Yates - The Art of Memory

The Ancient Greeks, to whom a trained memory was of vital importance as it was to everyone before the invention of printing created an elaborate memory system, based on a technique of impressing places and images on the mind. Inherited and recorded by the Romans, this art of memory passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, at the Renaissance, and particularly by the strange and remarkable genius, Giordano Bruno.

Such is the main theme of Frances Yatess unique and brilliant book, in the course of which she sheds light on such diverse subjects as Dantes Divine Comedy, the form of the Shakespearian theatre and the history of ancient architecture. Aside from its intrinsic fascination, The Art of Memory is an invaluable contribution to aesthetics and psychology, and to the history of philosophy, or science and of literature.

Dame Frances Yates (18991981) achieved a world-wide reputation as an historian. Her close association with the Warburg Institute of the University of London began shortly after the Second World War, after the publication of her first two books. She was Reader in the History of the Renaissance there until 1967, when she became an Honorary Fellow. As well as gaining many academic honours, she was awarded the OBE in 1977 and was made DBE in the same year. Her publications include Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Theatre of the World, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, Astraea, Shakespeares Last Plays and The Valois Tapestries.

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First published by Routledge & Kegan Paul 1966

Pimlico edition 1992

Reprinted 1994 (twice), 1996, 1997, 1999 (twice),

2000 (twice), 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (twice), 2010

The Estate of Francis A. Yates 1966

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form or binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 978-0-7126-5545-3

Hermetic Silence. From Achilles Bocchius, Symbolicarum quaestionum libri quinque, Bologna, 1555. Engraved by G. Bonasone

The Wisdom of Thomas Aquinas. Fresco by Andrea da Firenze, Chapter House of Santa Maria Novella, Florence (photo: Alinari)

Justice and Peace. Fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (detail), Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (photo: Alinari)

Envy

Frescoes by Giotto, Arena Capella, Padua (photos: Alinari)

Temperance, Prudence

Justice, Fortitude

From a Fourteenth-century Italian Manuscript, Vienna National Library (MS. 2639)

Penance, From a Fifteenth-century German Manuscript, Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome (MS. 1404)

Abbey Memory System

Images to be Used in the Abbey Memory System.

From Johannes Romberch, Congestorium artificiose memorie, ed. of Venice, 1533

Grammar as a Memory Image

Visual Alphabets Used for the Inscriptions on Grammar

From Johannes Romberch, Congestorium artificiose memorie, ed. of Venice, 1533

Hell as Artificial Memory

Paradise as Artificial Memory

From Cosmas Rossellius, Thesaurus artificiosae memoriae, Venice, 1579

The Places of Hell. Fresco by Nardo di Cione (detail), Santa Maria Novella, Florence (photo: Alinari)

Titian, Allegory of the Three Parts of Prudence (National Gallery)

Palladios Reconstruction of the Roman Theatre. From Vitruvius, De architectura cum commentariis Danielis Barbari, ed. of Venice, 1567

The Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza (photo: Alinari)

Ramon Lull with the Ladders of his Art. Fourteenth-century Miniature, Karlsruhe (Cod. St Peter 92)

Memory System Based on Giordano Brunos De umbris idearum (Shadows), Paris, 1582

Images of the Decans of Aries

Images of the Decans of Taurus and Gemini

From Giordano Bruno, De umbris idearum (Shadows), ed. of Naples, 1886

Pictures illustrating the Principles of the Art of Memory. From Agostino del Riccio, Arte della memoria locale, 1595, Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence (MS. II, I, 13)

The Heaven

The Potters Wheel

Seals from Brunos Triginta Sigilli etc.

Memory System from Brunos Figuratio Aristotelici physici auditus, Paris, 1586

Memory System from Brunos De imaginum compositione, Frankfort, 1591

First Page of the Ars memoriae in Robert Fludds Utriusque Cosmi Historia, Tomus Secundus, Oppenheim, 1619

The Zodiac. From Robert Fludds Ars memoriae

The Theatre. From Robert Fludds Ars memoriae

Secondary Theatre

Secondary Theatre

From Robert Fludds Ars memoriae

The De Witt Sketch of the Swan Theatre. Library of the University of Utrecht

Sketch of the Stage of the Globe Theatre based on Fludd

The Spheres of the Universe as a Memory System. From J. Publicius, Oratoriae artis epitome, 1482

The Spheres of the Universe as a Memory System. From J. Romberch, Congestorium artificiose memorie, ed. of 1533

Human Image on a Memory Locus. From Romberch, Congestorium artificiose memorie, ed. of 1533

The Ladder of Ascent and Descent. From Ramon Lulls Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus, ed. of Valencia, 1512

A Figure. From R. Lulls Ars brevis (Opera, Strassburg, 1617)

Combinatory Figure. From Lulls Ars brevis

Tree Diagram. From Lulls Abor scientiae, ed. of Lyons, 1515

Memory Wheels. From G. Bruno, De umbris idearum, 1582

Diagram of Faculty Psychology. Redrawn from a diagram in Romberch, Congestorium artificiose memorie

Memory Theatre or Repository. From J. Willis, Mnemonica, 1618

Suggested Plan of the Globe Theatre

Folder: The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo

T HE subject of this book will be unfamiliar to most readers. Few people know that the Greeks, who invented many arts, invented an art of memory which, like their other arts, was passed on to Rome whence it descended in the European tradition. This art seeks to memorize through a technique of impressing places and images on memory. It has usually been classed as mnemotechnics, which in modern times seems a rather unimportant branch of human activity. But in the ages before printing a trained memory was vitally important; and the manipulation of images in memory must always to some extent involve the psyche as a whole. Moreover an art which uses contemporary architecture for its memory places and contemporary imagery for its images will have its classical, Gothic, and Renaissance periods, like the other arts. Though the mnemotechnical side of the art is always present, both in antiquity and thereafter, and forms the factual basis for its investigation, the exploration of it must include more than the history of its techniques. Mnemosyne, said the Greeks, is the mother of the Muses; the history of the training of this most fundamental and elusive of human powers will plunge us into deep waters.