Viscom CM 235

At the time when, in Oxford, Robert Grosseteste constructed the first colour system since Aristotle (text), one of the most dazzling figures of the Middle Ages was born on Majorca. His name was Ramon Lull — Raimundus Lullus in its Latin form — (circa 1235 - 1316).

He became famous through his teaching, referred to by his followers as the "Great Art", or "Ars magna". As with God and His qualities in theology, or the soul and its characteristics in psychology, Lullus had arrived at the conclusion that, in each scientific field, there are a few fundamental terms and principles which can be accepted without further explanation or additional enquiry. Accordingly, he recommended the combination of all human knowledge stemming from these elementary building blocks, and so ordered his basic terms around the edge of a circular disc. On a second smaller disc, he repeated these and additional terms and mounted both constructions to rotate, one upon the other. Through simple rotation of Lull's wheels, new positions and combinations are always being produced which are then augmented to become statements pertaining to the different technical areas. "Truths" can be in this way be mechanically produced. Naturally, with just two discs, the system was not considered complete and many more were added, each superimposed upon the next — up to a total of 14! Any combination, regardless of complexity, could then be precisely "covered". Lull's system represents the beginnings of a kind of modern formal logic. In fact, in the "Ars magna", logic has assumed the function of a universal science, the foundation of all other sciences (ars magna et ultima).

One of the discs contained in the Ars brevis on which Ramos Lull based his art is dedicated to the qualities of God. (Others deal with the soul or worldly objects, the virtues, the deadly sins, knowledge and so forth.) The centre was embellished with a large letter A, with the other fields alphabetically marked from B onwards as they extend outwards.

Based on the same — slightly modified — arrangement, about three hundred years later the Italian Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) reintroduced this combinatorial method in his work De lampade combinatoria lulliana (while omitting the centre A). The second illustration (shown above) shows this arrangement: the disc contains the divine attributes of good (bonitas), greatness (magnitudo), perseverance (aeteritas), power (potestas), wisdom (sapienta), will (voluntas), virtue (virtus), truth (veritas) and fame (gloria).

© echo productions — www.colorsystem.com