The numerous trips that Jacint Verdaguer made also brought him to Mallorca, where he could contemplate the same landscapes as Ramon Llull, as is the case of Miramar.
On one of the last evenings in 1894, I knocked on the door of Miramar Hermitage, asking for shelter, and those poor hermits willingly took me in with expressions that betrayed the goodness of their hearts. On the small table of the humble room that they offered me, close by the dish of colourful dry Mallorcan soup and little bowl of edible sea fennel that they gave me to eat, was – what a dessert for me! – the Book of the Lover and the Beloved, seasoned with comments in Spanish. Despite my tiredness, I read it from beginning to end and those dialogues and canticles, which I half knew by heart, made a totally new impact on me in that solitude, in the depths of the night, before the image of its enlightened author, who shone out on the wall inside a frame as poor as his habit, in what was the main and only decoration in the room. I found new meaning and a mystical tone in it, greater than that of all the mystical books written by man’s hand.
Perles (Pearls), 1896
(Folgueroles, 1845 – Vallvidrera, 1902). Verdaguer’s writings encompass genres like epic and lyric poetry, narrative and journalistic prose and travel literature. He combined an ecclesiastical education with the discovery of classical and modern literature, and as a student he was singled out for a prize in the 1865 Barcelona “Jocs Florals” poetry awards. In 1877, on his return from a voyage to America where he had gone as a chaplain, his work L’Atlàntida (Atlantis) was also awarded a prize in the“Jocs Florals”. Among the extensive literature that he wrote, mention should be made of Canigó (1886), which also features prose with references to trips, observations and impressions, as in Excursions i viatges (Excursions & Trips) (1887) and Dietari d’un pelegrí a Terra Santa (Diary of a Pilgrim to the Holy Land) (1888).
The numerous trips that he made also brought him to Mallorca, where he was able to contemplate its landscapes on several occasions. In Perles, Verdaguer delves into Ramon Llull's Book of the Lover and the Beloved to offer canticles by Llull in verse.
One of the most emblematic places in the Tramuntana mountains is the Miramar estate and its surroundings, caught between seas and peaks, which Ramon Llull established 700 years ago. The estate dates back to Moorish times and after the Christian conquest of the island it became a monastery for Cistercian monks. Under the protection of Jaume II, Ramon Llull created a school for missionaries at Miramar, where they would learn Arabic and Llull’s Art, to preach in distant lands.
Centuries passed and the estate was occupied by several religious orders, until the Miramar estate was acquired by Archduke Ludwig Salvator in 1872. Over the years when the Archduke lived on the island, Miramar regained its lustre and many well-known figures stayed there. Amongst them is the great poet of the Catalan “Renaixença”, Jacint Verdaguer: invited by the Archduke, he spent two weeks there, on a visit that allowed him to get to know Llull’s work and led to his book Perles (Pearls), a prose adaptation of Llull’s Llibre d’amic e amat.
