The Art of Memory

(Paperback)

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Description

A revolutionary book about mnemonic techniques, and their relation to culture as a whole, which is itself hard to forget. This unique and brilliant book is a history of human knowledge. Before the invention of printing, a trained memory was of vital importance. Based on a technique of impressing 'places' and 'images' on the mind, the ancient Greeks created an elaborate memory system which in turn was inherited by the Romans and passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, during the Renaissance. Frances Yates sheds light on Dante's Divine Comedy, the form of the Shakespearian theatre and the history of ancient architecture; The Art of Memory is an invaluable contribution to aesthetics and psychology, and to the history of philosophy, of science and of literature.

Reviews

Frances Yates is that rare thing, a truly thrilling scholar -- Michael Ratcliffe * The Times *
One of those quite remarkable and unclassifiable books on the history of knowledge which suddenly makes sense of three or four issues in terms of one commanding metaphor -- Jonathan Miller * Observer *

Author Bio

Dame Frances Yates achieved a world-wide reputation as an historian. She was Reader in the History of the Renaissance at the Warburg Institute of the University of London and gained many academic honours. In 1972 she was appointed OBE and in 1977 DBE. Her publications include Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, Theatre of the World, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, and Shakespeare's Last Plays. Frances Yates died in 1981.