Llull’s Assumptions of the Prima Figura
Essay
By
Jesslyn Christabel Sugiharto
BADC2B
20518
Supervisor: Hera
Presented to the Faculty of Design
School of Design Communication
LASALLE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS
In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the
Cultural and Contextual Studies 1A
Singapore
08 April 2022
2307 words
Sugiharto, 2
Llull’s Assumptions of the Prima Figura
In the contemporary world, it is of utmost importance to be informed of surrounding
context and how thinkers past and present shape a person’s view of the world. Basic
assumptions taken for granted in the present may not be the default in times past when
earlier ideas were formulated, and it will not be default for future thinkers who shall
influence logic. How should we analyse the Prima Figura, a work of historical significance
with sensitivity towards its context?
fig. 1 and 2:
The Prima Figura from a page of the Ars Brevis, with a modernized diagram by the Centre
de Documentació Ramon Llull, University of Barcelona.
The Prima Figura is a part of Ramon Llull’s logic system, “The Art” which has
influenced much of future thinkers, epistemologists and programmers. It is a part of the
book Ars Brevis, a distillation wherein Llull has sourced the most necessary parts of his
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invention and compiled them into nine basic principles that can be easily understood by
someone of his time:
• B: goodness
• C: greatness,
• D: eternity/duration,
• E: power/authority,
• F: wisdom/instinct,
• G: will/appetite,
• H: virtue,
• I: truth
• K: glory
The stated intention of The Art is “to present in a single book everything that can be
thought [...] as well as everything that can be said [...]. From the binary combination of
terms in this universal grammar, conceived as general principles, it would be possible to
find a solution to any question the human mind can pose. As an art of questioning and
getting answers to a variety of matters, it is applicable to all the sciences.” (Vega, 57) Thus,
the reader is invited to apply this circular chart to any particular statement they so desire,
However, to completely benefit from the insights he has gained from his experience,
we must adopt a less straightforward perception of his principles. According to Baxandall’s
Period Eye method of analysis, we are forced to confront how our perception of works from
a time period rely on a presumed set of basic assumptions; that things as basic as
geometry to sociopolitical and religious context is a given. The skill of the creator — the
basic knowledge common to their surroundings — and the skill of the viewer may not align
completely or at all. In certain cases, a more specialized type of knowledge is needed to
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perceive certain aspects in artwork, which we are more aware of in comparison to basic
assumptions we learn from childhood (36-37)
To view Llull’s principles through the Period Eye, one must perceive three basic
tenets of The Art that was once considered to be absolute truths, as well as his intention
when he first penned the philosophy as a whole. One is the existence of a singular, good,
eternal god. This is greatly influenced by the environment he was born and raised in; the
Kingdom of Majorca in the 13th century was a melting pot of three different religious ideals
and all of them Abrahamic. First was Islamic influence due to its earlier inclusion in the
territory of the Islamic territories of Al-Andalus, as well as Jewish religious traditions being
the jumping board for Christianity, an institution comprising of both the monarch and
religious authorities. The Jewish diaspora would be a common sight in Medieval Europe as
well; in this manner Llull would be surrounded in a world which firmly held religion as a
necessary way of life.
The educational background he was provided with had also not distinguished
between science, philosophy and theology to the extent our contemporary perception had;
despite this there was already some recognition towards separating some aspects of it.
“Natural philosophy, as taught in the arts faculties of the universities, was seen as an
essential area of study in its own right and was considered necessary for almost every area
of study. It was an independent field, separated from theology, and enjoyed a good deal of
intellectual freedom as long as it was restricted to the natural world. ” (Grant) This is
demonstrated in the second and third principle which are more familiar to our stereotypical
view of logic. “the existence of a physical world according to Greek science” and “the
concepts of Aristotelian logic and metaphysics”. These are the foundations of our
contemporary understanding of science and logic as we know it, especially Aristotle’s body
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of work in Categories (basic designations of subjects, substances etc.), On Interpretation
(about truth conditions), and Physics (about the physical world around us).
Then, we must reexamine the purpose, circumstances and the structures that
surrounded its creation. The Art was originally developed to convert heretics, a massive
talking point of importance in Europe at the time. Llull, being a Christian who received a
revelation and pivoted from his earlier secular literary and musical work as a troubadour,
was a fervent supporter of the idea. The fact that he added power/authority (E) as one of
the principles in his Prima Figura is a testament to how important thinkers such as him
viewed the significance of traditional authority figures and power structures in maintaining
the religious systems of the time period, in contrast to the secularized governments of the
West in the 21st century. His experience as an ex-seneschal of Majorca granted him the
additional insight of the political system.
