Paris

RAMON LLULL IN PARIS

Ramon Llull travelled at least four times to Paris. The first visit takes place between 1287 and 1289, during which he writes Félix. The city attracts him as the mecca of the western wisdom of that era, where the most famous university in Europe is located. In the abbey of Sain-Denise broadcasts his Art to the scepticism of his audience; among them, predominantly, followers of the thinking of Averroes, Andalusian philosopher and doctor who influenced the latin medieval thinking. While Llull was trying to prove by reason the truths of faith, the averroists denied the need for it.

He made another attempt at teaching in 1295. He goes back to the French capital between 1297 and 1299, working to get the support of King Philip IV the Fair to his cause and without stopping writing against averroism. To this period belong L’arbre de filosofia d’amor (Tree of philosophy of love) and Lo cant de Ramon (Ramon’s song), two of his most inspired mystics books. The last stay of Llull in Paris takes place between November 1309 and September 1311, when he writes Vita coetane, considered one of the most loyal and intimate biographies of the European Middle Ages: it was dictated in Latin to a friar of the Charterhouse of Vauvert (in the current Luxembourg Gardens) and later transcribed into Catalan.

Ramon Llull obtains in La Sorbonne the “Master of Arts”, equivalent to a doctorate. Besides, his work Ars brevis obtains, in a document dated 10^th of February 1310, the approval of forty members of the University of Paris, teachers and bachelors in arts and medicine.

PARIS, THEN AND NOW

Paris, situated beside the River Seine, has been for centuries, not only the capital of France but one of the most important cities of Europe. The historic heart of the city is located in City Island (Ille de la Cité), where stands the cathedral of Notre-Damme. In 52 BC Paris was taken from the parisii (Gauls) by the Romans, who dominated the city until 508 AD, when it went into the hands of the Merovingians. During the Middle Ages it was one of the most active, politically and culturally, cities in the continent.

The cultural heritage of Paris is huge, not in vain the old town along the Seine was considered World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1991. We will highlight here only some of the monuments related to the Late Middle Ages. There are few of the Romanesque art: part of the bell tower and of the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (10^th and 12^th centuries). As for the gothic, stand out the church of Saint-Denis (12^th and 13^th centuries) and the cathedral of Notre-Damme, begun in 1163 and completed in 1345, with its twin towers nearly seventy meters high; the Sainte-Chapelle, known for its stained glass, is the work of king Louis IX the Saint and was consecrated in 1248.