Cover not available
Article published In:
Writing and the Mind
Edited by David R. Olson and Marcelo Dascal †
[Pragmatics & Cognition 21:3] 2013
► pp. 505–520

The Classical art of memory as immaterial writing

| Charles University in Prague

The Classical art of memory is analyzed as a form of mental writing. The ancient authors of works on the art of memory often likened their art to a sort of writing, and a careful analysis of the methods of formation of agent images — the signs of the art of memory — shows that it very closely parallels the methods of sign formation in logophonetic writing systems (such as ancient Egyptian or Chinese). Thus the Classical art of memory can be viewed as an immaterial (and personalized) writing system.

Keywords: loci method, mnemography, memory, Matteo Ricci, Thomas Bradwardine, rhetoric, Ptolemaic writing, art of memory, imagines agentes, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese characters, logophonetic writing
Published online: 24 July 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.21.3.05lan
References
AH Rhetorica ad Herennium
, quoted after Caplan 1964, with some minor emendations.Google Scholar
Blum, H
1969 Die Antike Mnemotechnik (Spudasmata 15). Hildesheim and New York: Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Bolzoni, L
2001 The Galleries of Memory: Literary and iconographic Models in the Age of the Printing Press. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press. DOI logo DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, H.E
1920-22 The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian (Loeb Classical Library). London and Cambridge: Loeb.Google Scholar
Caplan, H
1964 Ad C. Herennium De ratione dicendi (Rhetorica ad Herennium) (Loeb Classical Library). London and Cambridge: Loeb.Google Scholar
Carruthers, M
2002 “Thomas Bradwardine. On acquiring a trained memory”. In M. Carruthers and J.M. Ziolkowski (eds), The Medieval Craft of Memory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 205–214.Google Scholar
2008 The Book of Memory. A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Derchain-Urtel, M.-T
1978 “Esna, Schrift und ‘Spiel’. Bemerkungen zu einem großen Thema”. Göttinger Miszellen 271: 11–21.Google Scholar
Edel, E
1955 Altägyptische Grammatik, I (Analecta orientalia 34). Roma: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.Google Scholar
Fairman, H.W
1945 “An introduction to the study of Ptolemaic signs and their values”. Bulletin de l’Institut Francais d’archéologie orientale 431: 51–138.Google Scholar
Giuliani, L
1998 Bilder nach Homer. Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Lektüre für die Malerei. (Rombach Wissenschaft. Reihe Quellen zur Kunst 7). Freiburg in Breisgau: Rombach.Google Scholar
Grube, G., Kogge, W. and Krämer, S
(eds) 2005 Schrift. Kulturtechnik zwischen Auge, Hand und Maschine. München: Fink.Google Scholar
Guglielmi, W
1986 “Wortspiel”. In W. Helck and W. Westendorf (eds), Lexikon der Ägyptologie Bd. VI. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1288–1297.Google Scholar
Haverkamp, A. and Lachmann, R
(eds) 1991 Gedächtniskunst. Raum – Bild – Schrift. Studien zur Mnemotechnik. Frankfurt am Mein: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Kaplony, P
1966 “Strukturprobleme der Hieroglyphenschrift”. Chronique d’Égypte XLI(81): 60–99. DOI logo DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kurth, D
1983 “Die Lautwerte der Hieroglyphen in den Tempelinschriften der greichisch-römischen Zeit. Zur Systematik ihrer Herleitungsprinzipien”. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 691: 287–309.Google Scholar
2009 Einführung ins Ptolemäische. Eine Grammatik mit Zeichenliste und Übungsstücken Teil 1. Hützel: Backe.Google Scholar
2010 A Ptolemaic Sign-List: Hieroglyphs Used in the Temples of the Graeco-Roman Period of Egypt and their Meanings. Hützel: Backe.Google Scholar
2011 “Zur Definition des Ptolemaïschen”. Göttinger Miszellen 2291: 65–79.Google Scholar
Kwan, T.-W
2014 “Phenonenological interpretation of the ‘Six Ways’ of Chinese script formation”. In S. Gordin (ed), Visualizing Knowledge and Creating Meaning in Ancient Writing Systems (Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 23). Berlin: PeWe, 157–202Google Scholar
Lackner, M. and Ricci, M
1986 Das vergessene Gedächtnis. Die jesutitische mnemotechnische Abhandlung Xiguo jifa. Übersetzung und Komentar. (Münchner Orientalistische Studien 42). Stuttgart: Steiner.Google Scholar
Landgráfová, R
2014 “Ars Memorieae Aegyptica? Some preliminary remarks on Egyptian hieroglyphs and the classical art of memory”. In S. Gordin (ed), Visualizing Knowledge and Creating Meaning in Ancient Writing Systems (Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 23). Berlin: PeWe, 133–153.Google Scholar
Meltzer, E.S
1980 “Remarks on ancient Egyptian writing with emphasis on its mnemonic aspects”. In P.A. Kolers, M.E. Wrolstad, and H. Bouma (eds), Processing of Visible Language 2. (NATO Conference Series III: Human Factors Vol. 13). New York and London: Plenum, 43–66. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morenz, L.D
2008 Sinn und Spiel der Zeichen. Visuelle Poesie im Alten Ägypten. Köln, Weimar and Wien: Böhlau.Google Scholar
Schenkel, W
1981 “Rebus-, Buchstabiersilben- und Konsonantenschrift. Präzisierungen zur Gelbschen Interpretation der ägyptischen Hieroglyphenschrift als einer Silbenschrift”. Göttinger Miszellen 521: 83–95.Google Scholar
Sethe, K
1908 Die altaegyptischen Pyramidentexte. Nach den Papierabdrücken und Photographien des Berliner Museums 1. Text, erste Hälfte, Spruch 1-468 (Pyr. 1-905). Leipzig: Hinrichs.Google Scholar
Shangizi, M.A. and Shimojo, S
2005 “Character complexity and redundancy in writing systems over human history”. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2721: 267–275. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Small, J.P
1997 Wax Tablets of the Mind. Cognitive Studies of Memory and Literacy in Classical Antiquity. London and New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorabji, R
1972 Aristotle on Memory. Providence: Duckworth. DOI logo DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Spence, J.D
1984 The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sutton, E.W
1967 Cicero, De Oratore (Loeb Classical Library). London and Cambridge: Loeb.Google Scholar
Wilson, P
1997 A Ptolemaic Lexikon. A Lexicographical Study of the Ptolemaic Texts in the Temple of Edfu (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 78). Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Yates, F.A
1966 The Art of Memory. London: Pimlico.Google Scholar