The work performed during this project was divided into three phases:
1) after having prepared a full transcription of all the manuscripts of Llull’ Hundred Names (16 in Catalan and 2 in Latin), I have given a linguistic and palaeographic analysis of them. This consists of understanding their material composition, where they were made and why there are preserved in different libraries. To complete and check the goodness of the transcriptions and of the descriptions, I have visited almost all the libraries where the manuscripts are preserved. As Llull’s Hundred Names is a versified work, I have conducted a linguistic and metric analysis of his poems according to the most ancient manuscripts, copied by Guillem Pagès, his first-known collaborator.
2) To understand the text, I needed to study the devotion to God’s Names in Christianity and Islam, conducted during secondment. While the Islamic devotion to the Beautiful Names of Allah is quite known and studied, I have found a new research line in Christianity. Medieval European popular devotion included a prayer to the Names of God, which is echoed in Llull’s Hundred Names and in other literary works (epics and narrative). I have as well conducted a comparative study of the topic according to both monotheisms, thus gaining new knowledge to understand the circulation of the ideas in the medieval Mediterranean area.
3) Finally, the last period was devoted to the collation and the preparation of the critical editions. This critical phase consists in comparing all the differences among the manuscripts to detect how and why a scribe made a mistake, which helps understanding which text he was copying. In the case of Llull we have the chance of having manuscripts that were compiled during his life-time, one of which with the text of his Hundred Names. It was our duty to confirm that this manuscript belonged to these first-generation codices and understand why, after 1311, he slightly changed the structure of the work to adapt it for private devotion. This last version was the most spread in Llull’s posterity but the text we propose is the closer to his wills in the moment of composition, and it represents better the version he exposed to the Popes, as he three times affirms.
The multidisciplinary content of this project obliged me to contact many specialists (musicologists, Islamologists, theologians and philosopher), whom I have exposed my ideas on this work. This way it was possible to test the new ideas, confirm their validity and disseminate my research.
During the IF I have organised two congresses, and attended nine congresses and two seminars as a speaker, where I have explained the content of my research. I have given fifteen hours lessons on the interreligious dialogue and Ramon Llull, and I have attended nine other congresses, eleven seminars and two workshops, which helped my training. Another fundament training activity consisted in learning Arabic, which is an important step to understand Llull’s sources. Besides, having the chance to live in a multilingual society helped me develop many linguistics skills. I have as well followed up two pre-doctoral students and one PhD, which has helped me growing as a future professor.
The main outcome, i.e. the critical editions will become reference material for the study of Llull, and the translation into English of the text (online publication) will help disseminating it to a larger public. I have as well published a popular edition of the text and focused on some peculiar aspects of the work, published as short and easy readable texts in an online website for the dissemination of Literary Studies.
