Dues dècades divulgant l’obra de Ramon Llull

Each volume in Blanquerna is dedicated, from different perspectives, to the publication of studies on Ramon Lull and lullism, and on cultural contexts in which both phenomena take place. From Els fons manuscrits lul·lians de Mallorca, by Llorenç Pérez Martínez, to Cerverí de Girona: un trobador al servei de Pere el Gran, by Miriam Cabré, through Diccionari d’escriptors lul·listes, by Sebastià Trias Mercant, and El diàleg en Ramon Llull: l’expressió literària com a estratègia apologètica, by Roger Friedlein, which received the Crítica Serra d’Or Award in 2012.

“Ramon Llull (Mallorca, 1232 - Tunis, 1316) is the most creative and prolific of Catalan intellectuals. Modern Lullian studies have rescued his complex figure as a thinker, writer and apostle from the endless confusions that made him a madman, an alchemist or a heretic. If he is increasingly treated with greater respect, rigour and precision throughout the world, it is thanks to contributions such as those made for over twenty years by the Blaquerna collection", says Albert Soler, co-director of the only monographic collection devoted to studies of Llull, his thought, his work and his historical and cultural context.

Regarding the collection, Soler notes that "it has promoted the writing and materialised the publication of titles that have become inevitable for international Lullian studies and that otherwise would not exist". Blaquerna not only brings together works by internationally renowned authors such as J. N. Hillgarth, Anthony Bonner, Harvey Hames and Roger Friedlein, but has also made available to the reading public in Catalan reference works originally published in German or English, and has brought together the contributions of the four international congresses that have been devoted to the figure of Llull.

"The variety of books that have been published is also an important feature of the collection", adds Albert Soler. "There are two dictionaries, one which brings together the important wealth of self-definitions which Llull developed over the course of his work, and another bibliographical one on Llullist writers. Two further studies illustrate the context in which Llull wrote his work and thought: one on medieval science in Catalan and the other on Cerverí of Girona. And two volumes on Lullian documentation: a diplomat and an inventory of Majorcan manuscript collections”.

The latest title to be published in the collection is Estudis lul·lians (1978-2019), by Anthony Bonner, which brings together almost thirty articles by one of the leading specialists on Ramon Llull. Edited by Lola Badia and Eugènia Gisbert, the work reaffirms the reading of the opus luliano that Bonner has always defended: Art is the essence that makes it possible to understand and interpret the bewildering multiplicity and variation of the 260 titles of Llull, who remained faithful to his programme of reordering the world and Christian apostolate during forty years of unceasing production. Anthony Bonner, a prestigious North American Llullist, holds honorary doctorates from the University of Barcelona (1995), the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (1994) and the University of the Balearic Islands (2016).