And, as Geoffrey of Vinsauf says, repeating a clicheóf long standing, the
memory-cell needs to be delighted as it works, lest too much heavy food
give it indigestion. The emotion of surprise in itself makes the page
effective in memory, whatever the meanings we may later give to its
many forms.
Appendix A
H U G H O F S T . VI C T O R : ‘‘ T H E T H R E E B E S T
M E M O R Y - A I D S F O R L E A R N I N G H I S T O R Y ’’ 1
My child, knowledge is a treasury and your heart is its strongbox. As you
study all of knowledge, you store up for yourselves good treasures, immor-
tal treasures, incorruptible treasures, which never decay nor lose the beauty
of their brightness. In the treasure-house of wisdom are various sorts of
wealth, and many filing-places in the store-house of your heart. In one
place is put gold, in another silver, in another precious jewels. Their orderly
arrangement is clarity of knowledge. Dispose and separate each single thing
into its own place, this into its and that into its, so that you may know what
has been placed here and what there. Confusion is the mother of ignorance
and forgetfulness, but orderly arrangement illuminates the intelligence and
secures memory.
You see how a money-changer who has unsorted coins divides his one
pouch into several compartments, just as a cloister embraces many separate
cells inside. Then, having sorted the coins and separated out each type of
money in turn, he puts them all to be kept in their proper places, so that the
distinctiveness of his compartments may keep the assortment of his materials
from getting mixed up, just as it supports their separation. 2 Additionally, you
observe in his display of money-changing, how his ready hand without
faltering follows wherever the commanding nod of a customer has caused
it to extend, and quickly, without delay, it brings into the open, separately
and without confusion, everything that he either may have wanted to receive
or promised to give out. And it would provide onlookers with a spectacle
silly and absurd enough, if, while one and the same money-bag should pour
forth so many varieties without muddle, this same bag, its mouth being
opened, should not display on its inside an equivalent number of separate
compartments. And so this particular separation into distinct places, which
I have described, at one and the same time eliminates for the onlookers any
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mystery in the action, and, for those doing it, an obstacle to their ability to
perform it.
Now as we just said by way of preface, a classifying-system for material
makes it manifest to the mind. Truly such manifestation of matters both
illuminates the soul when it perceives them, and confirms them in mem-
ory. Return, therefore, child, to your heart and consider how you should
dispose and collect in it the precious treasures of wisdom, so that you may
learn about its individual repositories, and when for safekeeping you place
something in them, dispose it in such an order that when your reason asks
for it, you are easily able to find it by means of your memory and under-
stand it by means of your intellect, and bring it forth by means of your
eloquence. I am going to propose to you a particular method for such
classification.
Matters that are learned are classified in the memory in three ways; by
number, location, and occasion. Thus all the things which you may have
heard you will both readily capture in your intellect and retain for a long
time in your memory, if you have learned to classify them according to
these three categories. I will demonstrate one at a time the manner in which
each should be used.
The first means of classifying is by number. Learn to construct in your
mind a line [of numbers] numbered from one on, in however long a
sequence you want, extended as it were before the eyes of your mind.
When you hear any number at all called out, become accustomed to
quickly turning your mind there [on your mental line] where its sum is
enclosed, as though to that specific point at which in full this number is
completed. For example, when you hear ten, think of the tenth place, or
when twelve, think of the twelfth, so that you conceive of the whole
according to its outer extent [along the line], and likewise for the other
[numbers].3 Make this conception and this way of imagining it practiced
and habitual, so that you conceive of the limit and extent of all numbers
visually, just as though [they were] placed in particular places. And listen to
how this mental visualization may be useful for learning.
