderly life, and that led him to be unfaithful to his wife on many occasions, until a spiritual experience changed him forever.

An encounter with Jesus Christ

When he was 32 years old, Ramón Llull recounted his mystical encounter with Jesus Christ, and according to his story he asked him to abandon the life he led, and follow him. Since then, he left behind everything he had, including his family, and his services at court.

After starting a new life, he took a tour of what we know today as the Camino de Santiago. Later he dedicated himself to writing the Abbreviated Art of Finding Truth, a text on Christianity, whose goal was for non-believers in God to transform their lives.

Ars Magna book by Ramón Llull. Source: By Thomas Le Myésier, via Wikimedia Commons

During this process of change Ramón Llull dedicated himself to prayer, meditation and contemplation, for which he retired to Monte de Randa, in Mallorca. After this he entered a monastery, that of the Cistercian Order, where he was taught the fundamentals of Catholicism of the time, as well as Latin, and about theology.

Construction of the Miramar and pilgrimage

In 1274 he wrote the Demonstrative Art, under the protection and financial help provided by his former student: Prince Jaime, who invited him to his castle in Montpellier. With the money he obtained from the writing, he built the Miramar Monastery.

Their project of Crusades in distant lands, where they did not have faith as a principle, did not have the approval of Pope Nicholas IV; But such a situation did not make him give up, so he made the trip only to Cyprus and Armenia. This time of pilgrimage he also used it to write many of his works.

Pilgrimage and imprisonment

In one of his many trips he was imprisoned, specifically in Africa, in 1307. At that same time, as a result of the message he imparted, he ran the risk of being lynched by those who did not believe, nor did they want his doctrine.

Ramón was persistent in his objective of evangelizing, in 1311 he attended a council convened by Pope Clement V in Vienna, where he proposed to reach the Holy Land with the dogma of the Christian faith, without obtaining the desired results. In that same year he returned to Mallorca, dedicating himself to meditation.

Four years later, in 1315, he made a trip to North Africa, exactly to Tunisia, where the researchers agree that he wrote what would be his last work Liber de maiore fine et intellectus amoris et honoris, which in Spanish would be something like “Libro of greater aims and more understanding of love and honor ”.

The "logical machine"

Ramón Llull took pains to build a “logical machine” or as he called it “Ars Magna Generalis”, which was based on a combinatorial logical language, to talk about religion and theology, without language being an impediment.

The apparatus was mechanical, the use of circles, squares and triangles were the representation of the subjects, theories and approaches. The combination aspects were related to God. Each one represented by a letter, with a meaning.

For example, the letter D means eternity, while the F wisdom, and thus each one from B to K referred to an attribute, principle, vice and virtue. This generality allowed him to share his thoughts in all the languages ​​known until then.

Its operation was given through levers that were turned by hands, guided towards some of the assertions considered by Llull, stopping in any of their positions. According to its creator, the machine had the power to reveal whether a premise was true or false.

The Last General Art was intended to explain the existence of philosophy and theology, with their different truths as if they were one. However, the scholars of his day, while recognizing his design, were opposed to his reasoning; for them each of the sciences reached the truth by different paths.

Ramón Llull's tomb. Source: By José Luis Filpo Cabana, from Wikimedia Commons

In short, Llull's life was full of ups and downs, where each one allowed him to further strengthen his idea of ​​spreading the faith to Christianity, and of leading his neighbor on the “path of good”.

Testament and death

Ramón Llull died returning from Tunisia, in 1316, after discussing religious issues with the Muslim leaders of the region. By then he was 83 years old.

According to what they say, his death was tragic. He died arriving on the shores of Majorca, due to the serious injuries suffered after a stoning carried out by an angry Muslim mob in Africa.

His tomb is located in Palma de Mallorca, in the basilica of Sant Francesc.

Three years earlier, in 1313, he had drawn up and delivered his will. In it he made clear his wishes to safeguard his books, and make three collections with some of them. These collections would be distributed between Mallorca, Genoa and Paris.

Unfortunately his heirs ignored the requests of the great genius.

Philosophical thought

Llull was oriented to teach and spread Christianity everywhere. The main objective of the creation of the Miramar Monastery was to prepare missionaries to reach the people through faith in Jesus, especially the Arabs.

His thought was aimed at transforming the chivalric moralistic ideology of his time, from the philosophical and theological point of view, following the doctrine of San Francisco de Asís.

Llull and the purity of Mary

Another motivation she had was to impart the purity of the Virgin Mary, through the ideology of the Immaculate Conception, that is: the non-possession of the original sin of the mother of Jesus Christ at the time of becoming pregnant by the work and grace of the spirit holy.

