Every Knowable Thing: The Art of Ramon Llull and the Construction of Knowledge Noel Blanco Mourelle Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2017 © 2017 All Rights Reserved Noel Blanco Mourelle ! ABSTRACT Every Knowable Thing: The Art of Ramon Llull and the Construction of Knowledge Noel Blanco Mourelle This dissertation avers that the circulation of manuscript copies and printed editions of the works of Ramon Llull had a key role in Iberian cultural history and signaled a shift from a Christian logic of conversion to a universal key for organizing all the disciplines of knowledge. As copies of Ramon Llull’s manuscripts traveled from the Black Forest, Majorca, and Paris to be housed in the libraries of early modern institutions, such as the Colegio de San Ildefonso and the Monastery of El Escorial, they formed what I call portable archives of the Art. By reading the inventories of the libraries of these institutions, along with copies of the works of Ramon Llull preserved at the Escorial, the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, and the University of Freiburg, my dissertation combines the study of the place of Ramon Llull in the medieval history of ideas and the material features of said portable archives. My dissertation contributes to history of the book studies as it examines a unique case among medieval traditions and shows that the compilation of manuscripts and the elaboration of printed editions repurpose the original idea of the Art. I work with primary sources in Latin, Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese, attributed to Ramon Llull and to other authors, to trace his influence on early modern authors, such as Pedro de Guevara, Juan de Herrera, Diego de Valadés, and João de Barros. Chapter 1, “From Randa to Lullism,” accounts for the event of the inspiration of Ramon Llull that led to his idea of the Art as a logic discourse to convert other to the Christian faith and the way it became an intellectual school through the centuries. Chapter 2, “A Cardinal Listens,” ! provides a frame for the institutional circulation of Llull’s works as a part of the religious dialogue in the Colegio de San Ildefonso. I claim that Cardinal Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros, as the main patron and founder of the college, defines San Ildefonso by virtue of including the Art in its curriculum, hiring specialists in the Art, buying codices of the Art, and printing and curating compilations. Not only was Cisneros aware of the European centers of circulation of Lullist books, but he sent his secretaries to buy them for the library of San Ildefonso, initiating a new kind of circulation of the Art in Castile. Cisneros expressed his interest on the Art by buying new copies and financing editions, customizing them with his own shield as both a mark of private ownership in manuscripts and a public endorsement. This circulation had as an ultimate objective the introduction of a vernacular Castilian Llull. Beyond academia, in chapter 3, “Learning by Wheels,” I explore how the Art was a part of a domestic practice, establishing a curriculum of primary education in which the values of the doctrine are passed from between generations, like he theorized in the fictional models of Blanquerna and Felix. Each experience in primary education is intended as an initiation into the advocacy of the Art and to the reproduction and amplification of its original model. As proof of this adaptation of the Art, I present the small cartilla in which Pedro de Guevara adapts the Art of Ramon Llull into a new practice of Latin learning, targeting Philip II’s daughters in which he tries to show its potential in terms of creating a new model for the trivium that would reorganize grammar and rhetoric as a part of the ascension towards the Art that would, in turn, substitute dialectics. In chapter 4, “Trees of Knowledge,” I explore different contexts of learning where the Lullist image of the tree creates a model of education that bridges epistemology and morals. Portuguese humanist João de Barros and Franciscan missionary Diego de Valadés adapt the ! images of the Tree of Knowledge to the court in Portugal and the mission in New Spain showing the relevance of the Art as tool for pedagogical innovation. In chapter 5, “Center of the World,” I examine the way in which intellectuals involved in the building of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial try to do exactly what Ramon Llull had done before, that is, to make a set of existing disciplines epistemologically dependent on one single principle. The experience of students addresses the main problem that many early modern users of the Art found, which is that it is too difficult to learn and that its level of complexity overshadows its potential benefits. Nevertheless, its importance is measured by the fact that King Philip II put his best scientific minds to work in the spread of this technique. The institutional effort resulting from this dialogue