Reading ancient thoughts on memory

[Josh (Josh Cohen)]

If you haven’t seen them yet, there are some pages on the site about other ancient writers:

Quintilian on Memory

Pliny the Elder on Ancient Memory Feats

"In the First Place, in the Second Place"

Simonides of Ceos and the Method of Loci

Passage from Rhetorica ad Herennium

Interesting passage in Rhetorica ad Herennium, from 2,100 years ago: Now, lest you should perchance regard the memorizing of words either as too difficult or as of too little use, and so rest content with the memorizing of matter, as being easier and more useful, I must advise you why I do not disapprove of memorizing words. I believe that they who wish to do easy things without trouble and toil must previously have been trained in more difficult things. Nor have I included memorization of word…