Ramon Llull

Ramon Llull (Palma, around 1232 - Mediterranean Sea, 1316) was a Majorcan philosopher, theologian, poet and missionary, rooted in the medieval Christian tradition and close to the Franciscans, although recent research suggests he remained a layman all his life. He is considered one of the most original thinkers of his century and one of the first authors to use Catalan to write philosophy and science. He matters today above all for his attempt to build a universal logic that would allow anyone, whatever their faith, to reason about God.

He was born in Palma, recently conquered by James I of Aragon, into a family of Barcelona origin. He grew up at court, where he led a worldly life and wrote love poetry. Around 1263 he experienced a series of visions of the crucified Christ that changed his course. He sold his property, left his family and dedicated himself to converting Muslims and to writing the best book against the errors of unbelievers. For almost a decade he studied Latin, theology and Arabic, the last with the help of a Muslim slave, and withdrew to contemplation on the hill of Randa.

From this period came his great project, the Art, a system of general principles such as goodness, greatness and eternity, combined through letters and diagrams to answer questions about God and creation. He reworked it for decades, in phases usually called Quaternary (1274-1290) and Ternary (1290-1308). His aim was that any reader, whether Jew, Muslim or Christian, could follow the demonstrations without relying solely on authority.

He wrote in Latin, Catalan and probably Arabic, although no Arabic text survives. Much of his output is in Catalan, including novels such as Blanquerna and the Book of the Beasts, meant to reach a wider public. He promoted the Miramar college to train missionaries in oriental languages, travelled across Europe and North Africa, and proposed crusade plans such as Rex Bellator, none of which were carried out. He tried to preach in mosques and synagogues, with uneven results.

He died in 1316. According to tradition he was stoned in North Africa and died as a result, but it is now known that Christians rescued him and that he died shortly afterwards, probably on the journey home to Majorca. His work had little reception during his lifetime, yet his influence endured: he was beatified in 1847, and he is now recognised as a precursor of social choice theory and of some ideas close to computation.