Oratio, Verbum, Sermo and “Les paraules de sa pensa”: Internal Discourse in Ramon Llull (1271/1272-1290), its Sources, Implications and Applications Robert D. Hughes Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull (Universitat de Barcelona)
[email protected] doi:10.3306/STUDIALULLIANA.112.03 Rebut el 8 de maig de 2017. Acceptat el 13 de juliol de 2017 Oratio, verbum, sermo i «Les paraules de sa pensa»: el discurs interior en Ramon Llull (1271/1272-1290), les fonts, les implicacions i les aplicacions Abstract At a time when technology companies are talking about «silent speech interfaces», it is particularly important, I believe, to look back at what the medievals said about «in- ternal discourse» and the significatory power of concepts. In this vein, then, as much as being an «art of conversion» via dialectical argumentation and a means whereby to unite all branches of knowledge under a set of ultimate principles, Ramon Llull’s Art is an «art of contemplation», born of prayer and internal discourse at the highest levels of intellect, not least in the first phase thereof (i. e. before 1290). His Art is, therefore, the technological interface whereby internal discourse can be encoded and transmitted. By examining potential antecedents (including Aristotle, St Anselm, St Augustine, Boethius, Hugh of St Victor, St Irenaeus of Lyon, St John of Damascus, St Maximus the Confessor, Peter of Spain, Priscian, St Thomas Aquinas and William of Sherwood), as well as consequents (such as William of Ockham and Erasmus of Rot- terdam), I attempt to construct a literary topography wherein to situate the statements made by Llull on the topic of internal discourse and whereby to understand how the latter, in its pre-eminent angelic form, helped to shape his thinking about the superio- rity of thought over the spoken and written word, a position which might suggest the presence of conceptualist elements within the realism for which he is well-known.