respect to the images, moreover, two things are helpful for the person
remembering. First he should not make up his images for himself too
speedily, but taking sufficient time he should impress every part of it by
concentrating profoundly and steadily. The second thing is that he should
with equal diligence commit to his memory not just the image itself, but also
its order in relation to what immediately precedes and follows it, so that as he
may wish he may recollect everything easily, going forwards or backwards.
But one achieves recollection in two ways: in an easy way, that is only by
the subject matter [i.e., memoria rerum]; in another difficult way, that is by
the very words [i.e., memoria verborum]. You need to have this two-fold art
of remembering. First, I will treat memory for the subject matter. Things to
be remembered are of two sorts, some sensory and some abstract. Of the
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sensory things, some are visual and some not. Of those visible some are
overly large, some overly small, and others are average. I will speak in the
first place about those that are average.
Suppose that someone must memorize the twelve signs of the Zodiac,
that is the Ram, the Bull, etc. So he might, if he wished to, make for himself
in the front of the first location a very white ram standing up and rearing on
his hind feet, with golden horns. And he might put a very red bull to the
right of the ram, kicking the ram with his rear feet; standing erect, the ram
with his right foot might kick the bull in his large and super-swollen
testicles, causing a copious effusion of blood. And by means of the testicles
one will recall that it is a bull, not a castrated ox or a cow.
In a similar manner, a woman may be placed before the bull as though
laboring in birth, and in her uterus as if ripped open from her breast may be
figured coming forth two most beautiful twins, playing with a horrible,
intensely red crab, which holds captive the hand of one of the little ones
and thus compells him to weeping and to such signs, the remaining child
wondering yet nonetheless touching the crab in a childish way. Or the two
twins might be placed there being born not of a woman but from the bull
in a miraculous manner, so that the principle of economy of material may
be observed. To the left of the ram a dreadful lion might be placed, who
with open mouth and rearing on its legs attacks a virgin, beautifully
adorned, tearing her garments. With its left foot the ram might inflict a
wound to the lion’s head. The virgin might hold in her right hand the
scales, for which might be fashioned a balance-beam of silver with a cord of
red silk, and weights of gold; on her left may be placed a scorpion horribly
stinging her so that her whole arm is swollen; and also she could strive to
balance the scorpion in the aforementioned scales.
Then in the front of the second location might be placed an archer with
suitable equipment, holding an astounding bow fully extended, in which
might be an even more astounding arrow, and he could strive to shoot
arrows at a goat standing erect slightly farther back in the same location,
remarkably hairy and shaggy, having a weird-looking horn and a golden,
luxuriant beard. And he might hold in his right foot a most remarkable jug
full of water, in his left foot unusual fishes, onto which he pours crystal-
clear water from the water-vessel. And if it should be necessary to remem-
ber more things, one may place their images in the following locations in a
similar manner. Having done so, the person remembering is able to recite
these things in whatever order he may want, forwards or backwards.
If however you wish to recall things of extreme size, whether large or
small, of the sort such as the world, an army, a city, a millet seed, an iota, or
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the smallest of worms, one makes average-sized images of them, perhaps of
the sort that are depicted by manuscript decorators, or one can acquire the
memory of such things through another thing that is opposite, similar, or
in some other way analogous to them. If you want to recall sensory
phenomena that are not visible, as for instance sweetness, place someone
feeding himself with something sweet, like sugar, honey, milk, or happily
tasting something else of this sort. But for bitterness, place someone
feeding himself on something bitter and immediately vomiting it up in a
disgusting manner. For foulness, place something smelling bad in the
presence of someone else, who pinches his nostrils with one hand as though
against the bad odor and with the other gestures contemptuously towards
this thing. For things entirely abstract, such as are God, an angel, infinite
space, and such matters, place an image as the painters make it, or you can
secure its recollection by means of something that is contrary to it, similar,
or analogous in another manner.
So much for memory-of-things, now memory-of-words demands its
time; concerning which I propose this particular algorithm for remember-
ing syllables presented to you, in order to commit a syllable artificially to
memory. The person remembering should have for himself a ready-made
image for any syllable always stored away by rote, which whenever he wants
he is able freely to use, and he may do this in the following manner. He
should consider and write down for himself the whole possible number of
syllables, and should also consider the same number of easily visualizable
things known to him, whose names in Latin or in his own language or in
another language known readily to him may start with those syllables or
coincide completely with them, which is even more useful. And because
among diverse languages, and even among different speakers of the same
language, frequently several different names for various things are used,
and occur more readily to memory, it is not really possible to give specific
advice that applies to all people. But each should take pains to adapt this
advice for himself to his own way of remembering, and most prudently
conserve his version without variation.
