RAMON
LLULL BOOK OF THE
LOVER AND THE BELOVED
“I would say that such innovation and boldness, together with so much coherence, solidity and methodological generality are sufficient to assure the greatness of this historical figure, who is possibly unique in European culture. Ramon Llull collected all of the materials he could use from his intellectual surroundings, but he used them to build structures of an entirely new sort. In this regard it is surprising that he has never been compared to Antoni GaudĂ, another singular figure in Catalan culture. It is due to this architectural novelty that one needs an equivalent dose of innovation and boldness to undertake the study of Ramon Llull.â€? Anthony Bonner (1995)
RAMON LLULL IN YESTERDAY’S AND TODAY’S WORLD
R
amon Llull (Ciutat de Mallorca, 1232-1316), his importance as a historical figure, his work and thought, and all that has been passed down from that, represent one of Catalan culture’s most important contributions to universal culture throughout the centuries. It is his life’s project and, above all his daring and remarkable intellectual endeavor, which makes him so very interesting. A layman; self-taught; creator of an interdisciplinary, intercultural, global system of thought that was a contrast to the academic world of his times; a mystic and at the same time a tireless activist in support of the spread of the Christian religion, he addressed subjects that continue to have relevance in today’s world. Llull’s position as an eccentric–in the most literal sense of the term–with regard to the social and cultural world of his time, makes him an author capable of the boldest innovations in all of the fields he touched upon, whether in the concept of the knowledge process itself, in the different genres in which he wrote his works, or in the strategies for broadening their dissemination. Llull wrote more than 265 works, some of them considerably long, on all the imaginable subjects of his period: theology (Book of Contemplation, c. 1273-1274), philosophy (Principia philosophiae, 1299-1300), law (Arsiuris, c. 1285-1287), medicine (Principles of Medicine, c.1274-1283), astronomy (Tractatus novus de astronomia, 1297), logic (New Logic, 1303), rhetoric (New Rhetoric,
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1301), geometry (Liber de geometria nova et compendiosa, 1299), cru-sade and politics (Liber de fine, 1305), homiletics (Liber de praedicatione, 1304), catequism and pedagogy (Instruction of Children, c.1274-1276), fiction (Blaquerna, c.1283), mysticism (Book of the Lover and the Beloved, 1283), encyclopedia (Tree of Science, 12951296), apologetics (Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men, c. 1274-1276) and even the development of an electoral theory (De arte electionis, 1299). Many of Llull’s ideas have led to significant contributions to the history of science and of ideas: he is considered to be the forefather of modern information technology; his language theories resonate in modern linguistics; his theory and practices regarding dialogue and debate with non-Christians are reference points in the history of interreligious relationships; and his development of an electoral theory preceded Condorcet’s and Borda’s voting systems by 400 years.
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In any case, at the core of all of his work is Art on which he wrote various different pieces, from Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem (c.1274) to Ars generalis ultima (1305-1308). Llull considered his Art a method for converting infidels. Ramon asserted that missionary methods were based on the authority of the sacred texts, which unfailingly turned into sterile discussions of how they should be interpreted. Llull looked for an alternative to these debates, replacing them with a system based on general principles acceptable to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions: a similar idea of one single God that is necessarily good, grand and eternal; the same concept of the physical world as in Greek science; and also a shared conceptual framework drawn from Aristotelian logic and metaphysics. Ramon’s method combined these and other broadly accepted ideas with the aim of demonstrating, among other things, which combinations were in concordance with each other and which were not, and confirm or refute a given supposition. The supposition put to the test could be an article of faith, any other point of the doctrine or even a question
related to philosophy, medicine, law or any other contemporaneous field of knowledge. In addition, the mark left on European culture by Llull and his body of work extends from the 14th century to the present. There is Catalan “Llulism” to be sure, but it also exists in French, Italian, Spanish, German, and even Polish and Russian form. The response to Llull and his ideas has been present throughout European history from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment and from the Romantic period to the Avant-garde; sometimes it was valued and at other times spurned. We mustn’t overlook the fact that in this long story various important and wide-reaching apocryphal versions of Llulism surfaced: over 500 works on alchemy, the Kabbalah, cartography and navigation, distillation of perfumes and cordials, etc., all of them falsely attributed to Llull. Lastly, Llull was a grand writer in Catalan, the language he used for his important novels, Blaquerna and Felix or the Book of Wonders, as well as in non-literary works: Llull was the first multi-faceted author in the history of Catalan language and literature who played a key role, as we know, in shaping Catalan literary language. And we must also remember that he was one of the first European writers to use the venacular language in writing works on theology, philosophy and logic. Thus, the celebration, from November 2015 to November 2016, of the 700th anniversary of Ramon Llull’s death, is a special opportunity to introduce to the world the intangible universal heritage that Catalan culture has to offer through the figure and legacy of the Mallorcan writer and thinker, Ramon Llull.
