Among scholars of medieval Iberia and the people of modern Catalunya, Ramon Llull (1232–1316) looms large. He has been compared to Chaucer and Dante, writing nearly three hundred texts in Catalan, Latin, and Arabic on nearly every discipline known to medieval Europeans. His followers, known as Lullists, have promoted his ideas, at times under inquisitorial persecution, from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Yet many anglophone scholars have never heard of Llull, partly because the vast literature surrounding him has been written largely in Catalan and Spanish. Also, his Neoplatonic philosophy, the Great Art, has aroused confusion and criticism from both medieval and modern readers. Editors Amy M. Austin and Mark D. Johnston strive to alter this perception and to make Llull and his legacy accessible to nonspecialists with this collection of sixteen essays, some from scholars never before published in English.

The book is divided into five thematic parts. The editors and contributors designed both these parts, and the individual essays within them, to stand alone (ix–x). The entire volume, however, flows together very well. Part 1 provides a firm foundation upon which the collection rests and is recommended especially for readers unfamiliar with Llull. The first two essays of this section set Llull in his historical context. Johnston provides an overview of Llull's life, and Henry Berlin contrasts Llull's thought on language, missions, exegesis, and rationalism with famous contemporaries—Ramon de Penyafort, Ramon Martí, Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, and Arnau de Vilanova. The last two essays of part 1 explain Llull's Art. Josep Batalla focuses on defining the “internal system” (Dignities, Relative Principles, etc.) and its development amid twelfth- and thirteenth-century philosophical and theological trends, while Josep E. Rubio shows how this complex logical system and its “external mechanism” (abbreviations, tables, etc.) functioned (51). These essays, like the rest of the book, use previous scholarship, listed in detailed footnotes and bibliographies, but are not simply syntheses of secondary literature; all are based on primary sources.

Throughout the volume, moreover, we encounter some original and striking arguments. Batalla argues that the Art originated as an act of spiritual contemplation rather than as an evangelization method to convert Muslims (49), as much scholarship has suggested. In fact, Gregory Stone opens part 2 of this book by claiming, “Ramon Llull's idiosyncratic place in . . . intellectual history . . . is unthinkable apart from Islam” (119). He examines Llull's attitude toward Muslims and the influence of al-Ghazālī and Arab philosophers on the Art. Annemarie C. Mayer looks at the Art's reception, instead of its conception, and explains how Llull found a common ground for interfaith dialogue with his Divine Dignities. Both contributors rightfully reject labeling Llull tolerant and instead emphasize his concern for humanity's spiritual salvation. For Stone, Llull's “unusual” Crusade treatises attest to his intolerance (124), but Pamela Beattie closes part 2 by demonstrating how they actually reflected mainstream Crusade ideology after 1291 and how they fit with Llull's better-known works.

Besides Crusade treatises and illustrations, the external mechanism that promoted Llull's Art included several literary techniques, discussed in part 3. José Aragüés Aldaz provides a thorough taxonomy of exempla—stories, fables, comparisons—appearing in Llull's works and emphasizes their author's originality and distinctiveness from both Western and Eastern writers. Alexander W. Ibarz's analysis of the narrative structure in Llull's novels Blaquerna and Libre de Meravelles makes some of the volume's most provocative arguments. Rejecting a view of Llull's novels as mere didactic sermons, Ibarz shows how they reflected Llull's sympathy with and championing of lay culture. While suggestions of Llull's Catharism might go too far, Ibarz's work demonstrates the need for more attention to Llull's troubadour background, social realism, and anticlericalism. Part 3 concludes with Mary Franklin-Brown's overview of Llull's encyclopedist writings. Like Ibarz and Aragüés Aldaz, Franklin-Brown comments on Lullian “obscurity” (244, 310–11, 391); Llull often left the meaning of his writings unexplained, inviting readers “to share in his intellectual work” (391).

This collection thus ends fittingly with two sections about thinkers from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries who shared Llull's thought. Linda Báez Rubí profiles six major Lullists in France and Spain—Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, Charles de Bovelles, Bernard de Lavinheta, Cardinal Cisneros, Alonso de Proaza, and Nicholas de Pax—while Rafael Ramis Barceló draws a roadmap of Lullist thinkers and institutions more broadly across Europe. Roberta Albrecht describes how Llull influenced linguistics, science, music, and millenarianism in seventeenth-century England. The last three essays concentrate on four Franciscan missionaries in the Americas. Linda Báez Rubí examines Juan de Zumárraga and Diego de Valadés; John Dagenais looks at Junípero Serra and Bernat Boïl—though the latter's Lullist credentials are tenuous.

Perhaps the only criticism that might be leveled at this collection is that there could be more of it. Several topics relevant to Llull's religious and intellectual legacy receive little attention—his efforts to convert Jews, Eastern Christians, and Mongols; relationship with the Capetians; and eponymous role in early modern texts. Nevertheless, the editors and contributors of this volume have amply succeeded in providing the tools necessary for nonspecialists to delve into Llull's works, and for those already acquainted with the Illuminated Doctor to delve a little deeper. In other words, A Companion to Ramon Llull and Lullism deserves a prominent place in any Lullist's library.