is the Real Academia Mathematica that King Philip II sponsored and for which Juan de Herrera wrote the institución, including its first curriculum of studies. This institution had the Art of Ramon Llull among its teachings as a universal key for knowledge. Instead of meaning an attempt to make the Art a tool for scientific knowledge, this constitutes an attempt to place a theological model on top of all rising scientific disciplines in a way that it makes them dependent upon the Art. Finally, in chapter 6, “Archive of an Impossible Saint,” I postulate that the process of canonization of Ramon Llull determines the circulation of his works. Editions become evidence for the defense of his sanctity. Furthermore, the formulation of the arguments against Ramon Llull point to the same theoretical problems that made the intellectual circle around the Escorial interested in him. The causa luliana becomes a Majorcan and Franciscan matter and, after Philip II’s death, the support of the Spanish crown fades away. This causa leaves an archival trace that has aided in discerning the apocryphal Lullist corpus from the legitimate one, including letters from Philip II to the Vatican. Even though the causa luliana does not succeed in the sixteenth ! century, the traces of the process are visible in the way portable versions of the Art are made available in early modern Europe during seventeenth and eighteenth century. ! TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS THE ART? 1 CHAPTER ONE: FROM MOUNT RANDA TO LULLISM 19 CHAPTER TWO: A CARDINAL LISTENS TO THE ART 43 CHAPTER THREE: LEARNING BY WHEELS 89 CHAPTER FOUR: TREES OF KNOWLEDGE 127 CHAPTER FIVE: CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE 149 CHAPTER SIX: ARCHIVE OF AN IMPOSSIBLE SAINT 183 BIBLIOGRAPHY 225 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! i ! Acknowledgements To Jesús R. Velasco for being the advisor that this dissertation needed, showing always unflinching support and unwavering patience. For showing me the path leading to Ramon Llull on a research trip to the Biblioteca Nacional de España during the summer of 2011. For accompanying the process of writing and encouraging me not to shy away from difficult questions and to look past the collection of data to formulate hypotheses that would make this work a worthy contribution. To Seth Kimmel for making me think harder about the boundaries between intellectual and institutional history. To Alessandra Russo for making me write about the ways in which images think and for her generosity accepting to be out on a limb as a reader. To Karl Steel and Annick Louis for their participation in the reading committee. To Fernando Bouza for his generosity and advice during the months leading to the defense. My background in medieval and early modern studies would have been far poorer had I not had the opportunity to follow classes taught by Patricia Grieve, Dale Shuger, Consuelo Dutschke, and Pamela Smith. Working at Columbia LAIC came with the reward of having an unusually numerous group of fellow medieval and early modern graduate students: Lexie Cook, Miguel Ibañez Aristondo, Cecilia Velázquez, Rachel Stein, Pablo Justel, Ana Méndez ii ! Oliver, David Colmenares, Nicole Hughes, Nicole P. Basile, Alexandra Méndez, and Verónica Rodríguez Torres have seated for coffee, been co-conspirators, comrades, and sounding boards. They have all contributed in big and small ways to the ideas behind this dissertation. While I was trying to figure out the complexities of the Art of Ramon Llull and how to deal with writing about history of the book without being a historian, I was received with patience and encouragement by Fernando Domínguez Reboiras, Pedro Cátedra, Laura Fernández Fernández, Juan Carlos Conde, José Higuera Rubio, Rafael Ramis Barceló, Viola Tenge-Frau, Carla Compagno, and Francisco Díaz Marcilla. Their erudition and helpful comments are – hopefully– not lost in this dissertation. In Madrid, I found a generous group of colleagues and friends at the “Seminario Historia, Cultura y Memoria” at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, always willing to discuss about archives, cultural history, and the self-torturing nature of writing academic prose. Many thanks to Rubén Pallol, María García-Alix, Alejandro Pérez Olivares, and Carlos Hernández Quero for letting me hijack their meetings and accepting me as one of their own. Archives in Madrid were the basis of the research for this dissertation with quick stays in Salamanca, Freiburg, Oxford, and Lisbon. Many thanks to the librarians at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, Biblioteca Histórica Complutense, Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid), Biblioteca del Real Monasterio del Escorial (San Lorenzo del Escorial), Biblioteca de la Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca), Raimundus Lullus Institut (Freiburg), Bodleian Library (Oxford), and Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (Lisbon).