more than six centuries have passed since this little majorcan classic was written, and, so far as i can find, it has never once been translated into english. such an omission can only be explained by our comparative ignorance of the treasures of spanish mysticism, and perhaps in part by the fact that lull wrote, not in castilian, but in a little-known though beautiful idiom, that of catalonia.

it would have been attractive to reproduce the original version of the book together with this translation, and even more so to have translated the whole of blanquerna, of which it forms a part. i hope that both these projects may be realised in the future, together with the translations of (at least) els cent noms de deu, el desconort, and some of the short hymns and poems. but it seemed best to begin by making known some of lull’s best work to as wide a circle of readers as possible. accordingly, while following, as a rule, the oldest text (which is of the fourteenth century) i have not scrupled to add to my translation a few passages found only in the editions of paris (1505) and valencia (1521), which illuminate the author’s thought, or seem in other ways to be of real value.

on the other hand, i have not allowed myself, through a desire to expound lull’s ideas, to substitute paraphrase for faithful and exact translation. very few liberties have been taken with the text, and[viii] these only where a slight expansion or change of construction has served to bring out the meaning of an otherwise quite obscure word or phrase. essentially, therefore, the reader has lull’s own vivid and forceful words, with the impediment of a foreign language removed.

e. allison peers

the university, liverpool.

jan. 19, 1923.