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Apel·les Fenosa, L’arbre (The Tree), 1947
Book of the Lover & the Beloved Presentation and selection of verses
Book of the Lover and the Beloved (Llibre d’amic e Amat) is the most widely disseminated Catalan literary work of all time. It was written in Catalan as part of the novel Blaquerna (Romanç d’Evast e Blaquerna), which was completed in Montpellier around 1283 and was circulated both as a part of the novel, and separately. Between 1283 and 1289, Llull had the novel translated to Occitan and French and Book of the Lover and the Beloved translated to Latin. One hundred and twenty-eight editions of Book of the Lover and the Beloved were printed in 16 languages,1 not counting any of the editions of Blaquerna. Llull used the subject of the lover and the beloved in numerous works. It first appears in Book of Contemplation (c. 12711274); is given special treatment in Book of the Lover and the Beloved; reappears in Ars Amativa (1290) and Flowers of Love and Flowers of Intelligence (1294); and once again plays a key role in Tree of the Philosophy of Love (1298). There are 357 short verses in the Catalan critical edition of Book of the Lover and the Beloved,2 despite the fact that Llull states in the foreword of the book that there is one for each day of the year; however, the total number of verses on lover and beloved in the whole of the five above-mentioned works could be somewhere close to a thousand. Book of the Lover and the Beloved is a brilliant solution to a serious challenge posed in writing the novel Blaquerna: how to explain a mystical experience in a way that would seem credible to the reader? An experience that, by its very nature, is indescribable and, beyond that, must justify the vicissitudes in the protagonist’s life, throughout the course of the work.
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So, Llull has Blaquerna write a book in which he describes the experiences of the friendship between a “lover” and his “be-
loved” where “the lover was a faithful and devout Christian, and the beloved was God”: that book is Book of the Lover and the Beloved. Llull calls the verses that comprise his mystical opuscule, “moral metaphors” and, indeed, the core of Book of the Lover and the Beloved is a metaphor allowing for the word “lover” to take on a new meaning of “faithful,” yet still maintaining the original connotations of that word: loyalty, staunchness, companionship, help, fondness, affection, discretion, intimacy; and, similarly, the word “beloved” is a metaphor for “God,” but also with the original connotations of the word “beloved”: intimacy, attraction, complicity, object of love, etc. Thus, by resorting to this, the almost inexpressible relationship between God and the believer becomes a story of friendship with all of the subtleties of a story of love between friends.
______________________________________________________________ Following is the breakdown of the different editions in the various languages: 36 in Catalan, 8 en Latin (first edition is from 1505), 17 in French, 20 in Spanish, 8 in Italian, 2 in Portuguese, 11 in German, 6 in English, 1 in Dutch, 1 Norwegian, 2 Russian, 1 Swedish, 4 Polish, 1 Czech, 1 Finnish, 3 Hungarian.
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Llull, Ramon, Llibre d'amic e amat, ed. Albert Soler i Llopart, “Els Nostres Clàssics. Col·lecció B” 13 (Barcelona: Barcino, 1995; 2a ed., 2012), 310 pp.
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T
he paths along which the lover seeks his beloved are long, perilous, filled with worries, sighs, and tears, and lit up by love.
