THE JONES & RAMON LLULL, THE ART OF LEARNING

Víctor Jones & the Lullian Wheels, the first computers

The Jones are still in Hogwarts enjoying the world of magic, spells and potions. Today, they have assisted to a Minerva McGonagall's conference about Ramon Llull, one the most important European figures during the 13 century thanks to his knowledge in Philosophy, Teology, Science and Languages.

The Grandma has offered her point of view talking about S'Estaca, a wonderful possession in Majorca where Llull created a Language School joining the best students and masters of the century in an effort to transmit values and knowledge to arrive to be better people, in particular, and better societies in general.

More informarion: Quis est Lullus?

The Ramon Llull's idea of using communication and dialogue between cultures and religions to avoid wars and conflicts converts him in one of the most brilliant and pacifist minds of his time. His influence in all kind of knowledge is demonstrated, especially in computers, where he's considerated the first creator of a computing language and nowadays recognized like the Computer Science patron. 

In addition, The Grandma has also talked about the importance of salt and fennel in Sant Boi and Majorca's history.

More information: History Computers

Cristina Bean-Jones in Brecha de Rolando, Ordesa

After this interesting conference, the family has revised some aspects of grammar to improve little details, in this case with The Articles and the position of the adjectives in historical texts.

Following with the idea of creating compositions, The Jones have created some circular writings paying attention to the  structure rules and they have practised some activities to eliminate information in searching of the true one. 

They have also read some interesting information about Ordesa, in Aragon and Joaquín Jones has explained some characteristics of the world maps and their scales.

More information: Daily Mail

 

Joaquín Jones and a fascinating old World Map

Finally, the family has played Cluedo before rescuing Susana Jones, who was locked in a small red English-style cabin box inside a picture. 

The rescue has been possible thanks to Owlie, Claudia Jones's owl, who is a clever big white animal, with a great sense of orientation and a perfect hunter into the dark places, which was adopted from El Cim d'Àligues in The Montseny.

More information: Cim d'Àligues

Ramon Llull (1232-1315) was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show his work to have predated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Leibniz.

Claudia Jones & Owlie in El Cim d'Àligues

Llull was born into a wealthy family in Palma, the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Majorca. James I of Aragon founded Majorca to integrate the recently conquered territories of the Balearic Islands into the Crown of Aragon. 

Llull's parents had come from Catalonia as part of the effort to colonize the formerly Almohad ruled island. As the island had been conquered militarily, the Muslim population who had not been able to flee the conquering Christians had been enslaved, even though they still constituted a significant portion of the island's population.

More information: Ramon Llull Routes

In 1257 he married Blanca Picany, with whom he had two children, Domènec and Magdalena. Although he formed a family, he lived what he would later call the licentious and wasteful life of a troubadour.

The Grandma visiting Ramon Llull in La Real, Palma

Llull served as tutor to James II of Aragon and later became Seneschal -the administrative head of the royal household- to the future King James II of Majorca, a relative of his wife.

In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book he was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his Art, which would become the motivation behind most of his life's efforts.

He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education at major universities in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean (Aramaic) at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca as well as at the Papal Court.

More information: The Ibizan

 

Ramon Llull with Samanta & Marta Jones

In 1315, he died at home in Palma. It can be documented that Llull was buried at the Church of Saint Francis in Mallorca by March 1316.

Llull was extremely prolific, writing a total of more than 250 works in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic, and often translating from one language to the others. While almost all of his writings after the revelation on Mt. Randa connect to his Art in some way, he wrote on diverse subjects in a variety of styles and genres.
The romantic novel Blanquerna is widely considered the first major work of literature written in Catalan, and possibly the first European novel.

His first elucidation of the Art was in Art Abreujada d'Atrobar Veritat (The Abbreviated Art of Finding Truth), in 1290. The version used 16 figures presented as complex, complementary trees, while the system of the Ars Magna featured only four, including one which combined the other three.

More information: CCCB

Hello? It's me. Hello from the other siiiiiide...

This figure, a Lullian Circle, took the form of a paper machine operated by rotating concentrically arranged circles to combine his symbolic alphabet, which was repeated on each level. These combinations were said to show all possible truth about the subject of inquiry. 

Llull based this notion on the idea that there were a limited number of basic, undeniable truths in all fields of knowledge, and that everything about these fields of knowledge could be understood by studying combinations of these elemental truths.

The method was an early attempt to use logical means to produce knowledge. Llull hoped to show that Christian doctrines could be obtained artificially from a fixed set of preliminary ideas. For example, the most essential table listed the attributes of God: goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth and glory. Llull knew that all believers in the monotheistic religions—whether Jews, Muslims or Christians—would agree with these attributes, giving him a firm platform from which to argue.

Download How to Create Compositions

Arguing is a fantastic method to learn new things, discover new points of view and realize that there isn't only a real truth, something that one family works every day: The Jones.

Imagination imagines at night that which is not daytime. 

Ramon Llull