The Art of Memory - Softcover

Frances A. Yates

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226950018 ISBN 13: 9780226950013

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

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 relate the art of memory to the history of culture as a whole, was revolutionary when it first appeared and continues to mesmerize readers with its lucid and revelatory insights.

About this title

About the Author

Frances A. Yates (1899-1981) was Reader in the History of the Renaissance at the University of London. Her other books include Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

From the Back Cover

The Art of Memory is the classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page. In it, 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 relate the art of memory to the history of culture as a whole, was revolutionary when it first appeared and continues to mesmerize readers with its lucid and revelatory insights.

From the Inside Flap

The Art of Memory is the classic study of how people learned to retain vast stores of knowledge before the invention of the printed page. In it, 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 relate the art of memory to the history of culture as a whole, was revolutionary when it first appeared and continues to mesmerize readers with its lucid and revelatory insights.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226950018
• ISBN 13: 9780226950013
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464