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question arose between the eyes and memory of the lover. His eyes claimed it was better to see the beloved than to remember him, but memory said that remembering brought tears to the eyes and made the heart burn with love.
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T
he bird sang in the garden of the beloved. The lover came and said to the bird, “If we do not understand each other through language, let us understand each other through love, for through your song my beloved appears before my eyes.”
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earfully the lover sang songs of his beloved. He sang that love was quicker in the lover’s heart than the brilliance of lightning to the eye, or thunder to the ear; that water had more vitality in tears than in the sea’s waves, and that sighs were closer to love than was whiteness to snow.
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W
ith eyes of thoughts and griefs, sighs, and weeping, the lover gazed upon his beloved. And with eyes of grace, justice, pity, mercy, and generosity, the beloved contemplated his lover. And a bird sang of the delights of the above sight.
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T
he lover thought about death and was afraid, until he remembered his beloved. And he called out to those around him: “Ah, my friends, you must love, so as to fear neither dangers nor death in honoring my beloved.”
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ell us, fool, if your beloved ceased loving you, what would you do?” He answered: “I would love him still, so as not to die, for lack of love is death, and love is life.”
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“
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ell us, fool, why do you not speak, and what makes you so confused and perplexed?” He answered, “The beauties of my beloved, and the likeness of the joys and sorrows brought to me by love.”
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T
he light of the beloved’s room lit up that of the lover, dispelling its darkness and filling it with joys, sorrows, and thoughts. And the lover chased all things from his room to provide space for his beloved.
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L
ove lit up the cloud placed between the lover and the beloved, and made it as bright and shining as the moon by night, the morning star at dawn, the sun by day, and understanding in the will. And it is through this shining cloud that the lover and beloved speak to each other.
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141
od created the night for the lover to keep vigil and reflect upon the perfections of his beloved, and the lover thought it had been created so that those wearied by love could rest and sleep.
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146
he beloved forbade his lover to speak, and the lover found comfort in the contemplation of his beloved.
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he secrets of the beloved are revealed in the secrets of the lover, and the secrets of the lover are revealed in the secrets of the beloved. And the question is, which of these two secrets is the greater occasion for revelation?
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T
he lover was passing through a large city, and he asked if there was someone with whom he could speak as he desired about his beloved. And he was shown a poor man who was weeping for love’s sake, and who was seeking a companion with whom to speak about love.
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“
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ell us, fool! What can be best compared and found most similar?” He answered “The lover and the beloved.” They asked him why. He answered “Because of the love which exists between them.”
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he lover was dying of joy and living through pain. And the joys and torments came together and united to become one and the same in the lover’s will. And so the lover was both living and dying at the same time.
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L
ove is a great sea troubled by wind and waves, without port or shore. The lover perishes in the sea, and, in his peril, his torments perish and the work of his fulfillment begins.
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T
he greatness of his love caused the lover to die. The beloved buried him in his land, where the lover was raised up again. And the question is, from whom did he receive the greater gift?
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T
he lover almost drowned in the great sea of love, but he trusted in his beloved, who came to his aid with cares, tribulations, tears, and weeping, sighs, and grief. For the sea was one of love, and of honouring his honors.
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T
he beloved created and the lover destroyed. The beloved judged and the lover wept. The beloved re-created glory for the lover. The beloved finished his work and the lover remained forever in the company of his beloved.
