Llull, Ramon

Catalan scholar and mystic. He began his career at the court of James I of Aragón (1212–1276) in Mallorca. He produced treatises on theology, mysticism, and chivalry in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic. His Ars magna was a mechanical device, a kind of prototype computer, by which all problems could be solved by manipulating fundamental Aristotelian categories.

He also wrote the prose romance Blanquerna in his native Catalan, the first novel written in a Romance language.

In later life he became a Franciscan, and died a martyr at Bugia, Algeria.