Ramon Llull's combinatorial Art (Ars magna)
Ars combinatoria de Ramon Llull (Ars magna)
- Date
- c. 1274-1308 · confidence medium
- Place
- Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Credited to
- Ramon Llull
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
A system of concentric rotating discs and tables of letters standing for basic concepts, which are combined mechanically to generate statements and arguments. It is the first European attempt at a combinatorial method of universal reasoning.
Llull developed the Art from the Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem (c. 1274) to the Ars generalis ultima (1305-1308). Presenting it as a “logic machine” or a precursor of the computer is a retrospective reading: his discs are paper aids, not a mechanism that calculates.
What it led to
- Leibniz built his De arte combinatoria (1666) on it
- the Lullist tradition and the Renaissance art of memory (Giordano Bruno)
- ideas of symbolic logic and automatic reasoning
Built on
- Arabic zairja (letter-combination device)