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Source: "Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 8" by Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.)
LULL, RAMON (b. Ciutat de Mallorques [now Palma de
Mallorca], ca. 1232; d. Ciutat de Mallorques [?], January/March [?] 1316), polymathy.
A Catalan encyclopedist, Lull invented an "art of
finding truth" which inspired Leibniz's dream of a universal algebra four
centuries later. His contributions to science are understandable only when
examined in their historical and theological context. The son of a Catalan
nobleman of the same name who participated in the reconquest of Mallorca from
the Moors, Lull was brought up with James the Conqueror's younger son (later
crowned James 11 of Mallorca), whose seneschal he became. About six years after
his marriage to Blanca Picany (1257) he was converted from a courtly to a
religious way of life, following a series of visions of Christ crucified. He
never took holy orders (although he may have become a Franciscan tertiary in
1295), but his subsequent career was dominated by three religious resolutions:
to become a missionary and attain martyrdom, to establish colleges where
missionaries would study oriental languages, and to provide them with "the
best book[s] in the world against the errors of the infidel."{1}
