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Nicolaus Cusanus and Ramon Lull: A Comparison of Three Texts on Human Knowledge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 February 2016
Extract
Although the rich collection of Lull's works in the library of Nicholas of Kues testifies eloquently to the debt the German cardinal owed to the Catalan polymath, Ramon Lull, the extent of the cardinal's indebtedness was not properly appreciated until the study of Eusebio Colomer in Nikolaus von Kues und Raimund Llull (Berlin, 1961). The depth of Cusanus's engagement with Lull manifests itself especially in the excerpts from Lull's works made by him (now preserved in MS Cus. 83, fol. 93r–102r of the cardinal's library, and edited by Colomer, Nikolaus von Kues, 125–86). These excerpts have recently been reedited by Ulrich Roth and the original texts of most of the works of Lull that were excerpted by Cusanus published in the series, Raimundi Lulli opera latina (28 vols., Palma de Mallorca-Turnhout, 1957–2003).
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References
1 Marx, Jakob, Verzeichnis der Handschriften-Sammlung des Hospitals zu Cues (Trier, 1905; repr. Frankfurt a. M., 1966). Cusanus's collection of Lull's works includes MSS 81–88, 37 (item 2), 118 (item 1).Google Scholar
2 Roth, Ulli, ed., Cusanus Texte: III. Marginalien, 4. Raimundus Lullus. Die Exzerptensammlung aus Schriften des Raimundus Lullus im Codex Cusanus 83 (Heidelberg, 1997), 24–88.Google Scholar
3 Cf. ibid., 12–14.Google Scholar
4 Ottaviano, Carmelo, “Il perduto ‘Liber de potentia, obiecto et actu’ de Lullo in un manuscrito romano,” Miscel.lànea lul.liana (Barcelona, 1935) 97–108 = Estudis franciscans 46 (1934): 257–68. The complete transcription of the text from the Rome manuscript by the regretted Manuel Bauzà, formerly member of the Raimundus Lullus Institut, Freiburg, has generally been followed below.Google Scholar
5 Hillgarth, J. N., Ramon Lull and Lullism in Fourteenth-Century France (Oxford, 1971), 354–55.Google Scholar
6 The text is printed in Lohr, Charles H. et al., ed., Raimundi Lulli opera latina, Suppl. 1: Breviculum seu Electorium parvum Migerii, Thomae (Le Myésier), CCM 77 (Turnhout, 1990), 123–73 (“Liber de potentia, obiecto et actu”). Hillgarth discusses the Breviculum at length in his Ramon Lull (446–67 and passim).Google Scholar
7 Hillgarth, , Ramon Lull, 339 no. 68 (at one time in Paris, BNF lat. 16615; cf. ibid., 331). Cf. Bonner, Anthony, trans., Selected Works of Ramón Llull (1232–1316), 2 vols. (Princeton, 1985), 1274 no. III.26.Google Scholar
8 The colophon preserved in the Roman manuscript (fol. 609v) reads as follows: “Raimundus hunc librum in civitate Romana finivit. Et ex tunc non proposuit aliquem librum compilare … excepta Arte memoriae et uno libro De sermonibus, quos faciet.” Google Scholar
9 The works of Lull cited in De potentia are: Tabula generalis 1293 (I.1.0, II.5.1); De affatu 1294 (II.3.6); Arbor scientiae 1295/96 (II.3.6, II.5.1); De anima rationali 1296 (II.5.0, II.5.1); Proverbia Raimundi 1296 (II.3.6).Google Scholar
10 Nicolai de Cusa Opera omnia 16. Sermones 1 (1430–1441) , ed. Haubst, Rudolf et al. (Hamburg, 1991), 12.Google Scholar
