The Mnemonic Works of Giardano Bruno

Frances Yates' reconstruction of Giordano Bruno's memory wheel from `De Umbris Idearum'

Giordano Bruno developed an art, science and philosophy which was Hermetic in nature.In the introduction to the translated version of Bruno's work,On the Composition of Images, Signs & Ideas, translator Dick Higgins states writes in the introduction:

"Bruno argues for the unity of all the arts in a way that suggests 19th Century ideas about synesthesia or 20th Century ones about intermedia. . . the convergence of poetry, prose and visual art, is of interest today also, and it is noteworthy that Bruno provides a historic paradigm for this."

He devised memory systems of the utmost complexity in nature stressing systematic classification of observable material and representing it in a manipulatable symbol.




(imagine these wheels are spinning)


In the first fixed ring the practitioner will assign a mythological or heroic figure to each letter. Bruno provides some examples : A Lycaon; B Deucalion; C Apollo; D Argos and so on. The letters of the second ring correspond to an action or a scene associated with each figure. The examples provided are: AA Lycaon at a banquet; BB Deucalion and pebbles; CC Apollo and Python; DD Argos and some cattle. Thus rotating the first inner ring operates permutations between the figures and their action. Further permutation occurs when the third wheel is set in motion. It contains attributes or enseignes which can be easily passed from one figure to another. Bruno provides only four examples and leaves the rest to the imagination of his reader. These are : AAA, Lycaon at a banquet with a chain; BBB, Deucalion and pebbles with a headband; CCC, Apollo and Python with a baldric; DDD, Argos and some cattle with a hood. This way the systems makes it possible to create combinations of letters representing words, acronyms or syllables to be remembered by means of animated images mixing the attributes and accustomed actions of familiar mythological figures.

BAA: B Deucalion A at a banquet A with a chain
MAD: M Perseus A at a banquet D with a hood
CAD: C Apollo A at a banquet D with a hood
COD: C Apollo O and Proserpina D with a hood

Objections to this system are that it requires far more cognitive effort to memorise the images than the words themselves however I like this system and structure as a solution and as a device to create narrative images in order to aid memory.

Today thanks to recent technology a single individual can carry several thousands of texts, sounds and images in a container smaller than a pack of cigarettes and access them through a screen. Studies on the survival of the Ancient art of visually organising, combining and retrieving knowledge may now be apprehended as early modern solutions to eminently contemporary problems.