The Book of the Lover and the Beloved; Translated from the Catalan of Ramon Lull with an Introductory Essay by E. Allison Peers
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Original brick red cloth (6 5/8 inches tall), original dust jacket. Slight toning, light edge-wear to jacket. A near-fine copy. Item #1419
"LONG AND PERILOUS ARE THE PATHS WHEREBY THE LOVER SEEKS HIS BELOVED"
New edition, revised and enlarged, of this "little classic of Catalan literature" by the Franciscan mystic and missionary known as "the Apostle of Africa." Complete as published in the original dust jacket with a portrait of Blessed Ramon Lull.
Composed of 366 verses and first published in English in 1923, "The Book of the Lover and the Beloved, in its original form, reached a wide circle of readers. Men and women of different religions, races and even colours, from all over the English-speaking world, wrote to express their intense interest, not only in the content of the book but also in the vital personality which lies beneath it." Edited by E. Allison Peers, the Iberian scholar and author of Ramon Lull: A Biography, this revised edition prunes passages of doubtful authenticity and secures Lull's literary legacy as a great Christian mystic in the Spanish tradition "like his great successors, St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross,"
Described as "a Christian troubadour in the Franciscan mold," Lull was inspired by St. Francis's trip to Egypt and he was determined to serve as a missionary to the Muslims. "In 1316 he made his third and final trip to North Africa. In Tunisia, while preaching in a marketplace, he was accosted by a violent mob and stoned to death. There is no evidence that Lull, a layman, ever converted a single soul. His distinction was to be the first to develop a systematic theory and method of Christian mission" (Robert Ellsberg). In 1847 Blessed Ramon Lull was "beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1847, Robert Ellsberg. All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time.
Price: $50.00