When, therefore, one wants to remember a certain syllable, one should
place something whose name begins with that syllable, or may be totally
coincident with it, in a particular location, as I demonstrated earlier, by
means of which one may immediately recall the name of that thing whose
first syllable it epitomizes, and one should work in a similar way with
regard to any syllable. But whoever might wish to shorten this labor should
do this using only the one language known to him whose instant recol-
lection seems the most useful to him; though in any single language there
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are fewer syllables than all those which might be needed. But certainly, the
principle behind this task of remembering syllables is extremely econom-
ical and very useful.
Every syllable is a vowel or is composed of a vowel and a consonant. For
the five vowels make for yourself five images in this way: for ‘A’ make for
yourself gold [aurum], a com
munion wafer [azimus], or Adam covering his
naked genitals with leaves, or something else of this sort whose name begins
with ‘ A,’ or nouns of the same sort you might know in a language other than
Latin that occurs to you more readily. For ‘ E’’ place Eve, naked, hiding her
prominent breasts with her long hair and her genitals with green leaves, or
something else of the sort I indicated earlier. And for the remaining vowels
you should make for yourself other images in a similar fashion.
For the shortest composite syllables, that is, ones constituted only from
one vowel and a consonant, you should work in exactly the same way. So,
for the ‘‘ab’’ syllable, imagine to yourself an abbot you know, dressed
appropriately; for ‘‘ba’’ a crossbowman [balisterius] with a belt and the
rest of the things that encumber him, and do the same thing for other
syllables of this kind. If however you should wish to work more econom-
ically, let an upright abbot indicate ‘‘ab’’ to you, an upsidedown one ‘‘ba’’;
an upright crossbowman ‘‘ba,’’ an upsidedown one ‘‘ab.’’ And thus you can
use only one image for pairs of syllables, according to its various positions.
For syllables of three letters, with two consonants at the extremes and a
vowel in the middle, the technique is the same in every respect. So, for the
syllable ‘‘bar’’ you might fashion Bartholomew, flayed; for ‘‘rab,’’ Rahab
the infamous harlot, or for this pair of syllables you might place only just
the one or the other according to one or the other likeness (upsidedown or
rightside-up), as I told you.
If however you wish to make the technique still easier, fashion for
yourself images for all the consonants, or at least for those which occur
often before or after syllables of two letters; of this sort are ‘‘r’’ and ‘‘l’’ and
those like them – there are a few exceptions. For the ‘‘l’’ consonant, there-
fore, if you are English, you can imagine for yourself an elbow, which
accords with that consonant both in name and shape. So, if you want to
recall ‘ bal,’ you might locate your image of the ‘ ba’ syllable, an upside-down
abbot (or an upright crossbowman, if you’d rather use that) and he might
hold the elbow by its middle sideways in his mouth (or in the other image it
might be attached to the uppermost part of the crossbowman) in order to
signify that the ‘‘ba’’ syllable must be followed by an ‘‘l.’’ And the ‘‘lab’’
syllable may be signified by the same image in the contrary situation. But
for remembering the syllable ‘‘bla,’’ position a crossbowman holding his
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elbow in his hand at his waist, if you like, or under his belt, which should
signify to you that ‘‘l’’ ought to be in the middle of the ‘‘ba’’ syllable, and in
this way it will figure for you the syllable ‘‘bla.’’ There are other syllables of
more letters, and for them a skillful person can readily enough extend this
technique. Let these examples, however, suffice for the technique of
remembering syllables.
Now let us consider how to remember words, concerning which a
technique of the same sort may be proposed for the remembering of a
word that has been put to you to be artificially recalled. This technique
follows from the previous one. All words have syllables in serial order, and
so when a memory of the syllables has been secured, a memory of the words
is also achieved. Another method however is shorter and handier, although
more prone to cause error. This involves mixing memory for the things
themselves with memory of their names. If you should need to recall a
certain word which signifies to you a thing for which you can make an
image, place for yourself the image of that thing itself instead of using the
special memory technique for a word. And if an image of a thing known to
you should present itself which would also serve for a word you propose to
remember, if possible take the name of something which, in two or more of
its syllables, sounds like that word. If however you cannot find one, at least
find something whose name in its first syllable sounds like your word,
which you can do according to the previous technique; and I should add
further that, just as it is a fact that one can recollect a whole from its parts
and the reverse, and sometimes the whole of a word from just its beginning,
and one of two things that are alike by means of the other, or one of two
contraries from the other, so also one can recall anything from something
added onto it or in any way pertaining to it.
