Raymond Lully
Book of Wonders1289
Wonder my son, because everything is wonder.
Reference
Ramon Llull / Raymond Lully / Raimundus Lullus / Book of wonders (title original in Catalan: Fèlix o Llibre de les meravelles).
In the Catalan “Obres essencials” (Essential works) of Raymond Luly, published by Editorial Selecta on 1957, this quote appears in page 415.
The Book of Wonders (Llibre de les Meravelles) is a work of the “Doctor Illuminatus”, written in Paris between 1287 and 1289. It is a doctrinal work that combines narration and dialogue between teacher and disciple, as was common in middle-aged teaching, specially in Neoplatonic models of discourse. Throughout the ten sections of the play, the protagonist, Fèlix (who is presented as if he were Llull’s son), travels the world, discovering the distance between the divine order of creation and the attitude that in fact humans have. At the same time, however, he meets hermits and philosophers who bring him into contact with all branches of thirteenth-century knowledge, from God and hell to nature, describing Ramon Lully’s worldview, through the thread of the wonder, an intrinsicy human faculty.
From Ramon Llull’s immense literary work, 260 works have been preserved, originaly written in Catalan, Occitan, Arabic and Latin.
