Putting the Art back on the Shelf: Ramon Llull in Early Modern Iberian Libraries

• In Event: Universal Libraries, Global Bibliographies

Abstract

In 1274, Ramon Llull invented the Art—a device designed to mechanize the heuristic process—for the purpose of preaching to and converting all non-Christians. Several centuries later, Cardinal Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros (1515) and King Philip II (ca. 1570) commissioned official catalogues of the works of Ramon Llull from their secretaries, Alonso de Proaza and Dimas de Miguel. These catalogues were designed to map out the body of Llull's work, differentiating the original from the apocryphal. I will demonstrate how these catalogues make evident a problem both theoretical and historical in nature. On the one hand, both Cisneros and Philip II sought to promote Llull's Art as a comprehensive model for the study of all disciplines. On the other, these catalogues served to overcome the challenge of incorporating an all-encompassing epistemological model into the library-systems of Colegio de San Ildefonso and the Escorial.

Author

• Noel Blanco Mourelle, Columbia University