PREFACE

...whatever it may finally be, it encompasses. But let us unfold the plan of the work.

The plan of the work and its arrangement. Book I: The Lullian Method. Book II: Explains the principles.

Therefore, so that the Reader might more fully understand what Lullus Ramon Llull (c. 1232–1316), a Majorcan philosopher known for his "Great Art," a system of logic using rotating circles to combine concepts. and what I myself have provided in restoring this Art, I thought it necessary to present the Lullian method immediately in the First Book. To this, I have subjoined my own method, set forth and explained in a parallel comparison within the same Book. I have changed the Lullian Alphabets The sets of symbolic letters used in Llull's combinatory diagrams. using newly invented characters and signs for easier progress in practicing the Art. The terms which could in any way be traced back to individual principles, I have reduced to a syllogistic form according to the usual laws of Combination; once reduced, I have established them with examples placed everywhere—the one thing that was uniquely lacking. In the Second Book, the Reader will find all the principles explained with a great variety of examples.

Books III and IV: Teaches the Combinatory Art.

But since I saw that the Reader could by no means reach the intended goal of reasoning about any subject without the precision of the Combinatory Art The "Ars Combinatoria," a method of generating new ideas or truths by combining basic concepts., in the Third and Fourth Books I have treated extensively the method of Lullus as applied to our principles, and the laws and precepts of the Combinatory Art. There, I have also shown the way and the reason by which anyone can translate any proposed subject matter into innumerable expanded propositions and arguments; I have also constructed new Combinatory Tables to demonstrate the excellence of the Art.

And since I saw it was impossible for a Beginner, relying on the help of our Art, to progress with the hoped-for fruit in the application of Sciences whose principles, objects, and subjects he did not know; for this reason, I have immediately set forth a Synopsis of all Arts and Sciences in the Fifth Book. Following the footsteps of the Anatomist, I have distributed the individual Arts and Sciences into their smallest members, so that I might not seem to have left anything behind that could hinder the Reader in his affection for the Art.

Furthermore, since I judged it would be difficult to skillfully sketch any kind of picture and adorn it with the required differences of colors without a prototype (by the constant sight of which the Beginner might work correctly), I thought it necessary above all to describe the faculty of Theology—which holds the principal place among the sciences—using the paintbrush of our Art according to all its parts; this has been performed as extensively as possible in the Sixth Book.

There remained the way and method of our Art in proceeding through the rest of the Arts and Sciences, which the Seventh Book, which is entirely exemplary, demonstrates at length. Indeed, it provides such specimens in Metaphysical, Logical, Physical, Medical, Mathematical, Legal, Canonical, Ascetic, and Rhetorical questions, that they may serve as an Ariadne’s thread A classical reference to the thread used to navigate the Labyrinth; here meaning a guide through complex problems. for the diligent Beginner to deduce innumerable others. He will also find there...