Ramon Llull stayed several times at the monastery of Santa Maria de la Real, as it is collected in the main source of information about his life, Vita coetania.

So then, following all these things, the revered master went up to the top of a mountain called Randa, not far from his home, so as to better serve and pray to the Lord. And he remained there for almost eight days, at the end of which while he was contemplating the heavens, he was suddenly struck by a certain divine illumination which guided him with regard to the divine order and manner in which to write the said books on the error of the heathens’ ways. The revered master was filled with joyand, with tears in his eyes, hegave infinite thanks tothe Lordfor granting him so marvellousa grace. And at oncehedescended the mountain and swiftly went to La Real Monastery to write the said books with clarity, and indeed he wrote one very lovely book which he called Ars maior, and afterwards Ars general, under whose art he later compiled many other books tailored to suit illiterate men...

Vita coetania (A Contemporary Life), 1311

Translated by Rachel Waters.

(1232 - 1316). Born in Majorca in the years immediately after the conquest of the island by Jaume I, Ramon Llull was linked to the royal household and acquired intellectual education in keeping with his position. He got married, had two children and led an extravagant and courtly life. According to his own account of his life, when he was thirty years of age Christ appeared to him five times, something that radically changed his life. He left his family, comforts and riches to dedicate himself fully to serving God. Ramon Llull demonstrated a great concern for converting people to Christianity and reforming the religion itself, and he decided to begin a period of self-taught study first at the Monastery of La Real and then withdrawn from the world at Randa, where he developed his method, or “Art”. Later he founded the Miramar School to instruct missionaries in his method of conversion. He had long journeys around Spain, France, Italy and North Africa to attract Christian powers to his initiative. He is the author of an immense body of work in Catalan, Latin and Arabic: it is estimated that there are 265 works on a range of subjects: philosophy, science, theology, poetry and literature. Llull was the first writer to use Catalan for literary purposes.

Vita Coetania or A Contemporary Life is made up of autobiographical notes dictated by Ramon Lull to monks at Vauvert Monastery in Paris. It is thought to have been written at the end of his last stay in Paris and it covers a large part of his life.

The Cistercian monastery, Santa María la Real, was founded in 1232 when King James I authorized Nuño Sánchez to found a monastery dependent on Poblet Monastery. The first monks from Poblet came to live at La Real in 1266 after having first stayed at La Granja in Esporles and in Palma’s Raval Vell district.

Ramon Llull’s stay at the monastery took place within the nine years ofhis period ofintellectual self-improvement from 1265 to 1273. It is thought to have beenthere, at La Real, that he came into contact with the written works used duringthis learning process. His desire to bequeath a coffer of books to the monastery library demonstrates his ties with it.