He considered that for the son of God to be conceived from purity, the mother must also have been conceived without any sin. For this reasoning, many thinkers, philosophers and theologians, including Nicolás Aymerich (Maximum authority of the reign of Aragon), pursued the work of the character in question.

Enemies and protectors

Just as Ramón Llull had enemies and detractors, he also had the support of many who accepted his thoughts. Such is the case of King Pedro known as the Ceremonious, who expelled Aymerich to protect Llull's life work; even the Catholic Church turned his opinion into belief.

It should be noted that Ramón felt inclination towards the Platonic-Augustinian current, which in turn was in opposition to the interpretations of the philosopher Averroes in relation to the existence of two truths, that of faith and that of reason.

After his encounter with Jesus Christ, Ramón Llull even changed the way he saw others. He approached people through affection and cordial words, he spoke to them about God with love, without exercising any kind of manipulation over them.

Contributions

One of the main contributions of Ramón Llull was to have created and positioned Catalan literature, when the other languages ​​of Romanesque origin were still in the process of consolidation, even primitive. In addition to this, he was a promoter of Latin as the main language of his time.

On the other hand, his studies, works and research are considered important because they have allowed the development of many aspects of today's world. It is considered the precursor of what is today the conceptual basis of the information process in computing, the so-called combinatorial system.

Among his other contributions is the application of holism, that is: the study of any system as a whole, and not of the parts. As a student of science he gave an approach from astrology to astronomy, as well as to what is known as the Hebraic Kabbalah or esoteric teachings.

Llull: faith and reason

It was Llull who promoted the first debates between faith and reason, from the analysis of philosophy and theology. His position was that reason could not handle the highest or divine truths, but should ask for help from faith. This is still a topic of discussion.

Memory and gravity

Llull was ahead of his time, always curious and eager to learn, he stopped in the study of various aspects that perhaps would have taken years to develop. For example, memory and gravity have antecedents in much of this intellectual's research.

In the case of gravity, he described it in his book Ascent and Descent of Intelligence as follows: “It is the movable stone with violent and natural movement: violent when it is thrown with the impulse of the air, and natural when it descends, because then it moves according to gravity… ”.

With the previous explanation it is determined that Llull was a pioneer in studying gravity, since three centuries later Isaac Newton published his Law of Universal Gravitation.

In the spiritual

In the spiritual sphere, his conception that God is the ultimate creator is still valid today, since it is known that Catholicism and Christianity are the main religions in the world. Llull established the privilege of humanity to approach the divinity of the creator, a premise that is applied today through the faith of each one.

Continuing in the divine and spiritual realm, the current world leans towards the transformation of the human being from the religious and faith perspective. Given the above, Llull left the basis that a fragile thought lacked the presence of God.

For many followers of Llull's thought, his life after his encounter with God is an example of genuine transformation, and his work as a missionary and preacher of the faith must be recognized by the Catholic Church in such a way that he can be elevated to blessed.

LLull's day

In recognition of his various contributions, Spain celebrates him every November 27 since 2001, as a way of honoring and thanking his legacy in the world of computing. As has been well said, his works anticipated the use of logic in the approaches to this area.

Throughout the Spanish geography, there are many educational, theological and research institutions that have been created in his honor, and that, of course, bear his name, in gratitude for all his knowledge, and his contributions to the world today.

Plays

Llull's works are quite extensive, his compendium of writings reaches 265, including 243 books based and developed on topics of science, philosophy, education, grammar, mysticism and chivalry, as well as some novels and poems. He wrote in Catalan, Arabic and Latin.

Ramón Llull's Tree of Sciences. Source: By Ramon Llull (Logica nova edition 1512), via Wikimedia Commons

His work as a writer has been divided into four stages according to the evolution that Art has had:

The first stage, called pre-artistic, which occurred between the years 1272 and 1274. The second, the quaternary, which also includes the abbreviated Art of finding the truth and the demonstrative, which takes place between 1274 and 1290.

The third segmentation is about the ternary, 1290-1308, and the post-artistic stage that includes the years 1309 and 1315. Before these stages, he devoted himself to writing philosophy and mysticism, and highlights the famous encyclopedic book La Contemplación dating from 1273.

Transcendental works

Some of his most important and outstanding works are described below, in order to expand the knowledge about the thought, reasoning and philosophy of this illustrious character.

Blanquerna

It is a novel that he developed between 1276 and 1283. Of idealistic content, narrated according to medieval influences. It was written in Mallorcan.

