Ramon Llull and Ausiàs March: Medieval Catalan Philosophers, Poets and Missionaries

Ramon Llull

Life

Ramon Llull was born in Mallorca in 1232, the son of a noble family from Barcelona. He served as seneschal at the court of King James I of Aragon, lived a comfortable life, married, and had two children. In 1265, after a profound spiritual crisis, he decided to abandon his worldly life and dedicate himself to the service of God and the conversion of unbelievers.

He began the first stage of his intellectual service in defense of the faith and the spread of Christianity. Throughout his life he worked tirelessly toward three objectives: the conversion of infidels, the reform of Christian-based education and the founding of monasteries where future missionaries could be trained. He died in 1316.

Work

His prolific output (243 works) covers many different fields of knowledge: philosophy, theology, medicine, physics, astronomy, alchemy, and more.

He wrote in four languages:

• Latin: because it was the language of culture.
• Arabic: he understood that to reach the infidels he had to speak to them in their own language.
• Provençal: most of his poetry.
• Catalan: he gave priority to this language.

Llull was a pioneer among the first European authors to write in Catalan, a choice that many of his contemporaries did not share.

Important works:

Gentile, Book of the Lover and the Beloved, Blanquerna, The Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men, and Song of Love.

Pyramus and Thisbe

According to Roman mythology, Pyramus and Thisbe were the first of the Babylonian lovers. They fell in love but their families opposed their union. One day, they agreed to escape and meet at a mulberry tree outside the city. Thisbe arrived first, but when a lioness approached, she hid and fled, dropping her veil, which was stained with the blood of a victim. When Pyramus arrived and found the veil, he believed Thisbe had been killed, and in despair he took his own life with his dagger. Thisbe returned, found his body and, grief-stricken, took the same dagger and died at his side.

Aeneas and Dido

Set in the first Mediterranean tradition, this is the best-known love story of the Aeneid by Virgil. The legendary queen of Carthage, Dido, welcomes the Trojan refugee Aeneas when his troops are shipwrecked on the coast of Carthage. Dido falls in love with him, but Aeneas, following the will of the gods, decides to leave to found the new Trojan city. Dido laments that she cannot live without his love, and when she realizes he will not stay, she takes her own life.

Flores and Blancaflor

Blancaflor appears in the narrative of the first French version, Floire et Blancheflor: two young people destined to love each other since their birth are separated by religious and social differences.

Tristan and Isolde

The story of Tristan and Isolde is a tale of courtly love. Isolde, the first noblewoman of her society, writes her own poems about courtly love, despite already being married.

Ginebra and Lancelot

Lancelot is the most singular Arthurian knight, who falls in love with Ginebra, the wife of King Arthur, and with whom he lives a passionate love affair.

Ausiàs March

Life

Ausiàs March was born in Gandia in 1397 and died in València in 1459. He was a falconer, knight and nobleman, and like many of his time, he was a scholar and participated in military campaigns alongside King Alfonso the Magnanimous in Italy. From 1425 onward, he withdrew from military life to devote himself to writing, establishing himself as the grandfather of the most important poets of Europe.

Work

His work comprises 128 poems, which are classified into three groups:

• Songs of love: express love conceived as idealized passion. The identity of the lady in the poems is hidden under a symbolic name: Plena de seny, Llir entre cards, or Amor, amor.
• Songs of death: they express pain for the loss of a beloved person and death as a solution when the poet is rejected by his lady.
• Moral songs: they reflect on different sentiments from a philosophical perspective.
• Spiritual songs: prayers in which the poet asks God for help and begs him to take him to the grace of the Lord.
• Songs of circumstances: a set of poems on diverse themes.