Renaissance art of memory

Nous présentons une solution nouvelle à l’énigme de ce « théâtre » (acheté en 1531 par François 1er, et livré par Camillo début 1534),  celle de sa conception intellectuelle, et celle de son fonctionnement, approche qui privilégie la logique rationnelle. Cette approche montre que l’invention de Camillo ne fait pas appel à des phénomènes de magie occulte restant irrationnels, mais s’avère une construction largement inspirée des thèses de Marsile Ficin, et notamment du christianisme néoplatonicien défendu par cet auteur. Elle distingue deux mécanismes différents pour garantir à l’usager les deux enjeux mentionnés par Camillo dans L’idea del theatro :
- le perfectionnement de l’éloquence pour tout discours, assuré par une structure logique sophistiquée sans art magique
- l’accès à une connaissance supérieure  pénétrant tous les secrets des principes du monde et élevant l’âme à une sagesse suprême, asssuré par la peinture spéciale des images du secteur central du "théâtre" (celui du Soleil) qui applique simplement la technique des images irradiantes décrite par Ficin dans son De triplici vita (cf. Copenhaver et Quinlan McGrath) : l'irradiation solaire de ces images centrales est censée communiquer à l'usager l'effet d'Intellect agent dont le soleil est porteur dans le christinanisme néoplatonicien de Ficin.
Enfin, cette approche peut être validée  par les deux citations du « théâtre » que donne le décor de la Galerie François 1er de Fontainebleau (1530-1539).

La structure énigmatique du décor de la Galerie François 1er de Fontainebleau repose sur inventions relevant du serio ludere, très prisé au début du 16e siècle pour ses différentes fonctions qui induisent les fonctions secrètes du décor, réservées aux princes Valois-Angoulême.

The kunst-und-wunderkammer or as it is known now, Cabinet of Curiosities, is a
practice by aristocratic Northern European collectors to create an assemblage of artifacts
from a collector’s travels as well as objects they commissioned for their collections. It is
also important to note that this practice was embraced not only in Northern Europe but
also in Italy, where it was known as a studiolo. The cabinet is best represented in prints as
a way of visualizing the collection. These prints also served as a tool to assist viewers in
learning the organization of the cabinet, allowing them to access the knowledge of the
collector himself. This method was part of a mnemonic practice called the “art of
memory.” It is a memory device that allowed an individual to remember a large amount
of information and retain it. Essentially, the cabinet was a physical manifestation of the
art of memory, the prints serving to outline the kunst-und-wunderkammer for the viewer
to help them understand and mentally organize the collection. This discussion will center
on the use of prints depicting sixteenth-century kunst-und-wunderkammers as visual
representations of mnemonic systems of organization.

Assai nota è la circostanza che mise in contatto a Venezia, nel 1528, Lorenzo Lotto con Giulio Camillo Delminio. Cioè il timore avvertito da Sebastiano Serlio, amico in comune, per una morte imminente che sarebbe però sopraggiunta solo poco meno di vent’anni dopo, nel 1544 a Fontainebleau. E' a partire allora dal documento notarile voluto dall’architetto, reso noto da Loredana Olivato nel 1971, che di seguito si ripercorre la dinamica Lotto-Camillo alla luce di due congiunture culturali in particolare. Consistenti l’una nell’interesse condiviso per una iconografia di ambito ermetico, l’altra per la funzione mnestica assegnata alle immagini nei rispettivi ambiti speculativi. Quindi all’interesse dimostrato da entrambi per l’arte della memoria. Dopo un breve paragrafo sulla prossemica dei gesti e dello sguardo nei dipinti di Lotto, il saggio si conclude con una nota sulla recente proposta di identificare l’uomo barbuto del Triplice ritratto di orafo ora a Vienna, con Giulio Camillo.

Cet article reprend l’hypothèse développée dans ma thèse d’histoire de l’art soutenue en 2019 à l’Université Bordeaux-Montaigne,  hypothèse reposant sur une méthode expérimentale testant toutes les unités du décor de la Galerie François 1er de Fontainebleau, y compris les disparues.
Le décor de cette Galerie organise deux réceptions : l’une pour les hôtes invités de passage, et l’autre réservée aux destinataires du lieu, François 1er et ses successeurs. A l’extrémité Ouest jusqu’en 1639,  le Bacchus et Vénus de Rosso, aujourd’hui conservé au MNHA de Luxembourg,  est la clef de l’énigme du décor et de sa réception réservée, et ce pour deux raisons.
D’une part, ce n’est pas un tableau ordinaire : il est doté d’une polysémie exceptionnelle – thème superficiel, vrai sujet apparent, image de mémoire de la Monarchie céleste et de ses 12 notions chrétiennes suivant le schéma du Monde céleste de Jean Thenaud, nature rayonnante, et mode d’emploi spécial- qui en font une mirabile.
D’autre part, doté de ces caractères très rares, le B&V peut fonctionner au service du système du décor et de sa réception réservée. Ce système applique à la lettre le principe issu du verset de St Paul (1 Co, XIII, 12) voulant que la vérité résulte d’une énigme, énigme résolue par analogie spéculaire du terrestre au céleste.
Le décor est bien une énigme, et sa solution réside dans la mise en miroir, par analogie, de la Monarchie céleste et de la monarchie terrestre (Valois-Angoulême). Or il se trouve que Jean Thenaud a défini le fonctionnement de la Monarchie céleste par trois rayonnements, l’un en interne, les deux autres en externe.
Le B&V assure par analogie, ces trois rayonnements dans la Galerie, notamment les deux rayonnements externes : il renvoie sur les 14 fresques des murs latéraux tout ce qu’il contient, et encadre le discours propre de chaque unité.

