The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures

319 Pages·2002·4.35 MB·English

by  Mary Carruthers

The Medieval Craft of
Memory:
An Anthology of Texts
and Pictures
Edited by
MARY CARRUTHERS AND
JAN M. ZIOLKOWSKI
University of Pennsylvania Press
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Y
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M The Medieval Craft of Memory
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F MATERIAL TEXTS
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RogerChartier AnthonyGrafton
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Y
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E The Medieval Craft
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F of Memory
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I An Anthology of Texts and Pictures
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UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia

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F PublicationofthisbookwasaidedbyagrantfromtheAbrahamandRebeccaStein
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C Copyright©UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
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50 ISBN---(cloth:alk.paper)
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6 p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
.Mnemonics. I.Carruthers,Mary. II.Ziolkowski,JanM.,–.
III.Series.
BF.M 
.''—dc 

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Y
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MO Contents
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E GeneralIntroduction 
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E .HughofSt.Victor,TheThreeBestMemoryAidsfor
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LearningHistory 
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s .HughofSt.Victor, ALittleBookAboutConstructingNoah’sArk 
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he .TheGuidonianHand 
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ru .[AlanofLille],OntheSixWingsoftheSeraph 
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Ca .BoncompagnodaSigna,OnMemory 

0 .AlbertusMagnus,CommentaryonAristotle,OnMemory
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6 andRecollection 
.ThomasAquinas,CommentaryonAristotle,OnMemory
andRecollection 
.FrancescEiximenis,OnTwoKindsofOrderThatAidUnderstanding
andMemory 
.ThomasBradwardine,OnAcquiringaTrainedMemory 
.JohnofMetz,TheTowerofWisdom 
.JacobusPublicius,TheArtofMemory 
.Anonymous, AMethodforRecollectingtheGospels 
Appendix:TwoTextsonRhetorical MemoriafromLateAntiquity 
ConsultusFortunatianus,OnMemory 
C.JuliusVictor,OnMemory 
GeneralBibliography 
ListofContributors 
Index 

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Y
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O GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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M MaryCarruthersandJanM.Ziolkowski
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F Thisanthologyisdevotedtothemethodsofacraftthatseemstomany
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C peoplenownotjustantiquatedbutwrongheaded—howcanourownmem-
AL ory be thought of as the product of a craft? And even more to the point,
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IE whyshoulditbe?Inonecommonmeaningoftheword,‘‘memory’’specifi-
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ME cally connotes ‘‘storage,’’ a treasure house both of experiences and of facts.
E Wecanthinkofourmemoriesasbeinglikevaluablesinabankvault,justsit-
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tinginourbrains,collectingdustandgrime,perhaps(inapoorlymadeand
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s tendedvault)sufferingdepredationsfromratsandairpollution,untilobliv-
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h ion overtakes them.This is a curious intellectual model, for it suggests that
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r ourmemoriesareessentiallypassiveimpressionsofexperienceswehavehad
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Ca that can be taken out whole and unchanged whenever we need them. The

50 notionthatinre-collectingweactuallymake(andremake)ourmemoriesisre-
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6 gardedassomehowshameful,anadmissionthatmemory,likeartandpoetry,
can‘‘telllies.’’
Yet it is also true that to make use of memories—indeed to know they
are there in our minds at all—we must recall them to our active awareness,
our knowing. Re-collection is not passive, but rather an activity involving
humanwillandthought;itisoftendefinedasaformofreasoning.Onemay
convenientlythinkofthisactivityinspatialterms,asifmemorieshavebeen
stored in a varietyof places and must be called together in a common place
where we can become aware of them, where we can ‘‘see’’ them again and
knowtheminthepresent.(Contemporaryimagingofthebrainactivitiesin-
volvedinthoughtandrecollectionsuggeststhataspatialmodelmayindeed
reflectatsomelevelwhatactuallyhappensintheneurophysiologyof human
thought,thoughthesetechniquesandanalysesarestilltoounrefinedtodem-
onstrate fully towhat degree this model is neurologically true.) In the loca-
tionalmodel,storedmemoriesarethematerialsofcognition,andtheactof
knowing begins (though it does not always end there) with the activities of
findingandcollectingtheir‘‘images’’fromwithinone’smind.
Ancientandmedievalwritersonmemoryrecognized,aswenowdo,the
dualaspectsofstorageandrecollectioninvolvedinremembering.Theircom-
monestmodelforhumanmemorylikenedittoatabletoraparchmentpage,
upon which a person writes. Re-collection was essentiallya task of compo-
sition, literally bringing together matters found in the various places where
theyarestoredtobereassembledinanewplace.Theassumptionthathuman
memoriesaremadeandremadeisemphasizedbytheverywordsusedtode-
scribe memory. Far from being passive and thus (at least possibly) neutral,

