The Art of Memory

The ancient Greeks, to whom a trained memory was of vital importance - as it was to everyone before the invention of printing - invented an elaborate memory system based on a technique of impressing places and images on the mind. Inherited and recorded by the Romans, this art of memory passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, during the Renaissance and particularly by the strange and remarkable genius, Giordano Bruno. This is a study of the art of memory. Frances A. Yates is the author of Theatre of the World, Astraea and The Valois Tapestries.