The essay aims to explore the theme of memory in Petrarch's Latin Works and in his intellectual experience, analysing especially one of the two metaphoric fields of memory, namely that which defines memory as a space that can be created, organised, filled with contents, and revisited with the specific aim of learning and discovering while remembering past events. Petrarch's constant interest in the structure and processes of memory and in the heuristic quality of the act of remembering seems to be effectively condensed into some metaphors (like thesaurus, arca, arx, cella, etc.) involved with the idea of repository that can be depicted in different ways depending on whether the aim is that of emphasising the value of the memories contained in it, or its possible religious applications, or its creative function.

The paper demonstrates that not only is the 1594 Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle the first complete Renaissance place of worship built in the British Isles, but is also a copy of Solomon's Temple, designed by the founder of modern Freemasonry, William Schaw.

El Artis historicae Penus de J. Wolf y P. Perna (1579): reflexiones sobre el arte de leer y escribir historias en el tardo-Renacimiento europeo The Artis historicae Penus of J. Wolf and Pietro Perna (1579): observations on the art of reading and writing histories in late European Renaissance Resumen El presente artículo constituye una traducción española con aparato crítico de los prólogos escritos por Johannes Wolf (compilador) y Pietro Perna (tipógrafo) de la primera antología historiográfica del tardo-Renacimiento europeo, denominada Artis historicae Penus (1579); antología que formó parte de un proyecto editorial de nuevo cuño y sin precedentes en lo que respecta a sus propósitos y alcance. En el breve ensayo de presentación que antecede a la traducción se discuten cuatro aspectos relativos a la antología y sus autores: (i.) soportes materiales y paratextuales, (ii.) biográficos, (iii.) político-religiosos y (iv.) gnoseológico-pedagógicos. Abstract This paper is a translation into Spanish, with notes and commentaries, of Artis historicae Penus (Johannes Wolf [compiler] and Pietro Perna [typographer], 1579), the first historiographical anthology of late European Renaissance. This anthology was part of a new unique editorial project regarding its purpose and scope. In the brief presentation essay that precedes the translation, four aspects regarding the anthology and its authors will be addressed: (i) paratextual layout, (ii) biographies, (iii) political and religious contexts, and (iv) epistemological and pedagogical frameworks.

Aunque se ha estudiado con detalle el impacto de los escritores renacentistas italianos en las obras de Cervantes, la crítica no ha considerado la importancia de Giambattista Della Porta. Della Porta publicó L'Arte del ricordare, sólo cuatro años antes de la llegada de Cervantes a Nápoles, ciudad que consideraba a Della Porta como uno de sus grandes pensadores. Este ensayo desarrolla la relación entre el concepto de la memoria en la obra de Della Porta y los textos cervantinos, comenzando con La Numancia e incluyendo Don Quijote. Estos textos contienen una serie de personajes que provocan reacciones diferentes en el receptor: Chirinos y Chanfalla despiertan ansiedad en el público, mientras que Scipio se preocupa por desarrollar y memorizar el discurso perfecto. Por otra parte, Rodaja se resiste a recordar su pasado, mientras que el cura y el barbero conspiran para borrar las memorias caballerescas de don Quijote.

"Matteolo Mattioli (Matheolus Perusinus) and His Mnemotechnic Treatise De Memoria augenda in the Polish Context of the Turn of the Sixteenth Century" [Rafał Wójcik, Jakub Łukaszewski, Matteolo Mattioli (Mattheolus Perusinus) i jego mnemotechniczny traktat „De memoria augenda” w kontekście polskim przełomu XV i XVI w., [in:] Co musi wiedzieć uczony edytor, nawet jeśli nie chce: prace ofiarowane Profesorowi Wiesławowi Wydrze, ed. by Bogdan Hojdis and Katarzyna Krzak-Weiss, Poznań, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne, 2017, pp. 75-99].

