Francis T. Marchese Computer Science Department Pace University New York, NY 10038 fmarchese@pace.edu

Medieval Visualization and the Art of

Memory

Cambridge University Library, MS Gg 1.1, f. 490v, c. 1307

Origins

Where visualizations are to be found:

• Carolingian manuscripts associated with the

quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and

astronomy)

• Most charts and diagrams either astronomical or

cosmological in nature

Three seminal authors:

• Macrobius (c. 395 – 423)

• Boëthius (c. 480 – 524)

• Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636)

Charlmagne quizzing his wise men about the Milky Way

Bay 07, The Legends of Charlemagne, Chartres Cathedral

The Corpus of Medieval Narrative Art : http://www.medievalart.org.uk/index.html

Carolingian Renaissance

8th to 9th Century

Charlemagne (742 – 814)

Dissemination

Increased Scholarship

Standardized:

Language

Writing

Education

Rota Annus diagram, Isidore of Seville, c. 800 (MS. Clm

14300, f. 14, Munich Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

Concordance of seasons & months of

the year, Isidore of Seville, c. 800 (MS.

422, f. 6v, Laon, Bibliotheque

municipale)

Concordance of circuits of the moon,

through the 12 months & zodiac & planets.

Isidore of Seville, c. 801 – 850 (MS. 422, f.

54, Laon, Bibliotheque municipale)

De natura rerum, Isidore of Seville,

c. 760-780 (Cod. Sang. 238, St.

Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek)

Tables

Table concerning the zodiac signs

and movements of the moon, 2nd

half 13th C. (Harley 3735 f. 15v,

British Library)

Consanguinity Table, Isidore of

Seville, c. 560 – 636, Etymologiae,

c. 880 (Cod. Sang. 231, f. 340, St.

Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek)

Eclipses of the Moon,

1386 - c. 1400 (Arundel

347, f. 34, British Library)

Elements Diagram, 1st half of the 12th century

(MS. Digby 23 (Pt 1), Bodleian Library, Oxford)

Arcs

Boethius (c. 480 – 524), De Institutione Musica, c. 11C

(Arundel MS. 77, British Library)

Trees Porphyry’s Tree, 2nd half 12th C or 1st

half 13th C, (Royal MS.15 B IV, British

Library)

On Christian Doctrine (1202) (Royal 5 B XII, Part 2, fol.

4. British Library).

Blood Letting Man, Physician's folding almanac, 1406

(Harley MS 5311, British Library)

Infographics

Urine Flasks, Physician's folding almanac, 1406

(Harley MS 5311, British Library)

Visual Analytics

Byrhtferth's Diagram, c. 1102–10, Thorney Computus

(MS 17, f. 7v, Saint John’s College, Oxford)

Sphere of Life and Death , 14th C

(Harley 3719, f. 175v, British

Library).

Computus Table, (MS. 17, f. 30r, St.

John's College, Oxford)

Metaphor & Allegory

• Metaphor - “something regarded as representative or

suggestive of something else, especially as a material

emblem of an abstract quality, condition, notion, etc.;

a symbol, a token.”

• Allegory - an extended form of metaphor; a

representational scheme in which objects, persons,

and actions in a narrative, poem, or image are equated

with meanings outside the narrative itself.

Visualizing Virtues and Vices

• Complex material made visualizations desirable

• Visualization transcended limits of textual learning

– viewer could absorb material more quickly

• Images took on significant role

– visual summaries of the text

– focal point of a lesson - text introduced the imagery

• Two kinds of representation

– Dynamic view -visualizations embody dynamics of virtue-

vice struggle.

– Static view - trees used to display theological insight

Speculum Virginum (Mirror for virgins)

• Guide for nuns (12th C)

• Humility thrusts her sword

through Pride’s breast

• Flanked by two triumphant

biblical women

o Jeal (left) & Judith (right)

o Jael on corpse of Sisera,

has pierced his head with

a tent stake (Judges 4:21)

o Judith stands on slain

body of Holofernes

(Judith 13:1–10)

Humility Slaying Pride

Tree of Vices, (MS. Arundel 83 II, fol. 128v,

British Library)

Tree of Virtues (MS. Arundel 83 II, fol. 129r,

British Library)

Abstraction vs. Appearance

Reliquary bust of St. Mabille, Siena, 1370 – 1380,

painted and gilded poplar wood. (Cl 2624, Musée de

Cluny, Paris, France).

Medieval Visualization

Cambridge University Library, MS

Gg 1.1, f. 490v, c. 1307

Anterior part of Brain

Middle part of Brain

Posterior part of Brain

Common or Imaging

Sense

Imagination or power

of shaping

Estimation

Power of cogitating or

imagining

Memory

Process of Thought Formation

Art of Memory

• Art of memory -- a collection of mnemonic principles

and techniques used to organize memory impressions,

improve recall, and assist in the combination and

invention of ideas.

• Roots in antiquity -- documented in writings of :

– Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

– Cicero (106–43 BCE)

– Quintilian (c. 35 – c. 100 CE)

• Simonides of Ceos (c. 556 – 468 BC)

Medieval Art of Memory

Medieval art of memory (memoria) -- used for meditation and

composing lectures, sermons, stories, or poems.

– Acts of invention, created by drawing upon an inventory of

knowledge that was consumed, broken down into

manageable chunks, and correlated

Part of Trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric)

– Grammar -- the art of inventing symbols and combining

them to express thought

– Logic -- the art of thinking

– Rhetoric -- the art of communicating thought from one

mind to another, the adaptation of language to

circumstance.

Method of Loci (Memory Palace)

• Architecture and maps become the natural organizational

construct for spatially arranging information.

• Individual memorizes the layout of a building, or any

geographical entity composed of a number of discrete loci

(locations).

• To remember a collection of concepts the individual walks

through these loci, and assigns a concept to each locus by

forming a mental image between the concept and some

distinctive feature of that location.

• Concept retrieval is achieved by walking through the loci to

stimulate recall of the desired concepts.

Royal 13 A XI f. 33v, British Library, c. 12th C.

Table of finger calculation

Calculating 19 year lunar cycle.

Including fingertips and joints gives 19 locations

for epacts

St John’s College, Oxford, MS 17, f. 98v, ca. 1102–10

Guidonian hand

U Penn Ms. Codex 1248, f. 122r, c. 1450 - 1499

De natura rerum. Sententiae BSB Clm 14300,

Salzburg, end of 9th C / beginning 10th .

Zones of the Earth

God creating the earth, Tours Cathedral, 13th C

The Corpus of Medieval Narrative Art :

http://www.medievalart.org.uk

Memoria

• Visualization and spatial

orientation -- memoria’s

most important

organizing principles

• Every concept is attached

to an image

• Image positioned within

the mind’s virtual space

to make it easily

retrievable and

meaningful.

Mass of St Gregory (15th C), Musée de Cluny, Paris

Plan of Saint Gall, c. 819 or about

827/830. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek,

Cod. Sang. 1092:

Architecture

http://www.stgallplan.org/en/index_plan

.html

Architecture

World Map of Saint Sever Beatus, c. 1060.

BnF, Manuscripts, Latin 8878, f. v 45a - 45b

Tower of Wisdom

(Beinecke MS 416, Beinecke Rare Book

and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

Tower of Wisdom

Translation, Yale University

Today?

• Knowledge doubling every 18 months

• Human agents cannot process and retain boundless

quantities of information

• Rely on External scaffolding -- external forms of

memory devised as adjuncts to human biological

working memory

– mnemonics, codes, diagrams, photographs, books,

rituals, computer systems, etc.

• Art of memory still taught

Thank you for Listening!