De guineus, lleons, llops i pastors: domini i govern en el pensament polític de Llull

Abstract

According to an old Ciceronian doctrine, force and fraud are the elements configuring the animal part in politics. In the Commedia, Dante identified these concepts with the two causes of injustice punished by the heavens and used his distinction in the main criterion to mark off the infernal territories. This article comes from the story told by Dante of what he felt in the Inferno circle where he met Guido da Montefeltro, who had been condemned for having advised Boniface VIII to use fraud, to deal with the council and about the relationship between knowledge and power. He makes a suggestion to read Ramon Llull’s The Book of the Beasts as a mirror where the author, following that doctrine and the literary tradition of animalistic fables, uses beasts to instruct the prince in the secrets of domination, with lessons on the power of force and the power of deceit, leaving aside the discourse on justice that defines good governance.