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O memory-making was regarded as active; it was even a craft with techniques
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O Theanthologywehavebroughttogetherherecollectssomeofthetools
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F thoughtusefulintheMiddleAgesformemory-making.Initarebothwords
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CR andpictures,intimatelyandcollaborativelyrelatedasdevicesforcomposing
AL thoughts and memories. In the words can be found many pictures—in the
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E pictures many words. Moreover, it is not so apparent where one medium
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In medieval learned cultures (all the material in this volume was produced
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s in learned, even academic circles for purposes of reading and new compo-
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he sition), such a thorough mixing of media, especially the visual and the ver-
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ru bal, was commonplace. These two media not only referred importantly to
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0 ofrepresentational‘‘content,’’inoursenseoftheword—butwereconsidered
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6 equallytobebasictoolsformakingthoughts.Theythushadafundamentally
cognitive function, quite besidewhatevercontent they might have. Indeed,
manyofthepicturesinthisbookaredeliberatelynonrepresentationalbecause
itistheircognitivefunctionthatisemphasized.
Memoria was the name given in monasticism to this cognitive craft,
which is an art of composing.The realization that composing depended on
a well-furnished and securelyavailable memory formed the basis of rhetori-
caleducationinantiquity,theelementaryeducationinlanguageartsthatwas
thevehicle for forming excellence (paideia) in both the person and the citi-
zen.Thefoundersofearlymonasticism—menlikeAugustineofHippo,John
Cassian,andJerome—wereformedbythisancienteducationandhelpedinte-
grateitsemphasison‘‘invention,’’thecompositionofspeech,withthehabits
of meditation on sacred texts that had been cultivated forcenturies in Juda-
ism and then among the desert fathers of early Christianity in Syria, Pales-
tine,andEgypt.Theseearlymonkscalledtheirmeditationalpracticemnēmē
theou,‘‘memoryofGod,’’agoalachieved(thoughnevercompletely)byaset
of established practices, including particular postures, murmured pieces of
memorizedsacredtext,and‘‘pictures’’—bothmentalandactual—usedtoin-
duceaprescribedwayofemotionallymarked-outstagestowarddivine theō-
ria,or‘‘seeing.’’Whiletheirmeditationusuallybeganwithanexactlyrepeated
segmentoftext,itwasthensupposedtoexpandinprayerfulcomposition:as
HughofSt.Victorwroteintheearlytwelfthcentury,‘‘Meditationisaregular
periodofdeliberatethought.[It]takesitsstartfromreadingbutisnotatall
boundbytherulesorpreceptsoflecture.Foritdelightstorunfreelythrough
openspace...,touchingonnowthese,nowthoseconnectionsamongsub-

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O jects...Whenceitisthatinmeditationistobefoundthegreatestpleasure
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M andamusement.’’
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O Thus,asanart,memorywasmostimportantlyassociatedintheMiddle
FT Ages with composition, not simply with retention. Medieval memoria took
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AL deed, thosewho practiced the crafts of memory used them—as all crafts are
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E stories,andpoems.Studentsofartandliteraturehavelongremarkedonthe
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Commonly this has been attributed to a need to accommodate the ‘‘rustic’’
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s qualities of theiraudiences. But a better reason for these characteristics may
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he lie in the methods used to compose such works of art—in which case their
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Ca butasacreativedeviceofmeditationitself,thefirsttaskofanartist,whether

0 ofprayerorpainting,planninghiswork.Andinthelastinglypowerfuleffect
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tinuing creativity of the mental crafts used to make them receives its best
proof.
Mostofthematerialinthiscollectionwasputtogetherforthepurposes
ofpeopleneedingtomakecompositionsthatwereinitiallyorallypresented:
sermonsandprayers,schoollecturesandhomilies.Allofitwaswrittendown
inthetwelfthcenturyorlater,atimeofspreadingliteracyinwesternEurope.
More people had access to written texts, and more business was conducted
using written materials, than had been the case during much of the preced-
inghalfmillennium.Andyettheincreaseinliteracy,toagreatextentdriven
bythegrowingrespectabilityofvernacularlanguages,resultedinanincreased
interestinmemoriaandworksdevotedtoitspractice,not,aswemightexpect,
adecrease.InthelatemedievalperiodEuropewasatimeofgreatlyincreased
audiences,insizeandindiversity,forallsortsofartisticcompositions,andthe
sheeramountstheyconsumedareastonishingtoconsidernow.Asweknow
frommanysources,amongthemChaucer’sWifeof Bath,vernacularpreach-
ingwasamajorsourceofentertainment.Ononefamousoccasion,aDomini-
canfriar,WilliamJordan(d.after),keptallLondonenthralledforaweek
with his preaching; another friar, Giordano of Pisa (d. ), preached for
successive Lenten seasons, five times a day for fortydays each time, to large
crowdsinthepiazzabeforeSantaMariaNovellainFlorence.Inaddition,lay
.HughofSt.Victor,Didascalicon.,Buttimeredition:‘‘Meditatioestcogitatiofrequens
cumconsilio....principiumsumitalectione,nullistamenstringiturregulisautpraeceptislec-
tionis.delectaturenimquodamapertodecurrerrespatio,...etnunchas,nuncillasrerumcausas
perstringere....undefitutmaximuminmeditationesitoblectamentum.’’

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