Clavis vitae

Mysteries of the Life of Ramon Llull

Latin Literature and Composition course, Barcelona, 14-16 April, 2025

“I was mad from my earliest days until past thirty years of age, when I remembered Your wisdom and conceived the desire to worship You and to live in the memory of Your passion. Because just as the Sun shines brighter at midday, I too was mad and unwise until the second half of my life”.

Ramon Llull, Book of Contemplation, chap. 70, §22-23.

Ramon Llull spent his youth at the Majorcan court, filling his days with banquets, love affairs and exquisite pleasures. One night, after retiring into his bedchamber, and as he was getting ready to write a poem for his lover, he was suddenly struck by a vision which made him understand that his life would be far more fruitful if he devoted it to Christ. From that moment forward, Ramon Llull’s existence became a long pilgrimage, both in the physical and the intellectual sense, with three intended purposes: evangelising the Arab world, writing “the best book in history” and founding monasteries where the Saracen tongue and other oriental languages could be learned. To reach his objectives, he dedicated ten years to the study of Arabic and Islamic theology, another ten years to the contemplation of divine mysteries, and the remainder of his life to preaching, which took him from Paris to Montpellier, from Rome to Tunis, from Naples to Barcelona and from Majorca to Cyprus, in a long series of adventures during which he was almost murdered, survived a shipwreck, met three popes, was accused of witchcraft and was twice thrown in jail.

During this seminar, which will take place in Barcelona from April 14 to April 16, 2025, Schola Humanistica and the Instituto Hespérico de Cultura will guide the participants through the life of this key character of the European Middle Ages. We will read and comment on the most intriguing passages of the Vita coaetanea, a biography which according to some sources was dictated by Llull himself, on the brink of death, to the monks of the Carthusian monastery of Vauvert, in Paris. The events narrated in this first work will then be confronted with a second biography, the Acta B. Raymundi Lulli, written in an elegant 18th century Latin by the Walloon Jesuit Jean Baptiste du Sollier. Throughout our lectures, we shall pay attention to iconography, and chiefly to the illustrations contained in the Breviculum, one of the best illuminated manuscripts of the 14th century, whose author was Llull’s disciple Thomas Le Myésier. Furthermore, composition exercises in Latin will be proposed in order to consolidate the knowledge acquired and to appreciate more subtly the differences between classical and medieval Latin. Finally, the group will visit the Jewish Quarter (Call) of Barcelona and the Royal Palace, where the wise man allegedly had an audience with king James II of Aragon.

We look forward to seeing you in Barcelona, one of Llull’s homelands, to rediscover together this multifaceted figure who forever marked the history and thought of the West.

Deadline for registration: 5 April, 2025.

Limited places: 20.

     

    Schedule

    Schedule

     

    Time Schedule
    14th April 9:30-11:00 From debauchery to conversion.

    11:30-13:00 An attempted murder.

    15:00-16:30 A visit to Tunis.

    17:00-18:30 The dangers of the sea.

    15th April 9:30-11:00 Mediterranean life.

    11:30-13:00 In the court of the King of Aragon.

    15:00-18:30 Visit to the Jewish Quarter (Call) of Barcelona) and the Royal Palace.

    16th April 9:30-11:00 An old man in Paris.

    11:30-13:00 Accusations of witchcraft.

     

     

     

     

     

    Ramon Llull
    Thomas Le Myésier

    The Saracen

     


     

    Target audience

    Teachers, students, and scholars of the ancient world and the Renaissance.

    Location

    In Barcelona. All lessons will be held at the Casa Elizalde, Carrer de Valencia 302.

    Dates

    14th-16th April, 2025

    Languages

    Latin.

    Level

    Intermediate or advanced.

    Certificate

    Upon request, a certificate of participation will be provided at the end of the course.

    Price

    195€ (it includes the participation fee, the price of visits and teaching materials)

    Accomodation

    Participants must arrange their own accommodation. We will provide a list of recommended hotels.