The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Material Texts) [Paperback]

Mary Carruthers (Editor), Jan M. Ziolkowski (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Material Texts | Publication Date: December 17, 2003

In antiquity and the Middle Ages, memory was a craft, and certain actions and tools were thought to be necessary for its creation and recollection. Until now, however, many of the most important visual and textual sources on the topic have remained untranslated or otherwise difficult to consult. Mary Carruthers and Jan M. Ziolkowski bring together the texts and visual images from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries that are central to an understanding of memory and memory technique. These sources are now made available for a wider audience of students of medieval and early modern history and culture and readers with an interest in memory, mnemonics, and the synergy of text and image.

The art of memory was most importantly associated in the Middle Ages with composition, and those who practiced the craft used it to make new prayers, sermons, pictures, and music. The mixing of visual and verbal media was commonplace throughout medieval cultures: pictures contained visual puns, words were often verbal paintings, and both were used equally as tools for making thoughts. The ability to create pictures in one's own mind was essential to medieval cognitive technique and imagination, and the intensely pictorial and affective qualities of medieval art and literature were generative, creative devices in themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The extraordinary reception that Mary Carruthers's The Book of Memory has received, as well as that of other recent studies of learned memory, amply justifies an anthology of high medieval memory texts. That Carruthers would coedit the volume with Jan Ziolkowski, one of our major medieval Latinists, is particularly felicitous. The result is a volume that will interest a wide spectrum of readers."—Patrick Geary, University of California, Los Angeles

About the Author

Mary Carruthers is Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature and Dean for the Humanities at New York University. She is author of The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture and The Craft of Thought: Rhetoric, Meditation, and the Making of Images, 400-1200. Jan M. Ziolkowski is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University and editor of Obscenity: Social Control and Artistic Creation in the European Middle Ages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (December 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812218817
• ISBN-13: 978-0812218817
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Handy resource with a few caveats, November 4, 2008

By 

A. Keiser "Ite ad Thomam." (A backwater.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Material Texts) (Paperback)

"The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures" is a valuable resource for the independent scholar interested in Medieval thought and mnemonic techniques. As a companion to Mary Carruther's other book "The Book of Memory" it is a welcome complement. It is of especial interest for the partially educated (as most of us are in these academic dark ages) as the selections are translated from Latin. Many of the original works are extremely difficult to find outside specialised libraries, so this book also is a tremendous time-saver. It is particularly useful as source for finding other works, as some of the selections are only partial. Of course, this would necessitate a knowledge of Latin. It would have been nice to have the Latin as well, but one can't have everything.

For those interested in what authors the work selects from, they are as follows: Hugh of St. Victor, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Frances Eiximenis, Thomas Bradwardine, John of Metz, Jacobus Publicius, and an anonymous author. The mnemonic device of the Guidonian Hand is also given, but it is an illustration. Each author and selection is introduced with introductions of varying lengths. A general introduction begins the book as a whole, which is frequently useful (it is imperfect, but one can overlook that due to the value of the selected texts). A bibliography and index close the work.

An appendix that includes brief selections from two texts from late antiquity, namely Consultus Fortunatianus's "On Memory" and C. Julius Victor's "On Memory" is also included.

The greatest aggravation this book possesses is its brevity. In 311 pages it covers 14 authors, and at times the selections simply seem too short. Further, both St. Thomas's and St. Albert's commentaries on Aristotle's "On Memory and Recollection" require one two acquire a copy of Aristotle's original work, which is not included yet is needed to truly comprehend the commentaries. It is not difficult to find, but it is still a minor aggravation.

As a whole, however, this book is extremely useful. It is not light reading, however, as it is a scholarly work and one should be prepared to work a little when one reads it. It is excellent for the medievalist, the enthusiast of mnemonics, historians of thought, and those simply interested in how well people can actually think and remember and how to go about training themselves to do so. At times the tone of the academic preambles of the editors are a little too dismissive of the medievals's values, but overall the book is an excellent tool for the thinking person. My hat is off to the publisher for putting out an academic publication that isn't a waste of paper and space.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Memories are made of this, April 18, 2010

By 

Bernard M. Patten "Book worm" (Seabrook, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Material Texts) (Paperback)

Take a look to see the kinds of images and tricks used by your ancient ancestors to remember massive amounts of all sorts of information. The medieval arts of memory are really ancient memory arts derived from the ancient Greeks and adapted to medieval purposes. The subject matter is therefore (what else?) religious, but the principles are the same. These arts cannot be learned by the application of general rules alone. Examples are needed and are supplied here in abundance. The arts are immediate and individual and need the application of the individual imagination in order to work effectively. The mnemonic image I like the best is penance. It is a seraph that is quite imposing when seen as a whole and almost seemingly impossible to memorize. But, because it is logically arranged and lends itself to narrative clues and cues, the thirty visual components of penance become clear and easy to recall. Thus penance becomes a easily assimilated doctrine, not a gaseous cloud of ideas, and something indisipensible to any twelfth-century reader striving for holiness.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars medieval memory is more modern than you might think . . ., March 19, 2009

By 

William McPherson (Denver, CO, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Material Texts) (Paperback)

This approach to memory explains how so many illiterate folk were able to present stories and often volumes of information without textual backup. We always seem to think of the "mid ages" betwixt the ROMANS (wow!) and the Renaissance as ignorant and "dark." It is only our lack of information that allows us to do so. This volume fills in many of the crevices, with little-known textual material.
I love it!