It sounds like it might be a kind of peg system(?) Instead of loci, images are attached to fixed pegs?
yes, it seems similar to the idea i encountered in thomas wilson’s arte of rhetorique who suggests filling the parts of a mythological beast with loci
Josh, I confess that I still don’t understand very precisely what is meant by “pegs.” Can you clarify? I mean, there’s no question that Bruno was using loci, but in his case especially that doesn’t mean he wasn’t using a whole bunch of other things simultaneously.
Loci are all physical places. Pegs are a sequence of images.
One way to create a peg system would be to generate a list of images.
Example, using number rhymes:
1 = gun
2 = shoe
3 = tree
4 = door
5 = hive
6 = sticks
etc.
Then, each object is a “peg” (as opposed to a locus) that things can be attached to.
Shopping list:
- Apricots -- shoot apricots with the gun
- Milk -- a dirty shoe is floating in a large milk bottle
- Bread -- loaves of bread are growing on a tree and falling like coconuts (dangerous)
- Lettuce -- open a door and a giant lettuce falls out on top of you
Then just run through your pegs at the supermarket and the items should come to you…
Hi all, I’m very happy to find this thread. I’m a doctoral student and am very interested in creating a computer graphic/animated visualization of the memory system described in De Umbris Idearum. I am inspired by Francis Yates’ description in Chapter IX of The Art of Memory and her circular chart. I found a Latin graduate student at my university who is familiar with the medieval period and can do translations. I paid him out of pocket to translate the lists inventors, adjective and objects. [The astrological images (Imagines Faceirum) have been translated elsewhere]. This was a great start, but I also want to get a translation of the text of Part 2 which describes the functioning of the wheels:
http://www.esotericarchives.com/bruno/arsmemo3.htm
The grad student is willing to do this translation, but I cannot afford to pay for that amount of work. Would this be something for the Kickstarter campaign?
For clarification: I’m mainly interested in Part 2, not the whole book.
Here is the Yates I’m referring to:
Hey i would really love to read the shadow of ideas by bruno i hope a good translation can get going. http://www.tomaszahora.org/CantusCircaeusTranslation.htm Heres a link for Cantus Circaeus - The Incantations to Circe. You guy have probably came across it this was the first more full free translation i have found. Bruno gives a pretty good run down of various ways to work with mnemonics systems. i have put all the English together in a pdf if anyone wants to check it out send me a message.
Got what appears to be a piece of spam on this thread. Perhaps it’s already been chucked. If so, please chuck this one too, and sorry to all readers…
An English translation is now available. Here it is on Amazon.
I’m happy to answer questions about it, or about the memory palace technique more generally.
Thanks for posting this! It’s awesome to finally have an English translation available.
After spending time with Bruno’s system, do you think that’s it’s actually a workable technique?
I think that the method of loci technique works in general. I’ve seen people using it to good effect in the World Memory Championships, and I used to use a variation of it to prepare for certain exams. If you actually want to use the method, you’re better off taking the basic rules as presented in Ad Herennium or by Quintilian. Bruno is an interesting read, and will give you a stronger impression of how extensive the method can be (Bruno himself must have had reallly BIG memory palaces, and a remarkable natural memory), but De Umbris wasn’t written with simplicity in mind. I think Bruno was very taken with the idea of having a whole universe (or at least a living library) in his head, and loved to build these memory images with the same amount of detail, allusion and elaboration that you would find in the Sistine Chapel or other major artwork of the era.