The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Series Number 10) - Hardcover

Carruthers, Mary J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521382823 ISBN 13: 9780521382823

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1990

Synopsis

The Book of Memory is a wide-ranging and beautifully illustrated account of the workings and function of memory in medieval society. Memory was the psychological faculty valued above all others in the period stretching from late antiquity through to the Renaissance. The medieval assumption that human learning is above all based in memorative processes had profound implications for the contemporary understanding of all creative activity, and the social role of literature and art. Dr Carruthers looks at models for the understanding of memory, examines scholastic and early humanist adaptations of classical mnemotechniques, and throughout offers examples from the works of Dante, Chaucer, Aquinas and others. This study by a literary scholar draws upon insights from a variety of disciplines, including modern hermeneutical theory, art history and codicology, psychology and anthropology, the histories of medicine, education, and of meditation and spirituality. It will be important to students in all these fields who value interdisciplinary approaches to historical material.

About this title

About the Author

Mary Carruthers is the author of The Craft of Thought (Cambridge 1998) and The Medieval Craft of Memory (University of Pennsylvania 2002) as well as of The Book of Memory (1990 and 2008). She divides her time between New York City and Oxford, where she holds the positions of Remarque Professor of Literature at New York University and Fellow of All Souls College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521382823
• ISBN 13: 9780521382823
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 407