The plot was based on a man who lives his life according to his religious inclination. It contains some autobiographical features, as it describes how the character goes from being a married man, to entering a monastery, and following a life of meditation and contemplation.

This work by Llull contains some poetic nuances, which give it a more harmonious and attractive touch. Much of the inspiration comes from Arabic and French poetry, known at the time as Provençal. It does not neglect the fervor for God, and the spiritual life.

Book of the Gentile and the Three Sages

It was written between 1274 and 1276, it is a work that defends with rational and historical arguments the precepts of the Christian faith. Like the previous one, it was also written in Majorcan, a variant of Catalan.

This work focuses on the conversation about the other existing religions at the time, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and the exchange of ideas of three wise men of each of the religions and a non-believer about the truth and lies of each creed.

The Jew, the Christian and the Muslim explain to the subject about the existence of a single divinity or God, as well as about creation and resurrection, leaving the reader at the same time the freedom to choose between one and the other, according to their reasoning and spiritual perception.

A striking aspect of this book is the fact that Llull repeatedly describes the fundamental principles of the Mosaic laws, which refer to the first existing people in Israel according to the Bible, and of Islam. This was rare in his time.

On the other hand is the way he tells the story, the fictional aspect is done with care, which allows a light interaction between the main characters and the pagan.

The Book of the Ascent and Descent of Understanding

This book raises the Lullian thought of climbing to reach certain levels of knowledge and mysticism. It was written in Latin, when it was around the year 1304.

To go up a level Ramón Llull explains that to go from one level to another one must go from sensory perception, to the obvious and from this to intelligence, and through a different process, one reaches the universal, passing through the particular and general.

It explicitly contains the "modes" in which they can be scaled. It begins with the logic that contains the difference, the agreement and the position. Second is the situational, whose scales are the beginning, the middle and the end. And finally, the quantitative modality, which refers to the majority, equality and minority.

With each of these scales, Llull establishes how to reach the highest level of intimacy between beings and nature.

Contemporary life

This book dates from the year 1311, and is an autobiographical reference to Ramón Llull. It is a work where he recounts his conversion to Christ, the visions and the radical way his life changed.

Because it is an autobiographical manuscript, the author left many important information about his life captured in it, which served to make his legacy known and remained for posterity. This is due to the fact that most of the most detailed data about him have been extracted from this writing.

Book of the Order of Chivalry

It is a work of teaching and therefore of learning, it is one of his first works as a writer. He is dedicated to studying, analyzing and exposing the lifestyle of the knights of the time, describing them as brave and courageous.

Llull considered that one of the objectives of the knights should be to find the stamp of God in each event. It also sets out the rights and duties of knights and the need to spread Christianity through honorable and pious actions.

The Book of the End

It is the most explanatory work of the thought of "art" according to Llull, that is why it is considered one of the most profound. In it he states that the end makes a separation of art between general and special.

Describe in this book a score of sciences. Some of the disciplines he develops are general science, the philosophy of love, the rise and fall of understanding, light, and the divine essence, just to name a few.

Tree of Science

It is the most extensive and important work of this author. In it he performs a harmonic comparison where each science is figuratively represented by the parts that make up a tree, each with different specifications and functions.

For example: the roots become the principles, the leaves, the species and the fruits each one of the individual actions of the being.

According to Llull's vision, there was or is a compendium of 14 main trees and 2 auxiliary ones. Some are mentioned: elementary, referring to physics; the imaginary, related to the arts; the moral, the ethics; the celestial coupled with astronomy.

Other works

Other works by Llull were: Children's Doctrine, Book of Wonders, Book of Beasts, The Sin of Adam, Lament of Our Lady Santa María, One Hundred Works of God, Disconsolation, Song of Ramón; just to mention a few.

Llull, a life after Christ

Llull's works were always destined to bring the individual closer to God, to have a close relationship with Him. The spread of Christianity and faith were the greatest works of Lull's thought. In addition to exposing his life after his divine encounter, as well as his missions and meditations.

References

1. Ramón Llull. (2018). (Spain): Wikipedia. Recovered from wikipedia.org
2. Ramón Llull. (Sf). (N / a): Astogea. Recovered from: astrogea.org
3. Bonillo Hoyos, X. (2008). Ramón Llull. (Spain): Visat, Catalan literature. Recovered from: visat.cat
4. Ramón Llull. (2004-2018). (N / a): Bigrafías and Lives. Recovered from: biograíasyvidas.com
5. Ramón Llull. (2018). (N / a): Writers. Recovered from: writers.org