Lully, Raymond

Ramon Lull (anglicized: Raymond Lully) (1235-1315) was a Spanish-Catalan philosopher and missionary, born in Palma, Majorca. One of the first Europeans to advocate the study of the Arabic language, he founded a college of Arabic study in Majorca in 1276. He made three missionary visits to Africa and was stoned to death on the last for preaching against Islam. His followers, the Lullists, combined a religious mysticism with a belief in alchemy. Lully was said to have changed base metal to gold, called 'aurum Raymundi' in his honor. His most important work, the "Ars Magna" or "The Great Art," was a defense of Christianity against the teaching of Abu-Al-Walid Muhammad Ibn-Ahmad Ibn-Rushd (1126-1198), commonly called Averroes. Averroes was a Muslim Spanish-Arab philosopher, jurist, and physician who held the heretical view that philosophy was as important as religion. Spain was at that time going through a religious war as the influence of Moorish immigrants endangered the religious status quo of the country. The increasing influence of Arab religion, science, and philosophy created a backlash which gave rise to the Spanish Inquisition. Lovecraft refers to Lull's Ars Magna et Ultima, in Zetner's edition, which could be found in the library of Joseph Curwen.

("The Case of Charles Dexter Ward")

See also: Ars Magna et Ultima

Read the Francis Barrett sketch of Raymond Lully in The Magus HERE