In his lifetime the Italian maritime republics, the Papacy, important royal courts such
as the French were the political pillars of Europe and Christendom. Llull recognised the
importance of supporting these institutions to achieve his greater goal of conversion
through knowledge. “In a series of treatises dedicated to Phillip IV, the Fair, (written in Paris
between 1309 and 1311), he acknowledged clearly not only the pre-eminence of France in
the West, but also the right of the King to intervene in Church affairs as a ‘doctor fidei
christianae’ (‘doctor of the Christian faith’)….Not only did he want Phillip, in accord with the
papacy, to fund colleges for the teaching of eastern languages, but also to fuse the existing
military orders into a single one, ‘quia rex est defensor fidei’ (‘because he is king and
defender of the faith’).” (Hillgarth, 176-177, translated) Applying the diagram of the Prima
Figura into this scenario, we can see from this that Llull earnestly believed that power
should intertwine with goodness and virtue, as well as the truth.
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The particular focus on Eastern languages stated therein is also an obvious bent
towards Arabic influences and how pertinent they were to his process — despite his earlier
stated insistence on converting heretics Llull eagerly borrowed such aspects as the zairja, a
device originating in the Arabic world as a divination tool. “Many distinguished people have
shown great interest in using [the zā’irajah] for supernatural information, with the help of the
well-known enigmatic operation that goes with it.” (Ibn Khaldun, 238) As previously stated
therein, Llull would have much exposure to such methods due to his Spanish origins, and
saw fit to convert the basic functions into a logic-based system instead of its original
fortune-telling purpose.
fig. 3 and 4: Comparison between an application of Llull’s diagram from the 15th century
and a zairja “key poem” from 11th century Seville scholar Mālik bin Wuhayb
The methodology wherein he would encourage the reader to utilize the Prima Figura is
equally familiar; “The algorithmic artefact of the zā’irja, constructed from paper and driven
by a human computor, processed symbols guided by rules. The symbols originated from
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three different alphabets, sets of signs that seamlessly converted between letters and
numerals and belonged to two principally different ways of counting. During the period
under consideration, from 1000 to 1400, two pre-positional and one positional system co-
existed and the transition to the latter was about to take place.” (Link, 218) One can see the
final result of this application on both Llull’s system and a Spanish example of the utilization
of the zairja by Mālik bin Wuhayb. In this way we can apply the principles of the Prima
Figura as well to Llull’s behavior; he demonstrates his belief of wisdom/instinct as well as a
selective perspective towards the truth of divine powers (power/authority) in the manner
wherein he gleefully discards divine influence when it is not of his religion, but earnestly
attributes his efforts to convert people into Christianity as the reason for his invention of The
Art. This hypocrisy is one that is prevalent in educated circles, as Averroism was a very
prominent movement in academia in the time period despite the strong Christian influence
of the clergy on academia.
Considering these previous points, the average reader of Llull’s works would be able
to take the statements endorsed in The Art’s logic system at face value, and to assume that
such power systems would be permanently in place. Baxandall notes this about the
average Medieval consumer of intellectual pursuits; “ —the patronizing classes, one might
say. In effect this means a rather small proportion of the population; merchantile and
professional men, acting as members of confraternities or as individuals, princes and their
courtiers, the senior members of religious houses. The peasants and the urban poor play a
very small part […]“ (38-39) These individuals would be concerned about maintaining their
status quo and would support intellectuals endorsing such ideas.
Another roadblock to accessing a copy of the Ars Brevis itself would be the financial
burden on commissioning such a book, as well as the difficulty for Llull himself to get his
works published. “Every stage in the creation of a medieval book required intensive labor,
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sometimes involving the collaboration of entire workshops. Parchment for the pages had to
be made from the dried hides of animals, cut to size and sewn into quires; inks had to be
mixed, pens prepared, and the pages ruled for lettering. A scribe copied the text from an
established edition, and artists might then embellish it with illustrations, decorated initials,
and ornament in the margins.” (Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters) Only after the
invention of the printing press would later affordable editions of Llull’s books using
woodblock illustrations and movable type printing would be published. As such, to have
some interaction with Llull’s ideas in the first place, the period reader would have to
possess some privileges that would support inclinations towards certain ideologies such as
monarchism, sexism and a favorable perspective towards the divinity. This allows another
aspect of the Period Eye to set in; the discriminations regarding aspects in the work that the
viewer would be able to perceive, as well as subconscious ideas that prevail unless pointed
out.
