The Art of Memory

by Frances A. Yates

Book Overview

One of Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century In this classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page, Frances A. Yates traces the art of memory from its treatment by Greek orators, through its Gothic transformations in the Middle Ages, to the occult forms it took in the Renaissance, and finally to its use in the seventeenth century. This book, the first to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226950018
• ISBN13: 9780226950013
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Excellent. It will change your views on Architecture and the Mind.

I consider this one of the most important books I have ever read. It changed my views on ancient and medieval architecture, memory, and the mind. Specifically, this book is the history of the art of memory. It is about how in the age before books or wide-spread literacy, human beings were able to memorize massive amounts of information. For example, the traveling poets in Greece, Cicero in Rome, etc. It also details some architecture was actually designed to facility memorization. The book also discusses the hermetic tradition, some aspects of alchemy and the zodiac, and other related matters - all within the context of the human mind and the human ability to utilize "mental structures," "pictures," and other "devices" - as well as "architecture" to assist in memory and thinking. This book is a scholarly work and was written by a scholar. It is excellent, but it is not a simple or easy book. It is wide-ranging. You will learn some history and some aspects of memorization techniques. But it is not a book on memorization techniques (but you will understand the most important ones from reading this book). It is much better than a how-to-book on memory or memorization. Again, this is one of the most important books I have read and I encourage the serious reader interested in human memory, thinking, architecture, history, etc. to read this book. Excellent.

This book will change your life

Quite simply one of the dozen or so most amazing books of history ever written. It will change your idea of history, art and even your own memory. It is a decisive work on the Renaissance and goes along way to explaining the development of perspective in painting and of the Elizabethan theater. But more than anything else this book reveals, as never before to this reader, the power and glory of the human imagination. It reawakens an ancient secret. Memory itself had been forgotten until Yates recalled it out of history's unconscious. This book is one for the ages.

Outstanding book

An incredible book and very historical in nature. I would refer to the previous reviews of this book in the light of their individual statements. The reviewers helped me in the purchasing of this book, also Yates, and her research on the art of memory does not disappoint me. In fact, this book has taken me in many different directions regarding memory: Loci, mnemonics, mnemotechnics, history, mysticism, magic, mathematics, Egyptology, alchemy. This book is very special because of the implications that a "art of memory" has on our history, and I believe in our future. This book is not the easiest of reading material (I am no history buff) but is a spectacular read.

If "revelatory" weren't such a big word, I'd use it!

A book about memory? Mnemonics, eh? Dull stuff...WRONG!!! This is just about the most engrossing scholarly work I have ever read. Quite apart from displaying a masterly grasp of her subject, which is far more interesting than I would have believed before reading the book, Yates throws fascinating light on a number of seemingly unrelated topics: the Roman art of rhetoric, the architecture of the Globe theatre, the foundations of Renaissance syncretism, the rise of the scientific method, the delightful irony of a patron saint of science turning out to be an arch-magician, psychological aspects of imagination... -- the list is a long one. However, for me, it is Yates' illumination of the profound relationship between the scientific method and earlier attempts at mastering the universe by magical means, that stands out as a single, most important aspect of the book. In fact, I would go as far as to say that no study of history and/or philosophy of science can be complete without acknowledging and exploring the relevant insights of "The Art of memory".If you have any interest in human attempts to comprehend and control the universe, a well-thumbed copy of this book should be on your bookshelf!

A book to change one's world-view

I ran into this book after having learned over 3000 Chinese characters through what turned out to be Art of Memory techniques. (See James Heisig's books "Remembering the Kanji" series. Take it from me, the techniques work.) For anyone who is interested in Renaissance and pre-Renaissance history, art, or culture, I believe this book essential to understanding the mindset. Heartily recommended. For true mental whiplash, read this back to back with Julian Jaynes' "Consciousness as the Breakdown in the Bicameral Mind". You'll never think of Mind or Memory the same way again.