Ramon Llull In The Biblioteca De Catalunya

The Biblioteca de Catalunya and the Ministry of Culture of the Catalan Government are delighted to announce publication of the work Ramon Llull in the Biblioteca de Catalunya, now translated into English thanks to funding from the Ramon Llull Institute. This e-book introduces us to one of the most universal Catalan thinkers of all time. The e-book includes interviews - conducted by Joan Santanach - with various scholars: Lola Badia, Alexander Fidora, Amador Vega and Albert Soler, with a further contribution from Ricard Torrents, leading expert on Jacint Verdaguer. The book is complemented by readings of extracts from Llull’s texts by the aforementioned scholars and with a musical reconstruction by Antoni Rossell. The texts, by Joan Santanach, help to illustrate a number of different facets of Ramon Llull, as well as presenting a selection of the most significant manuscripts and printed books held in the Biblioteca de Catalunya. The e-book includes an updated bibliographic section. The book is free to access in EPUB format for iOS, Android and .PDF format for computer. The work is subject to a Creative Commons licence.

This publication edited by Dr. Maria Incoronata Colantuono presents an accurate selection of musical and liturgical medieval texts from the 9th to 13th century, preserved at the Biblioteca de Catalunya. By means of this compilation, the different authors of this work introduce and explain fundamental concepts about the relationship between music and church such as neumes, Gregorian chants, the ecclesiastical centres in Catalonia or the main architectural styles of the moment. The work contains interviews with specialists who provide a wide vision of the music and liturgy; among them, Jesús Alturo, Juan Carlos Asensio, Joaquim Garrigosa i Massana, Katarina Livljanic and Eduardo Carrero. The book, which encompasses musical performances by Juan Carlos Asensio and Antoni Rossell, concludes with an extensive bibliography and a list of digital resources that contribute to improve the research and scholar studies.

Ramon Llull (1232-1316), born on Majorca, was one of the most remarkable lay intellectuals of the thirteenth century. He devoted much of his life to promoting missions among unbelievers, the reform of Western Christian society, and personal spiritual perfection. He wrote over 200 philosophical and theological works in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic. Many of these expound on his "Great Universal Art of Finding Truth," an idiosyncratic dialectical system that he thought capable of proving Catholic beliefs to non-believers. This study offers the first full-length analysis of his theories about rhetoric and preaching, which were central to his evangelizing activities. It explains how Llull attempted to synthesize commonplace advice about courtly speech and techniques of popular sermons into a single program for secular and sacred eloquence that would necessarily promote love of God and neighbor. Llull's work is a remarkable testimony to the diffusion of clerical culture among educated lay-people of his era, and to their enthusiasm for applying that knowledge in pursuit of learning and piety. This book should find a place on the shelf of every scholar of medieval history, religion, and rhetoric.

A Companion to Ramon Llull and Lullism offers a comprehensive survey of the work of the Majorcan lay theologian and philosopher Ramon Llull (1232-1316) and of its influence in late medieval, Renaissance, and early modern Europe, as well as in the Spanish colonies of the New World. Llull’s unique system of philosophy and theology, the “Great Universal Art,” was widely studied and admired from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. His evangelizing ideals and methods inspired centuries of Christian missionaries. His many writings in Catalan, his native vernacular, remain major monuments in the literary history of Catalonia. Contributors are: Roberta Albrecht, José Aragüés Aldaz, Linda Báez Rubí, Josep Batalla, Pamela Beattie, Henry Berlin, John Dagenais, Mary Franklin-Brown, Alexander Ibarz, Annemarie C. Mayer, Rafael Ramis Barceló, Josep E. Rubio, and Gregory B. Stone.