Editing Ramon Llull (section)

====Pseudo-Llull and alchemy<!--'Pseudo-Llull' redirects here-->====
There is a significant body of alchemical treatises falsely attributed to Llull. The two fundamental works of the corpus are the ''Testamentum'' and the ''Liber de secretis naturae seu de quinta essentia'' which both date to the fourteenth century.<ref>Pereira, Michela (1990). "Lullian Alchemy: Aspects and Problems of the corpus of Alchemical Works Attributed to Ramon Llull." Catalan Review, Vol. IV, 1-2: 41-54.</ref> Occultists such as [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]] and [[Giordano Bruno]] were inspired by these works.{{sfn|Yates|1964|pp=308-309}} Despite Llull's growing identification with alchemy and Neoplatonic mysticism, others (such as [[Giulio Pace]] and [[Johann Heinrich Alsted]]) were still interested in the Lullian ''Art'' as a universal logic, even in the seventeenth century when [[René Descartes|Descartes]] and [[Petrus Ramus|Ramus]] proposed competing systems.{{sfn|Hillgarth|1971|p=297}}

Numerous alchemical works have been attributed to Llull, but all of them are apocryphal.<ref>{{harvp|Pereira|1989}}: Pereira's inventory is currently maintained and expanded by the Base de Dades Ramon Llull project (Llull DB): http://www.ub.edu/llulldb/index.asp</ref> Since the 19th century, historical criticism has been well established as to the pseudepigraphic nature of the entire corpus, which in total exceeds one hundred works.<ref>Michela Pereira, (1987), “La leggenda di Lullo alchimista”, ''Estudios Lulianos'', 27, pp. 145-163. Id., (2013), “Il santo alchimista. Intrecci leggendari attorno a Raimondo Lullo”, ''Micrologus'', 21, pp. 471-515. Id., (2014), “Raimondo Lullo e l'alchimia: un mito tra storia e filologia”, ''Frate Francesco. Rivista di cultura francescana'', 80, pp. 517-523.</ref> Until the 1980s, historians of science thought that the oldest and most important texts were forgeries from the late 14th and early 15th centuries, with later additions. At the end of the 20th century, Professor Michela Pereira revealed an earlier textual matrix, dated around 1332, which has no pseudepigraphic intent in its genesis.<ref>Pereira & Spaggiari, (1999), ''Il Testamentum Alchemico'', Edizioni del Galluzzo, Tavarnuzze</ref> It is an original production by an unknown personage, whom Pereira calls ''magister Testamenti'' in reference to his most emblematic treatise. His original works would tentatively be the ''Testamentum'', ''Vademecum'' (Codicillus); ''Liber lapidarii'' (=Lapidarius abbreviatus); ''Liber de intentione alchimistarum''; ''Scientia de sensibilibus'' (=Ars intelectiva; Ars mágica); ''Tratatu de aquis medicinalius'' (=De secretis naturae early versions); ''De lapide maiori'' (=Apertorium); ''Questionario''; ''Liber experimentorum'' and an early version of the ''Compendium animae transmutationis metallorum'' (=Compendium super lapidum; Lapidarium). To this primordial nucleus other writings would have been added in the course of time. 

His contribution completely changed the way of analysing this germinal group of treatises, since for the first time it was revealed to us with concrete data that we were not dealing with conscious forgeries, but with original works, which transmit the ideas, the personality and the biographical data of a real alchemist. After compiling information about this personage based on what he explains, both in his ''Testamentum'' and in the other writings he cites as his own, he has been identified with a man called ''Raymundus de Terminis'' (cat. Ramon de Tèrmens).<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Azogue |number=9 |first=Michela |last=Pereira |title=Presentación de Azogue 9, monográfico sobre pseudolulismo alquímico |pages=VIII-X |trans-title=Monograph on Alchemical Pseudolulism |url=https://revistaazogue.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Azogue9presenta.pdf}}</ref> He would have been a Mallorcan who exercised the office of ''eques'' or ''miles'', trained as a ''magister in artibus'' or ''in legibus''. These types of people usually occupied administrative, mercantile jurisdiction, diplomatic or public order posts. He also had a knowledge of medicine, especially related to surgery, having trained in Montpellier. His activity is documented on the island of Corfu and in Albanian towns. He was a ''capitaneo'' or ''comitis'' in Berat and Vlorë, and he did representative work for Robert I of Naples and Philip I of Taranto in commercial operation throughout the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.

Among his best known works is the ''Liber de secretis natura sive de quinta essentia''. Ramon de Térmens himself was the author of several early versions or strata of this work from 1330-1332. However, the best known format, since it was the only one printed until now, is a pseudepigraphic recension dated around 1360-1380 and produced in a Catalan milieu, where some forgers endorsed the work to Ramon Llull.<ref>José Rodríguez Guerrero, “Nuevos Aportes para el Estudio del Liber de secretis naturae pseudoluliano”, ''Azogue'', 9, 2019-2023, pp. 284-415.</ref>

[[Terence McKenna]] mentioned Llull in his book ''Food of the Gods'', noting that the discovery of distilled [[Alcohol (chemistry)]] has been alternatively attributed to Llull. It is claimed that Llull distilled a brandy which he called ''aqua vini'' and was so awed by the discovery that he thought this discovery was a sign of the impending end of the world. It is said he described alcohol as "The taste of it exceedeth all other tastes and the smell of all other smells". McKenna prefaces his discussion of Llull by noting that little is known of him with certainty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mckenna |first=Terence |title=Food of the Gods |date=1992 |publisher=Penguin Random House |year=1992 |isbn=9780712670388 |pages=168}}</ref>