Suppose for example that I wish to learn the psalter word for word by
heart. I proceed thus: first I consider how many Psalms there are. There are
150. I learn them all in order so that I know which is the first, which the
second, which the third, and so on. I then place them all by order in my
heart along my [mental] numerical line, and one at a time I designate them
to the seats where they are disposed in the grid, while at the same time,
accompanied by voicing or cogitation, I listen and observe closely until
each becomes to me of a size equivalent to one glance of my memory:
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341
‘‘Blessed is the man,’’ with respect to the first Psalm; ‘‘Why have the gentiles
raged,’’ with respect to the second; ‘‘Why, O Lord, are they multiplied,’’
with respect to the third; this [much] is kept in the first, second, and third
compartments. And then I imprint the result of my mental effort by the
vigilant concentration of my heart so that, when asked, without hesitation I
may answer, either in forward order, or by skipping one or several, or in
reverse order and recited backwards according to my completely mastered
scheme of places, what is the first, what the second, what indeed the
twenty-seventh, the forty-eighth, or whatever Psalm it should be.4 In this
manner [disputants] demonstrate [that] the scriptures confirm their own
arguments when, as they are about to use the authority of some one Psalm,
they say this is written in the 63rd, this in the 75th, or whatever other Psalm,
fetching forth for reference not its name but its number. For surely, you do
not think that those who wish to cite some one of the Psalms have turned
over the manuscript pages, so that starting their count from the beginning
they could figure out what number in the series of Psalms each might have?
The labor in such a task would be too great. Therefore they have in their
heart a powerful mental device, and they have retained it in memory, for
they have learned the number and the order of each single item in the series.
Having learned the Psalms [as a whole], I then devise the same sort of
scheme for each separate Psalm, starting with the beginning words of the
verses just as I did for the whole psalter starting with the first words of the
psalms, and I can thereafter easily retain in my heart the whole series one
verse at a time; first by dividing and marking off the book by [whole]
Psalms a
nd then each Psalm by verses, I have reduced a large amount of
material to such conciseness and brevity. And this [method] in fact can
readily be seen in the Psalms or in other books containing obvious
divisions. When however the reading is in an unbroken series, it is neces-
sary to do this artificially, so that, to be sure according to the convenience
of the reader, [at those places] where it seems [to him] most suitable, first
the whole piece is divided into a fixed number of sections, and these again
into others, these into yet others, until the whole length of material is so
parceled up that the mind can easily retain it in single units. For the
memory always rejoices in both brevity of length and paucity of number,
and therefore it is necessary, when the sequence of your reading tends
towards length, that it first be divided into a few units, so that what the
mind could not comprehend in a single expanse it can comprehend at least
in a number, and again, when later the more moderate number of items is
sub-divided into many, it may be aided in each case by the principle of
paucity or brevity.
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So you see the value to learning a numerical division-scheme; now see
and consider of what value for the same thing is the classification-system
according to location. Have you never noticed how a boy has greater
difficulty impressing upon his memory what he has read if he often changes
his copy [of a text] between readings? Why should this be unless it is
because, when the image-receiving power of the heart is directed outward
through the senses into so many shapes from diverse books, no specific
image can remain within [the inner senses] by means of which a memory-
image may be fixed? For when something is brought together to be
fashioned into an image from all [the copies] indiscriminately, one super-
imposed upon another, and always the earlier being wiped away by later
ones, nothing personal or familiar remains which by use and practice can
be clearly possessed. Therefore it is a great value for fixing a memory-image
that when we read books, we strive to impress on our memory through the
power of forming our mental images not only the number and order of
verses or ideas, but at the same time the color, shape, position, and place-
ment of the letters, where we have seen this or that written, in what part, in
what location (at the top, the middle, or the bottom) we saw it positioned,
in what color we observed the trace of the letter or the ornamented surface
of the parchment. Indeed I consider nothing so useful for stimulating the
memory as this; that we also pay attention carefully to those circumstances
of things which can occur accidentally and externally, so that for example,
together with the appearance and quality or location of the places in which
we heard one thing or the other we recall also the face and habits of the
people from whom we learned this and that, and, if there are any, the things
that accompany the performance of a certain activity. All these things
indeed are rudimentary in nature, but of a sort beneficial for boys.
