Brief Forms and Spiritual Rise:

The «Altees» of Ramon Llull’s Arbre de filosofia d’amor (1298)

Abstract

This paper gives a concise analysis of the «Altees d’amor» of Ramon Llull’s Arbre de filosofia d’amor (1298), the first of the three sections of the «Flowers», the sixth part of the treatise. The «Altees» include 67 maxims which offer an organized summary of the process that the human soul has to follow to raise itself to the contemplation of God, and condense some of the most common methods and types of proverbial and sententious Lullian style. Previously, this section is connected with the general structure of the text and the paper shows why Llull tends to use abundantly different kinds of brief forms (examples, prayers, questions and answers, proverbs, maxims, etc.) in his mystic works.