Ramon Llull (1232-1316) composed The Book of the Order of Chivalry between 1274 and 1276 as both an instrument of reform and an agent for change. His aim was to create and codify the rules for a unilateral Order of Chivalry. Loyalty to the Order, coupled with common sense, religious faith, education, and martial prowess, were in his view the keys to victory in the Holy Land and the Reconquista. The book was an immediate success and widely disseminated across Europe, eventually reaching a medieval English audience, though through a fanciful translation of a translation by William Caxton, in...

Ramon Llull was a highly original medieval writer and thinker. Direct contact with Moslem culture during his early years in Majorca, soon after the Christian reconquest, furnished him with a vision of the -Other- quite unique among medieval European intellectuals. It was not, however, until his thirties that he abandoned the courtly life, immersed himself in theological and philosophical studies and began his sustained campaign of conversion. He travelled on many occasions throughout Europe in search of royal and papal support and undertook several missions to north Africa, in the course of...

The Book of the Order of Chivalry was written in Catalan by Ramon Llull between 1274 and 1276 and is one of the author s earliest works. After his death, it achieved a wide dissemination throughout Europe in part because it was considered the theoretical manual on knighthood par excellence. The book was written in Catalan for knights who might not have a knowledge of Latin. Llull devotes his treatise to the definition of the duties of a perfect knight. In addition, he is interested in delving into the religious and moral aspects of chivalry as well as in trying to reform this...