Medieval faceted knowledge classification : Ramon Llull's Trees of Science

Ramon Llull (1232-1316) wrote many didactic and theoretical works that demonstrate an exhaustive and creative approach to the organization of knowledge. His encyclopedic Arbre de sciencia (1296) was a multi-volume summation of human knowledge, organized according to a plan that could be applied to other works. Set against a background of Llull's other tree-based works, including the Libre del gentile dels tres savis (1274-89), and the Arbre de filosofia desiderat (1294), the Arbre de sciencia is described and analyzed as a faceted classification system.