Llull, Ramon (c. 1232-1316)
Liber de Ascensu et Descensu Intellectus.

Valencia: Jorge Costilla, 1512.

First edition, quarto, woodcut title page, bound in half brown morocco, ex libris Leo S. Olshki, with bookplate; deckle edges evident in this copy, with some contemporary marginalia including manicules; 8 7/8 x 6 1/4 in.

The Catalan philosopher and lay missionary Llull developed an elaborate, mystically inspired universal system of knowledge directed toward the conversion of unbelievers. The Liber de Ascensu, composed around 1305, is an exposition of his system in terms of the intellect's ascent and descent of a ladder representing the hierarchy of Creation.

Palau 143824; Sarton II, 908.

From the Ken Rapoport Collection.