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ON RAMON LLULL OPINIONS OF WRITERS AND SCHOLARS
“Ramon Llull’s work, despite its particular form of rationality, has remained surprisingly fecund, right up to the present.” Edgar Morin (2008)
“That explains Llull’s Ars Magna project as a perfect philosophical language system through which infidels could be converted. This language aims to be universal, because universal is the mathematical combination that articulates his plan of expression, and universal is also the system of shared ideas among all of the people Llull includes in the contents of his plan [...] Ars is not only universal because it has to work for all populations, but also because it employs alphabetical letters and figures and, thus, is accessible to illiterate individuals in whatever language.” Umberto Eco (1993)
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“The verses in Book of the Lover and the Beloved are so simple that it would be easy to believe that the book is equally as simple, such that its content is almost able to be reduced to no more than the few words of one of the Book of Proverbs: ‘Raise your capacity to understand and you will raise your capacity to love.’ But in order to comprehend how and why to do that, one must make a great effort with understanding: Ramon himself said–in reference to the sufi ‘words of love’ which he used as a model for his verses –that they are ‘words that need exposition,’ and adds that ‘exposition raises understanding.’ This observation, which explicitly refers to heightened understanding in the mystical sense, could be equally applied to the reading of the opuscule.” Robert Pring-Mill (1962)
“Ramon Llull is a personage from the 13th and 14th centuries whose multiple facets have survived alive–the redundancy notwithstanding–to this day. This survival is part of his life and his biography. It also explains his life and is a consequence of it. Only from this perspective of timelessness and universality can we grasp some of the essence of this outstanding figure. Solely from this position of judgment can we at least partially understand the meaning of the disperse collection of apparent anecdotes that comprise his life’s work.” Miquel Batllori (1960)
“Raymond Lull’s life is a constant battle against the banal, insipid, colorless.” Louis Sala-Molins (1967)
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“The experimental science that Francis Bacon foretold has now given us cybernetics, allowing man to walk on the moon and use computers which are, if I may say so, little sisters to Llull’s ambitious volvelles.” J. L. Borges (1984)
“One can be a poet and at the same time have a full understanding of scientific concepts, without paradox, because that describes Leonardo and Llull.” Salvador Dalí (1948)
“Ramon Llull speaks to us of the concord needed among the three most important Western powers: Jews, Christians and Muslims. If we had listened to him, history would have been different. But perhaps we can still take heed today.” Raimon Panikkar (1995)
“Llull stood on the borderland of two worlds [the High and Late Middle Ages] as one of the most powerful intellectual personalities in history, fully describable within the framework of the late medieval explosion of subjectivity, but who dedicated all of his efforts to the tantalizing recovery of the indestructible unity of knowledge surrounding the core of Christian dogma, mechanically explained and applied through procedures that call to mind modern information technology.” Lola Badia (1992)
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“In this enormous undertaking of converting the world, the tools applied by Llull were those of intelligence and love. He had one of those rare minds capable of assimilating and synthesizing the truths of different and opposing schools. […] But the Llulian synthesis did not only try to embrace the schools of thought of medieval Christianity, but also the religious philosophies of Islam and Judaism. Thus, it has been aptly come to be described as a ‘frontier philosophy.’” J. N. Hillgarth (1971)
“Llull’s entire oeuvre is about dialogue and openness: dialogue with heretics and ‘infidels,’ with Jews and Mahommedans–not a more or less annexationist irenicism, but instead a mutual welcoming and a search for similarities rather than differences.” Vladimir Jankélévitch (1974)
“I think about Mallorcan thinker Ramon Llull’s Mediterranean dream, which understood the value of reconciliation between East and West, and also of dialogue among the religions of Abraham. At the end of his dialogue with the three wise men (the Jew, the Christian and the Muslim) the gentile felt so consoled that ‘he realized he wasn’t crying anymore, as was his wont.’ Dialogue can even dry up tears.” Andrea Riccardi (2001)
“When, in reference to Llull, someone says, ‘I’m only interested in the pedagogue, or the poet, or the traveler, or the man and his worldly fulfillment,’ he is detaching Llull from Llull.” J. V. Foix (1936)
