Chronology

1232
Birth of Ramon Llull in the City of Majorca [now Palma].

1257
Llull marries Blanca Picany and becomes a relative of the Prince James, younger son of James the Conqueror, King of Majorca since 1253.

1263
Llull’s “penitential conversion” at the age of 30.

1265
After a pilgrimage to Rocamadour and Santiago de Compostela, Llull meets with Raymond of Penyafort, most probably in Barcelona, who advises him to conduct his studies in Majorca rather than Paris. He purchases a Moorish slave and begins nine years of linguistic and intellectual and linguistic formation.

1271-1274
At the end of his nine years of study, Llull writes his first works, the Lògica d’Algatzell and the Book of Contemplation.

1274
Death of the slave who had taught him Arabic. Illumination on Mount Randa, first version of the Art (Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem), and beginning of the Quaternary Phase of Llull’s production.

1275
Llull is summoned to Montpellier by Prince James and submits his works to an analysis by a Franciscan expert, who gives them his approval.

1276
A Papal Bull of the 17th of October confirms the foundation of the Monastery of Miramar, on Majorca near Deià, financed by James II, in which thirteen Franciscans study Arabic and the Art.

1283
Llull writes the novel Blaquerna, and a re-working of his system in the Ars demonstrativa, in Montpellier.

1287
Llull’s first visit to the Papal Court; he achieves nothing there because of the recent death of the pope, Honorius IV.

1287-1289
First visit to Paris. He has a meeting with Phillip IV The Fair; he establishes contact with Peter of Limoges. His first efforts at teaching in the university are a failure. Composition of Felix or the Book of Wonders.

1290
At Montpellier, he simplifies and re-formulates his system in the Ars inventiva veritatis; start of the Ternary Phase of his thought. He receives a letter of recommendation from Raymond Gaufredi, General of the Franciscan order, permitting him to teach in Italian monasteries.

1292
In Rome, Llull (already 60 years old) dedicates his first work on the crusades to the pope, Nicholas IV.

1293
Psychological crisis in Genoa followed by Llull’s first voyage to North Africa (Tunis).

1294
Stays in Naples, with brief visits to Majorca and Barcelona. Completes the Taula general begun the previous year in Tunis, and writes a Petitio to Clement V, who is pope for only five months.

1295
Stays in Rome, where he addresses a similar Petitio to Boniface VIII, the new pope elected the previous December. He writes the Desconhort and begins the Tree of Science (which he finishes on the 1st of April the following year).

1297-1299
Second stay in Paris, where he dedicates the Tree of the Philosophy of Love to the king and queen of France. There he also writes the Declaratio per modum dialogi edita contra aliquorum philosophorum opiniones, the Tractatus novus de astronomia and the Liber de geometria nova.

1299
He spends the final months of the year in Barcelona, where he dedicates the Dictat de Ramon and the Llibre de oració to James II of Aragon, from whom Llull receives permission to preach in all the synagogues and mosques within his domains.

1300-1301
First lengthy stay in Majorca for many years. Writes the Cant de Ramon.

1301-1302
Voyage to Cyprus, Lesser Armenia (the coast of the Gulf of Iskenderun) and possibly Jerusalem. Writes the Rhetorica nova.

1303-1305
Stays in Genoa and Montpellier. Possible third trip to Paris

1305
Writes the Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus and his most important political work, the Liber de fine, in Montpellier. In Barcelona, during the summer, he receives two grants from the king. In October, he returns to Montpellier where he attends the meeting between the new pope, Clement V, and the Kings of Aragon and Majorca. On the 14th of November, Llull attends the coronation of Clement V in Lyons, and addresses a petition to this pope, but in vain. He begins the definitive formulation of his system, the Ars generalis ultima.

1307
Second voyage to Bejaia, North Africa, where Llull is imprisoned for six months and, finally, expelled. Shipwrecked near Pisa.

1308
In Pisa he writes the Ars brevis, finishes the Ars generalis ultima, and re-writes the work begun in Bejaia and lost in the shipwreck, the Disputatio Raymundi christiani et Homeri saraceni. Efforts in Pisa and Genoa to promote a crusade. Llull is 75 years old. In Montpellier, he dedicates an extended application of the Art to theology, the Ars Dei, to Clement V and Phillipe IV of France. Probable meeting between Llull and Arnold of Villanova in Marseilles.

1309
He writes a new work in Montpellier on the crusades, the Liber de acquisitione Terrae Sanctae, a letter to James II of Aragon, and a series of works preparing the ground for his imminent journey to the French capital.

1309-1311
Fourth and final stay in Paris, where he writes some thirty works, the majority on an anti-Averroist theme; he dedicates seven of them to the king. In 1310, forty Masters and Bachelors of Arts and Medicine sign a document approving the Ars brevis, and Llull receives a letter of recommendation from Phillip IV. In 1311, he writes the Liber natalis parvi pueri Jesu Christi and the Liber lamentationis philosophiae, he dictates the Vita coetanea, and receives the approval of the Chancellor of the University of Paris. On the way to the Council of Vienne in the Dauphinois, he composes the poem, Lo concili, and the short prose-work, the Phantasticus. He attends the Council of Vienne until the Spring of the following year.

1312-1313
He passes through Montpellier (May 1312) on his way to Majorca, where he writes a cycle of 182 sermons a dictates his will (April 1313). He is 81 years old.

1313-1314 
Stays in Messina.

1314-1315
Third mission to North Africa, again to Tunis. He dedicates works to the Sultan and maintains a correspondence with James II of Aragon, from whom he asks for a Franciscan to help him translate his writings into Latin. His final works date from December 1315.

1316
Around or before March he meets his death in Tunis, in the vessel taking him back to Majorca or in Majorca itself. He must have been 84 years old.