Alla ricerca dell’autore: un percorso fra dediche, filologia e tradizione

The article aims to explore the weight of the dedications within the approaches adopted by Llull to preserve and disseminate his work. This aspect has received little attention compared to the activity of his scriptorium, to the translations and to the deposits referred to in the Life and the Testamentum. The fi rst part of the paper presents a survey of the dedications, providing a preliminary classifi cation based on the formulation of and the internal references to the Lullian corpus. The second part identifi es certain parameters (quotation in the Electorium, presence in fi rst-generation manuscripts, self-citations, etc.) which, combined with the dedications, allow to verify the hypothesis formulated by Anthony Bonner concerning a selection of the tradition attributable to Llull himself and to his immediate disciples. From the analysis of the data two different author’s strategies emerge: the apologetic works, which deal with different aspects of the mission summarized in the requests addressed to the Council of Vienna, are provided with a dedication; the artistic texts, starting with the fundamental ones mentioned in the Life, are donated or left in storage but do not include a dedication. The explanation of this gap can be found in the nature of the Art, understood as the fruit of divine enlightenment, as a method and form that transcends historical contingencies.