These matters having thus been disposed of, it remains to speak about
how to remember sentences; the following algorithm may be proposed in
order to recite any sentence presented to you. This one follows from the
second one [concerning remembering words]. ‘‘Benedictus Dominus qui
per regem Anglie Berwicum fortissimum et totam Scotiam subiugavit.’’
[‘‘Blessed be the Lord who by means of the English king subjugated most
mighty Berwick and all Scotland.’’] For the first phrase, if you know
someone named Benedict, or even Saint Benedict the Abbot, place him
at the front of the first location; and if you have a lord you know, whom
you just call ‘‘dominus,’’ not using his actual name, place him injured in the
face, pulled by the hair, mangled, or, in some way touched by the right
hand of Benedict; or you might place there Saint Dominic or Emperor
Domitian or someone known to you called by a similar name. For the third
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word and the fourth, which are monosyllables, proceed according to the
technique for syllables; or for ‘‘qui’’ place a very white cow with very large
very red teats, erect upon her hind legs, whose right front foot Benedict
might hold with his left hand as though dancing with her. For indeed, a
cow is called ‘‘qui’’ [ky] in northern English. In addition the cow, in a
strange manner, holds in her left front foot a partridge [perdix], which will
give the word ‘‘per’’ to your memory.
Then in the foreground of the second location you should bring together
a king, resplendent in a crown and the other tokens of royal majesty, or if
you should know well any king, or someone called or surnamed King, or
one who in some game was a king, place him there, and let him hold in his
right hand an eel [anguilla] wriggling about greatly, which will give you
‘‘England’’ [Anglia].2 And in his left hand he might hold a bear by the tail or
foot, which in English would signify the two first syllables of the word
‘‘Berwicum,’’ and consequently the whole. From the other side of the bear
might come mighty Samson or a lion, and strike that bear; and so this will
figure to you ‘‘most mighty’’ [fortissimum]. Finally, the rest of this example
could be fashioned in a third location in a similar manner, by placing there
someone named Thomas, with his right hand subduing like a beast either a
Scot or someone so named or surnamed, or someone whom you know to
ha
ve campaigned vigorously in Scotland; and placing in his left hand an
impressive yoke. This technique is for remembering material presented
audibly, but certainly for remembering visual matter, such as recalling
written things, one may make use of a similar method.
Now my pen must turn to remembering numbers. So, for ‘‘one’’ you
might form a unicorn; for ‘‘two,’’ Moses with his two horns, perhaps, or the
two tablets; for ‘‘three,’’ a tripod, or the Trinity as it is usually painted in
churches; for ‘‘four,’’ one of Ezekiel’s creatures having four faces; for ‘‘five,’’
Christ crucified with his five wounds; for ‘‘six,’’ an angel with six wings; for
‘‘seven,’’ the Lamb which has seven horns or eyes; for ‘‘eight’’ [octo], the
emperor Octovian; for ‘‘nine,’’ an angel clothed in a very white garment
having nine very red transverse stripes, three above, three below, and three
in the middle, which may signify to you the nine orders of angels, or this: a
man with his thumb cut off, binding his wound with the other hand – for
then indeed only nine digits will remain; for ‘‘ten,’’ may be placed a zero or
the Greek letter ‘‘chi’’; and calculate the rest according to your skill in
algorism. But one who has learned the notary art will attain the highest
perfection of this craft.
Here ends the treatise of Master Thomas Bradwardine on acquiring a
trained memory. Thanks be to God, says R[obert] Emylton.
Notes
P R E F A C E T O T H E S E C O N D E D I T I O N
1. Conf., X . 8; translated by M. Boulding. Subsequent quotations are from this
translation; any alterations are indicated by square brackets.
2. Ricoeur, Memory, History, Forgetting, 67.
3. Weinrich, Lethe, 10.
4. Bolzoni, The Gallery of Memory, 139–145.
5. See the description of this episode in Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo
Ricci.
6. On the dating of Hugh of St. Victor’s works, see the entry by Roger Baron in
the Dictionnaire de Spiritualite´, s. v. Hugues de Saint-Victor. Didascalicon is
one of Hugh’s first works composed after he arrived in Paris in 1127; the
Chronicle and its preface is somewhat later (around 1130, from internal
evidence).
I N T R O D U C T I O N
1. Quoted from Miller, ‘‘Information and Memory,’’ 44–45.
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