Art of Memory » (1)

Frances A. Yates (1899-1981) was Reader in the History of the Renaissance at the University of London. Her other books include Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

The Art of Memory is the classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page. In it, Frances A. Yates traces the art of memory from its treatment by Greek orators, through its Gothic transformations in the Middle Ages, to the occult forms it took in the Renaissance, and finally to its use in the seventeenth century. This book, the first to relate the art of memory to the history of culture as a whole, was revolutionary when it first appeared and continues to mesmerize readers with its lucid and revelatory insights.

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A reprint of the 1966 Chicago edition. It is copublished with Routledge, K.P. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Preface I. The Three Latin Sources for the Classical Art of Memory II. The Art of Memory in Greece: Memory and the Soul III. The Art of Memory in the Middle Ages IV. Mediaeval Memory and the Formation of Imagery V. The Memory Treatises VI. Renaissance Memory: The Memory Theatre of Giulio Camillo VII. Camillo's Theatre and the Venetial Renaissance VIII. Lullism as an Art of Memory IX. Giordano Bruno: The Secret of Shadows
X. Ramism as an Art of Memory XI. Giordano Bruno: The Secret of Seals
XII. Conflict between Brunian and Ramist Memory XIII. Girodano Bruno: Last Works on Memory XIV. The Art of Memory and Bruno's Italian Dialogues XV. The Theatre Memory System of Robert Fludd XVI. Fludd's Memory Theatre and the Globe Theatre XVII. The Art of Memory and the Growth of Scientific Method Index