The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Material Texts)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.82 (991 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0812218817 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-01-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Mary Carruthers is Professor Emeritus of English at New York University. 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. She is author of The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture and The Craft of Thought: Rhetor
Handy resource with a few caveats "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 . CYork said This is a scholarly anthology of pieces written during the. This is a scholarly anthology of pieces written during the middle ages to help people remember (mostly biblical and other religious) written or verbal works. The introductions of the the book and of each chapter are interesting. Really, the whole thing is too dense for me, but that is not the fault of the book.. "Memories are made of this" according to Bernard M. Patten. 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 or
"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
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. Until now, however, many of the most important visual and textual sources on the topic have remained untranslated or otherwise difficult to consult. 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. Ziolkowski bring together the texts and visual images from the twelfth