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“Structuralism, contrary to what is generally believed, is in no way a modern discovery. It already appeared–at least in its early form–in the 13th and 14th centuries, through the great Catalan thinker, Ramon Llull. Ingenuous eyes viewed the world as chaos. In order to control that, Llull’s predecessors ordered the aspects of reality in terms of degrees, according to their greater or lesser similarity. Llull, in contrast focused on differences, facing the extremes off against each other and then leading to mediation. Thus, he created a very original system of logic that, through recurring operations, allowed for an inventory of all possible relationships among concepts and beings, and he introduced the notion of relationship based on the mechanism of thought. Over the course of centuries, Nicolau de Cues, Charles de Bovelles, Leibniz and later, structural linguistics and anthropology, drew lessons from this combinatorial art.” Claude Lévi-Strauss (2005)
“I believe in magic and am convinced that all renewed steps taken in the direction cosmology and even metaphysics should be based on magic and revive the spiritual state that guided the brains of thinkers the likes of Paracelsus and Ramon Llull.” Salvador Dalí (1942)
“Ramon Llull is the most important Catalan writer of all time and perhaps the only one who fully deserves to be called a genius, that qualifier we reserve for special occasions, no more than one per language. Llull is the embodiment of literature and the very existence of his work elevates the language he uses to a universal level.” Pere Gimferrer (1981)
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“Llull is one of the great writers and poets of medieval Catalonia. He lived during a period of great cultural splendor marked by the coexistence–not always peaceful–among three religious cultures of his time: Christian, Arab and Jewish. Ramon Llull, a famous and prolific author, exemplifies the universality of that period with a written oeuvre that crossed borders and turned his new language into a tool in the search for the truth and for understanding among cultures and religions. We don’t know if he was a musician, but he surely loved the art of song; many of his poems were meant to be sung.” Jordi Savall (2015)
“Just looking at the scope of Ramon Llull’s work, it is surprisingly extensive, and only by resorting to extraordinary examples like Lope de Vega, do we find a case similar to the Llulian prolificacy. But Llull is even more notable for not having a fixed residence or staying still in any given place. He would write in whatever place he set foot, in monasteries and hermitages, in prison, on uncomfortable journeys by land and on Mediterranean sea crossings, alternating the quill with controversy and tasks, petitioning popes and kings, participating in general councils and chapter meetings, teaching in universities, giving his spirit over to contemplation and constantly battling the disdain, lack of appreciation and ignorance of those who most should have listened to him and aided him in his lofty task.” Martí de Riquer (1964)
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Book of the Lover & the Beloved A selection of editions in various languages
SPANISH Libro del amigo y del amado. Tr.: Juan Zaragüeta. Buenos Aires: Aguilar, 1960. Libro de amigo y amado. Tr.: Martí de Riquer. Barcelona: Planeta, 1993. Libro del amigo y el Amado. Edición bilingüe. Tr.: Miguel Alomar. Madrid: Sufi, 2001. Libro de amigo y amado. Tr.: Eduardo Moga. Barcelona: Barcino / DVD Ediciones, 2006. Libro de amigo y amado. Tr.: Eduardo Moga. València: Barcino / Editorial Pre-Textos, 2014.
GERMAN Das Buch vom Liebenden und Geliebten, eine mystische Spruchsammlung. Tr.: Ludwig Klaiber. Olten: Otto Walter, 1948.
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Das Buch vom Liebenden und Geliebten, geistliche Gleichnisse. Tr.: Maurice Aubry. Zürich: Thomas-Verlag, 1952.
Buch vom Liebenden und Geliebten. Tr.: Ludwig Klaiber. Köln: Jakob Hegner, 1967. Das Buch vom Freunde und vom Geliebten. Tr.: Erika Lorenz. Freiburg: Herder, 1992. Vom Freund und dem Geliebten, Die Kunst der Kontemplation. Tr.: Gret Schib. Zürich-Düsseldorf: Benziger Verlag, 1998.
ENGLISH Book of the Lover and the Beloved. Tr.: Edgar Allison Peers. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1923. Book of the Lover and the Beloved. Tr.: Edgar Allison Peers. London: Sheldon Press, 1978. Doctor Illuminatus. A Ramon Llull Reader. Edited and translated by Anthony Bonner. With a new translation of The Book of the Lover and the Beloved by Eve Bonner. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Book of the Lover and the Beloved. Lo libre de amich e amat. Librum amici et amati. Tr.: Mark D. Johnston. Warminster: Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1995.
HUNGARIAN A szeretet filozófiájának fája. Tr.: Kálmán Faluba and Balázs Déri. Budapest, 1994.
