Person: Llull, Ramon
Ramon Llull was a Majorcan philosopher whose logical methods influenced Leibniz.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- Llull left Majorca in about 1265 after he experienced mystical visions of Christ on the Cross.
- Llull's main work is the Ars magna (1305-08), comprising of a number of treatises including The Tree of Knowledge and The Book of the Ascent and Descent of the Intellect.
- Llull used logic and mechanical methods involving symbolic notation and combinatorial diagrams to relate all forms of knowledge.
- According to legend, Llull was stoned in North Africa at Bejaia (Bougie) or Tunis and died a martyr at sea before reaching Majorca, where he was buried.
- Llull's reduction of Christianity to rational discussion, in which he attempted to prove the dogmas of the Church by logical argument, did not find favour after his death.
- The Roman Catholic Church did however pardon Llull more quickly than Galileo, since he was venerated in the 19th century.
- Llull's work is important for a number of reasons, one certainly being the great influence it had on Leibniz.
- One of Llull's early works on chivalry was translated into English and thought important enough by the early printer William Caxton that he edited and printed the work.
- Llull's mystical writings such as The Book of the Lover and the Beloved are still popular and his work has an important role in Catalan culture.
Born 1235, Majorca (now Spain). Died 1316, (probably) Tunis, Tunisia.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin Spain, Statistics
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
- Github:
-
- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
