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The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures Edited by MARY CARRUTHERS AND JAN M. ZIOLKOWSKI University of Pennsylvania Press 8 1 3 f o 1 t e e h s / Y R O M E M The Medieval Craft of Memory F O T F A R C L A V E I D E M E H T / s r e h t u r r a C 0 5 6 6 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 2 t e e h s / Y R O M E M F MATERIAL TEXTS O T F SeriesEditors A R C RogerChartier AnthonyGrafton L A V JoanDeJean JaniceRadway E DI JosephFarrell PeterStallybrass E M E H T / Acompletelistofbooksintheseries s r isavailablefromthepublisher. e h t u r r a C 0 5 6 6 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 3 t e e h s / Y R O M E The Medieval Craft M F O T F of Memory A R C L A V E I An Anthology of Texts and Pictures D E M E H T / s r e Edited by h t u r ar MARY CARRUTHERS AND C 0 65 JAN M. ZIOLKOWSKI 6 PENN UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Philadelphia 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 4 t e e h s / Y R O M E M F PublicationofthisbookwasaidedbyagrantfromtheAbrahamandRebeccaStein O T FacultyPublicationFundofNewYorkUniversity,DepartmentofEnglish F A R C Copyright©UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress L Allrightsreserved A V PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper E I D E M           E H T Publishedby / UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress rs Philadelphia,Pennsylvania- e h t u LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData r r Themedievalcraftofmemory:ananthologyoftextsandpictures/ a C editedbyMaryCarruthersandJanM.Ziolkowski. 50 ISBN---(cloth:alk.paper) 6 6 p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. .Mnemonics. I.Carruthers,Mary. II.Ziolkowski,JanM.,–. III.Series. BF.M  .''—dc  8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 5 t e e h s / Y R MO Contents E M F O T F A R C L A V E I D E GeneralIntroduction  M E .HughofSt.Victor,TheThreeBestMemoryAidsfor H T LearningHistory  / s .HughofSt.Victor, ALittleBookAboutConstructingNoah’sArk  r he .TheGuidonianHand  t ru .[AlanofLille],OntheSixWingsoftheSeraph  r Ca .BoncompagnodaSigna,OnMemory  0 .AlbertusMagnus,CommentaryonAristotle,OnMemory 5 6 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  8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T This page intentionally left blank 8 1 3 f o 7 t e e h s / Y R O GENERAL INTRODUCTION M E M MaryCarruthersandJanM.Ziolkowski F O T F Thisanthologyisdevotedtothemethodsofacraftthatseemstomany A R C peoplenownotjustantiquatedbutwrongheaded—howcanourownmem- AL ory be thought of as the product of a craft? And even more to the point, V IE whyshoulditbe?Inonecommonmeaningoftheword,‘‘memory’’specifi- D ME cally connotes ‘‘storage,’’ a treasure house both of experiences and of facts. E Wecanthinkofourmemoriesasbeinglikevaluablesinabankvault,justsit- H T tinginourbrains,collectingdustandgrime,perhaps(inapoorlymadeand / s tendedvault)sufferingdepredationsfromratsandairpollution,untilobliv- r e h ion overtakes them.This is a curious intellectual model, for it suggests that t u r ourmemoriesareessentiallypassiveimpressionsofexperienceswehavehad r Ca that can be taken out whole and unchanged whenever we need them. The 50 notionthatinre-collectingweactuallymake(andremake)ourmemoriesisre- 6 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, 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 8 t e e h s  GeneralIntroduction / Y R O memory-making was regarded as active; it was even a craft with techniques M E M andtools,alldesignedtomakeanethical,usefulproduct. F O Theanthologywehavebroughttogetherherecollectssomeofthetools T F thoughtusefulintheMiddleAgesformemory-making.Initarebothwords A CR andpictures,intimatelyandcollaborativelyrelatedasdevicesforcomposing AL thoughts and memories. In the words can be found many pictures—in the V E pictures many words. Moreover, it is not so apparent where one medium I D E leaves off and the other begins, for manyof the pictures arevisual puns and M E picturesofwordsandmanyofthewordsareverbalpaintingsanddrawings. H T In medieval learned cultures (all the material in this volume was produced / s in learned, even academic circles for purposes of reading and new compo- r he sition), such a thorough mixing of media, especially the visual and the ver- t ru bal, was commonplace. These two media not only referred importantly to r Ca other ‘‘things’’ both worldlyand spiritual in nature—thus having some sort 0 ofrepresentational‘‘content,’’inoursenseoftheword—butwereconsidered 5 6 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- 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T 8 1 3 f o 9 t e e h s GeneralIntroduction  / Y R O jects...Whenceitisthatinmeditationistobefoundthegreatestpleasure M E 1 M andamusement.’’ F O Thus,asanart,memorywasmostimportantlyassociatedintheMiddle FT Ages with composition, not simply with retention. Medieval memoria took A CR theinventivefunctionofhumanmemoryforgranted,andemphasizedit.In- AL deed, thosewho practiced the crafts of memory used them—as all crafts are V E used—to make new things: prayers, meditations, sermons, pictures, hymns, I D E stories,andpoems.Studentsofartandliteraturehavelongremarkedonthe M E intensely pictorial and affective qualities of these arts in the Middle Ages. H T Commonly this has been attributed to a need to accommodate the ‘‘rustic’’ / s qualities of theiraudiences. But a better reason for these characteristics may r he lie in the methods used to compose such works of art—in which case their t ru pictorialintensitymustbeunderstoodnotasacondescensiontorudeminds r Ca butasacreativedeviceofmeditationitself,thefirsttaskofanartist,whether 0 ofprayerorpainting,planninghiswork.Andinthelastinglypowerfuleffect 5 6 6 these images, this music, these stories have had over the centuries, the con- 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.’’ 8 2 : 7 0 1 . 7 . 2 0 0 2 g n e s T

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