13-02-2017, 01:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 13-02-2017, 01:24 PM by Diane.
Edit Reason: clarity
)
Koen and friends,
Obviously I'm happy to see how many people now accept the idea that some drawings in the manuscript are there to aid the memory of an informed reader about more complex, or more tangential information.
Things were pretty grim on that score a few years ago, and even when someone found that something similar had once been said by d'Imperio, her understanding of the subject was based on a most inapt source - Frances Yates' book.
So I hope it's ok to let people know what is meant by 'mnemonic devices' in the context of ancient and medieval custom.
First, a mnemonic is not just any kind of doodle-thing like a pen-test. Mnemonics were always a sort of visual 'key' or cue to a much deeper or broader network of language-based (and usually of text-based) information.
Not like imagining Mr. Fischer by thinking of a fish! It was more like after having memorised the content of the larger Encyclopaedia Britannica article on whaling verbatim, then drawing the picture of one harpoon.
Mnemonics jogged one's memory; they didn't take the place of text-based information. That's why the cue to the relevance of a mnemonic is often a phrase or even just one word [e.g. the Latin word 'draco' as cue to Dracaena on f.25v] . And if you can identify the word, then its language can tell us something really helpful - beyond just the subject of e.g. one botanical image.
Mnemonics and just how to develop memory were things carefully studied, and even taught systematically, in the centuries before printing.
So any genuinely mnemonic elements in the Vms won't have been created by individualistic whim, and cant be recognised and interpreted solely by relying on imagination and 'commonsense'; first you need to appreciate the formal medieval methods and attitudes - because that's what is likely to inform any genuine mnemonic details.
Anyone interested in this issue - I'd strongly recommend you not to define an element in any Vms drawing as a mnemonic until you're reasonably sure you understand the the historical context, and have found some other similar image used to similar purpose..these are how you can tell if you're identification of a 'mnemonic' is trustworthy or just a bit of guesswork and imagination.
As reading... definitely NOT Yates' book which is now largely disregarded and has quite the wrong period and cultural environment for the VMS- but the books by Mary Carruthers are appropriate to the period we want, and they have revolutionised our understanding of this subject since the 1980s. They became immediately and are still the standard references for discussion of this subject and European practice before c.1475.
Cheers.
Obviously I'm happy to see how many people now accept the idea that some drawings in the manuscript are there to aid the memory of an informed reader about more complex, or more tangential information.
Things were pretty grim on that score a few years ago, and even when someone found that something similar had once been said by d'Imperio, her understanding of the subject was based on a most inapt source - Frances Yates' book.
So I hope it's ok to let people know what is meant by 'mnemonic devices' in the context of ancient and medieval custom.
First, a mnemonic is not just any kind of doodle-thing like a pen-test. Mnemonics were always a sort of visual 'key' or cue to a much deeper or broader network of language-based (and usually of text-based) information.
Not like imagining Mr. Fischer by thinking of a fish! It was more like after having memorised the content of the larger Encyclopaedia Britannica article on whaling verbatim, then drawing the picture of one harpoon.
Mnemonics jogged one's memory; they didn't take the place of text-based information. That's why the cue to the relevance of a mnemonic is often a phrase or even just one word [e.g. the Latin word 'draco' as cue to Dracaena on f.25v] . And if you can identify the word, then its language can tell us something really helpful - beyond just the subject of e.g. one botanical image.
Mnemonics and just how to develop memory were things carefully studied, and even taught systematically, in the centuries before printing.
So any genuinely mnemonic elements in the Vms won't have been created by individualistic whim, and cant be recognised and interpreted solely by relying on imagination and 'commonsense'; first you need to appreciate the formal medieval methods and attitudes - because that's what is likely to inform any genuine mnemonic details.
Anyone interested in this issue - I'd strongly recommend you not to define an element in any Vms drawing as a mnemonic until you're reasonably sure you understand the the historical context, and have found some other similar image used to similar purpose..these are how you can tell if you're identification of a 'mnemonic' is trustworthy or just a bit of guesswork and imagination.
As reading... definitely NOT Yates' book which is now largely disregarded and has quite the wrong period and cultural environment for the VMS- but the books by Mary Carruthers are appropriate to the period we want, and they have revolutionised our understanding of this subject since the 1980s. They became immediately and are still the standard references for discussion of this subject and European practice before c.1475.
Cheers.
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