As one of the channels to access Llull’s books on The Art would be through
educational institutions, it did not have a widespread positive reaction across major
universities in Europe, but did see distribution in Paris and several other major locations. As
seen from the previous paragraph, royalty would be the chief sponsor of such institutions.
Despite not being a part of these educational institutions himself, he was undoubtedly
grateful for its existence and regarded it as a precious resource. “Ramon Llull’s Art was
conceived during the golden age of scholasticism by a thinker who had not received
academic training, but who had at his disposal the tools needed to gain access to the
knowledge of the world of the universities (encyclopedias, theological, medical, and legal
treatises, various compendia) and who had lived in university cities such as Montpellier or
Paris. The fact that the Art is regarded as a complete and unique system of knowledge, a
‘scientia universalis’, shows at the same time Ramon’s debts to scholasticism and the gulf
which separated the two systems.” (Ruiz Simon, translated) Thus, despite his separate
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framework from the popular academic traditions of his time, he had the necessary
motivation to support these assumptions.
After considering all of these aspects, what about the perspective of the
contemporary twenty-first century reader? It is clear that our world is a much different one
to the Majorca where Llull puts pen to paper; the Western world has gone through a
turbulent process of reexaminations of power structures, including the Spanish political
world’s introduction of the Enlightenment due to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, to the
rise of other political movements such as democracy, fascism and communism that offered
Spain different types of governing structures in the Civil War. In terms of divinity, we are
forced to confront the existence of modern atheism and the increasing recognition of
polytheism, animism and other cultural modes of divine worship. This has weakened the
influence of the Catholic Church, not helped by the multiple fractures of Christianity since
the emergence of Martin Luther. The history of the world has also taught us that nothing is
eternal but change; whatever institutions and societal structures Llull ascribes to eternity
could change even further in the future to an entity that would seem alien even to our
contemporary view. When we utilize its multiple alphabetical sections we are forced to stop
and take a look at what The Art has to offer us. Due to being an early pioneer in computing,
programmers would implement his logic conditions in a setting which he would have never
imagined; the digital scope enables us to test logic and create the impossible in virtual
scopes.
In conclusion, comparing the way logic and society itself is run in 13th century Spain
influenced the way Ramon Llull decided upon the tenets of his Prima Figura in a way a
modern thinker could never have done. Analyzing his works in a framework that involves
more than the simple facts of his life and the principles he has utilized has allowed us to
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take a look at his motivations and the implicit biases that comes with the creation of such a
method of analysis in the medieval era.
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Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amador Vega, Ramon Llull and the Secret of Life [2002], New York. 2003
Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters. The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages,
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. October 2001. https://
www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/book/hd_book.htm
Hillgarth, J.N. Spain and the Mediterranean in the later Middle Ages : studies in political and
intellectual history, Routledge, 2003
Link, David. "Scrambling T-R-U-T-H: Rotating Letters as a Material Form of Thought", in:
Variantology 4. On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies in the Arabic–
Islamic World, eds. Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus, Cologne: König, 2010
Ibn Khaldūn, Abd ar-Rahmān. The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History, trans. Franz
Rosenthal, 3 vols. New York, 1958
Grant, E. (12 December 1990). Science and Religion in the Middle Ages. Speech presented
at "Science and Religion in the Middle Ages," in Harvard University, Cambridge
Ruiz Simon, Josep Maria, L’Art de Ramon Llull i la teoria escolàstica de la ciència,
Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, 1999.
IMAGE REFERENCES
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Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, University of Barcelona. Ars Brevis. https://
quisestlullus.narpan.net/en/ars-brevis
Unknown, copy of Llull, Ramon. A. Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem XV Century.
Palma, BP, 1031. Biblioteca Virtual del Patrimonio Bibliográfico. Spain. Ministerio de
Educación, Cultura y Deporte.
Link, David (2010). "Scrambling T-R-U-T-H: Rotating Letters as a Material Form of
Thought", in: Variantology 4. On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies in
the Arabic–Islamic World, eds. Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus (Cologne: König,
2010)
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APPENDIX
Appendix should be reference in-text in a parenthesis (refer to appendix A)
Organise the appendix in the order that the images/figures/graphs are referenced in-text.
