Ramon Llull wrote these proverbs in Old Catalan in 1302 while at sea, returning from Cyprus.[1][2] The collection was first published in 1746, printed in Palma de Mallorca by Miquel Cerdà and Miquel Amorós.[3]
The proverbs are distributed across fifty-two chapters, with the amount of proverbs per chapter ranging from seventeen to twenty-two, averaging twenty. Each chapter is dedicated to a virtue or sin, a moral quality, or a human condition. The structure of the book follows a hierarchical order: About God, the Prelate, the Subordinate, the Spouse, the Friend, the Enemy, etc.
The main qualities of Llull's book are its conciseness, its didactic simplicity, and its musicality; the writing avoids the typical scholastic medieval embellishments.
