Ramon Llull (1232–1313) seems, at first, a promising figure to examine in relation to medieval translation. For a start, he was a multilingual Majorcan who wrote in Catalan, Latin and Arabic and travelled incessantly for more than forty years, supported by the Majorcan King Jaume II (1267–1327). He proselytized in Cyprus, Armenia, Tunisia, Rome, Genoa, Pisa, Paris, Lyon and Montpellier, halted only by his death at the age of eighty-one. He translated his own writings from and into these languages and, most importantly, by his own admission, transcribed (perhaps even translated as an act of xenoglossia) the word of God as he received it in a vision of 1264. Llull is in this sense an exemplary translator: one who passes on information, serves himself as a receptor and medium of the divine word, slips in and out of different cultures, places and languages – someone who ‘passes’ in other words – without calling attention to himself as an interloper or imposter.

It is within this category of passing polymath that Llull made his name and ensured his reputation: by some estimates he was the most prolific author of the High Middle Ages.