After the classifications by number and place follows the classification by
occasions, that is: what was done earlier and what later, how much earlier
and how much later, by how many years, months, days this precedes that
and that follows this other. This classification is relevant in a situation
when, according to the varying nature of the occasions on which we learned
something, at a later time we may be able to recall to our mind a memory of
the content, as we remember that one occasion was at night and another by
day, one in winter, another in summer, one in cloudy weather, another in
sunshine. All these things truly we have composed as a kind of prelude [to
our learning], providing the basics to children, lest we, disdaining these
most basic elements of our studies, start little by little to ramble incoher-
ently. Indeed the whole usefulness of education consists only in the
memory of it, for just as having heard something does not profit one
Appendix A
343
who cannot understand, likewise having understood is not valuable to one
who either will not or cannot remember. Indeed it was profitable to have
listened only insofar as it caused us to have understood, and to have
understood insofar as it was retained. But these are as it were basics for
knowledge, which, if they are firmly impressed in your memory, open up
all the rest readily. We have written out this [list of names, dates, and
places] for you in the following pages, disposed in the order in which we
wish them to be implanted in your soul through memory, so that whatever
afterwards we build upon it may be firm.
All exposition of divine Scripture is drawn forth according to three
senses: literal, allegorical, and tropological, or moral. The literal is the
narrative of history, expressed in the basic meaning of the letter. Allegory is
when by means of this event in the story, which we find in the literal
meaning, another action is signified, belonging to past or present or future
time. Tropology is when in that action which we hear was done, we
recognize what we should be doing. Whence it rightly receives the name
‘‘tropology,’’ that is, converted speech or replicated discourse, for without a
doubt we turn the word of a story about others to our own instruction
when, having read of the deeds of others, we conform our living to their
example.
But now we have in hand history, as it were the foundation of all
knowledge, the first to be laid out together in memory. But because, as
we said, the memory delights in brevity, yet the events of history are nearly
infinite, it is necessary for us, from among all of that material, to gather
together a kind of brief summary – as it were the foundation of a founda-
tion, that is a first foundation – which the soul can most easily comprehend
and the memory retain. There are three matters on which the knowledge of
past actions especially depends, that is, the persons who performed the
deeds, the places in which they were performed, and the time at which they
occurred. Whoever holds these three by memory in his soul will find that
he has built a good foundation for himself, onto which he can assemble
afterwards anything by reading and lecture without difficulty and rapidly
take it in and retain it for a long time. However, in so doing it is necessary
to retain it in memory and by diligent retracing to have it customary and
well known, so that his heart may be ready to put in place everything he has
heard, and apply those classification-techniques which he will have learned
now, to all things that he may hear afterwards by a suitable distribution
according to their place, date, and person.
While [the circumstances of] time and number measure off length in the
chest of memory, [the aspect of] place extends the area in width, so that the
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rest of the material may then be disposed in its locations. First, therefore,
we will place in
order our persons together with their dates, extending them
from the beginning along the length of the time-line, [and] we will mark
off our places, however many will adequately allow for the full extent of our
summary, gathered up out of all the material. Now indeed endeavor to
imprint in this fashion in your memory the matters which are written out
below, according to the method and diagram for learning by heart dem-
onstrated to you earlier, so that by experience you can know the truth of my
words, when you perceive how valuable it is to devote study and labor not
just to having heard the lectures on the scriptures or to discussion, but to
memory-work.
The creation of nature was completed in six days and the renewal of man
will be achieved in six stages. The world was made before time began,
fashioned in six days, put in order in the first three days, and fitted out and
decorated in the three following. On the first day was made light, on the
second the firmament between the waters above and the waters below. On
the third day the waters which were under the firmament were gathered
together in one place, and dry land appeared, and produced green plants
and those which make fruits. Behold the arrangement of the four elements.
The heaven was stretched out above, next the air was made clear, next the
waters were gathered together in one place, then the land was revealed. Its
equipping and decoration followed.5 On the fourth day lights – the sun,
moon, and stars – were created for ornamenting the heaven. On the fifth
day fish were created from the waters, and birds, birds for decoration of the
air, fish for equipping the waters. On the sixth day were made the beasts of
burden, wild beasts, and the rest of living creatures, for ornament of the dry
lands.
At the very last, in fulfillment of all, humankind was created, Adam and
Eve. When he was 130 years old, Adam engendered Seth. And Adam lived
after he engendered Seth 800 years. Thus it is found in the Hebrew.
However the authors of the Septuagint place 230 years before the birth of
Seth, 700 after. And in all the period of Adam’s life was 930 years. And
likewise the others follow along in the columns of the diagram according to
the true disposition of the Hebrew.
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