ITALIAN FINNISH Ylistän rakastettuani. Tr.: Seppo A. Teinonen. Hämeenlinna: Arvi A. Karista Oy, 1983.
FRENCH Livre de l’ami et de l’aimé, petits cantiques d’amour dialogués. Tr.: Antonio de Barrau and Max Jacob. Paris: La Sirène, 1919. Le livre de l’ami et de l’aimé. Tr.: Guy Lévis Mano and Josep Palau i Fabre. Paris: GLM, 1953.
Il libro dell’amico e dell’amato. Tr.: Umile da Genova. Genoa: Vita Francescana, 1932. Il libro dell’amico e dell’amato. Tr.: Eugenio Mele. Lanciano: G. Carabba Editore, 1932. Il Libro dell’amante e dell’amato. Tr.: Vera Passeri Pignoni. Reggio Emilia: Città Armoniosa, 1978. Il libro dell’Amico e dell’Amato. Tr.: Adelaide Baracco. Roma: Città Nuova, 1991. Il libro dell’amico e dell’amato. Tr.: Federica d’Amato. Chieti: Edizioni Noubs, 2011.
Livre de l’Ami et de l’Aimé. Tr.: Patrick Gifreu. Montpellier: La Différence, 1989.
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DUTCH
PORTUGUESE
Christus Amicus. Uit het dagboek van Ramon Llull. Tr.: Anselm Hoste. Utrecht: Desclée de Brouwer, 1965.
Livro do amigo e do Amado. Tr.: Esteve Jaulent. Sâo Paulo: Ediçôes Loyola, 1989.
NORWEGIAN Ramon Llull Humanisten fra middelalderens Mallorca. Tr.: Leif Sletsjoe. Oslo: J. W. Cappelens Forlag AS., 1975.
POLISH Księga o kochanku i ukochanym. Tr.: Barbara Sławomirska. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Spółka Hanzeatycka, 2002. Księga Przyjaciela i Umiłowanego. Brewiarz mistyczny. Tr.: Anna Sawicka. Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka, 2003.
Livro do amigo e do Amado. Tr.: Artur Guerra and Dimitur Simeonov Anguelov. Lisbon: Cotovia, 1990.
RUSSIAN Kniga o liubiasxem i vozliublennom. Tr.: Vsevolod Bagno. Saint Petersburg: Nauka, 1997.
CZECH Kniha o příteli a miláčku Tr.: Sigismund Bouška Praga: Malvern, 2004
SWEDISH Boken om vännen och den älskade Tr.: Lasse Söderberg Lund: Ellerströms, 1998
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The Institut Ramon Llull is a public consortium established in 2002 with the aim of promoting the Catalan language and culture abroad. This mission is accomplished by providing broad international exposure to writers and artists, encouraging artistic and cultural exchanges, and supporting Catalan language and literature studies in universities. Currently, the consortium is formed by the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council. The Institut Ramon Llull’s work is structured in three main areas of activity promoting the following: visual arts, architecture and design, performing arts, music and film (Department of Performing and Visual Arts); Catalan literary and scholarly works (Department of Literature and the Humanities); and Catalan studies in academic settings (Department of Language and Universities). The Institut Ramon Llull promotes the publication in other languages of Catalan literary and scholarly works –with a special emphasis on the classics–by providing grant support to the publishers of those translated works. It aims to provide exposure of Catalan authors and works within the international setting and encourages their participation in literary and cultural exchanges, and, at the same time, works to place Catalan literature as guest of honour at international book fairs. The Institut provides support to literary translators from the Catalan language with the aim of encouraging quality translations, ongoing training and recognition for their work.
www.llull.cat
Book of the Lover and the Beloved (Llibre d’amic e Amat) is the most widely disseminated Catalan literary work of all time. It was written in Catalan as part of the novel Blaquerna, which was completed in Montpellier around 1283 and was circulated both as a part of the novel, and separately. Book of the Lover and the Beloved is a brilliant solution to a serious challenge posed in writing the novel Blaquerna: how to explain a mystical experience in a way that would seem credible to the reader?