The main objective of the study is to present a fifteenth-century treatise by Matteolo Mattioli (most often referred to in the literature as Matheolus Perusinus) entitled De memoria augenda in the context of the humanist culture at the turn of the sixteenth century in Poland, and the Kraków circles especially. The study introduces the author and discusses the treatise itself, something the Polish literature devoted to the subject has not done in much detail so far (to this end, we draw mainly on the works Regina Lupi, Sabine Heimann-Seelbach, Helga Hajdu and Mary Carruthers). It then discusses two editions which are strictly related to Polish culture (Leipzig 1495 and 1508 with an epigram and dedication
by Andrzej Boner, brother of Jan Boner, as well as Kraków 1531 with a dedication of Jan Wiewiórka). Based on the dedication and a woodcut with the Rola coat of arms present in the book, it was possible to determine the author of the dedication as Stanisław of Łowicz,
humanist, doctor of medicine and professor at Kraków University as well as establish a new date for the Kraków edition made by Florian Ungler publishing house. Mattioli’s treatise is also put in the context of two other mnemotechnical texts from the early sixteenth century – Opusculum de arte memorativa (Kraków, Kasper Hochfeder, 1504) by Jan Szklarek and
Artis memorativae naturalis et artificialis, facilis et verax traditio by Laurent Fries (Strassburg, Johann Grüninger, 1523).

Not all mental images are suitable to be stored easily; I say “stored easily” and not simply “memorized”, since all mental images can be memorized, even if some of them with difficulty. As we have seen in a previous article the first characteristic of the mnemonic images is that they must be well defined. And we should not confuse the concept of the definition of the images with that of the resolution of the photographs. The one is not the other's metaphor. Our imagination is not a camera. Mnemonic images must have certain characteristics, the main of which we will examine in this article: emotion, exaggeration, eccentricity, movement; they should also be parameterisable and configurable.

Il testo può essere letto e scaricato al seguente link: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1165185
Si dà notizia della scoperta di un nuovo manoscritto del "Teatro della Memoria" di Giulio Camillo (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ott. Lat. 2418 parte III, cc. 881r-908v).

El presente artículo constituye un ensayo introductorio a la primera traducción española de los prólogos escritos por Johannes Wolf (compilador) y Pietro Perna (tipógrafo) de la primera antología historiográfica del tardo-Renacimiento europeo, denominada Artis historicae Penus (1579); antología que formó parte de un proyecto editorial de nuevo cuño y sin precedentes en lo que respecta a sus propósitos y alcance. Se discuten cuatro aspectos relativos a la antología y sus autores: (i.) soportes materiales y para-textuales, (ii.) biográficos, (iii.) político-religiosos y (iv.) gnoseológico-pedagógicos.This paper is a translation into Spanish, with notes and commentaries, of Artis historicae Penus (Johannes Wolf [compiler] and Pietro Perna [typographer], 1579), the first historiographical anthology of late European Renaissance. This anthology was part of a new unique editorial project regarding its purpose and scope. In the brief presentation essay that precedes the translation, four as...

Le support plastique de cette oeuvre datée entre 1550 et 1555 a été organisé pour soutenir deux usages très différrents de l'image, produisant deux discours distincts:
- le traitement d'un sujet apparent qui combine Eve à Pandore pour construire une allégorie in absentia de la permanence éternelle du mal plantée au coeur du royaume de France.
- un discours crypté par Art de mémoire utilisant l'Idea del theatro de Giulio Camillo, qui définit secrètement la mauvaise et la bonne monarchie.

The essay aims to explore some historical-conceptual junctures of the Early Modern literary culture, starting from the perspective of the meeting and interaction between words and images in the physical space of a manuscript and in the conceptual space of a mnemotechnical treatise. Therefore the article describes a richly illustrated manuscript of the Parisian library of Sainte-Geneviève (ms. 3368), which contains an Italian treatise on the art of memory from the mid-15th century. The semiotic, rhetorical and cultural strategies mobilized by the physical co-presence of a text and its figurative translation represent in fact the core of every mnemonic process. The illustrations visualize the result of the associative process that enables remembrance, whilst the text follows and breaks down the process in a linear way, normally mentioning the res memorandae and then the image that has to be visualized in the mind.

According to Malebranche and Vico, it is with the imagination that the human being attributes value to things and all material objects. For these authors the individual person produces its own logic of values and ideas modeled by fantasy and by some other fundamental sentiments, according to the external nature of things. Malebranche defines it “pagan mentality” and Vico describes it as “poetic logic”. Since ancient times, the mnemonic arts have always considered the power of the imagination as the driving engine of memory. Modern thinkers like Vico and Malebranche have made this “acting truth” a metaphysical and scientific axiom of their system of thought.