SUBLIMINAL MEMORIZING

"We must assiduously remember the invisible joys of paradise and the eternal torments of hell"
                                                                                       - Bocompagno (Yates 93)

Memory Palaces - Heaven and Hell

In the fourth chapter of Art of Memory, Yates explores the history of imagery development during the medieval era. I found this to be the most engaging chapter we have read thus far (in either Yates or Ong) because of the encompassing nature of her discussion on memorable imagery within the religious context.  Yates says "later memory treatises in the scholastic tradition usually include remembering Paradise and Hell, frequently with diagrams of those places, as belonging to artificial memory"(94), proposing that post medieval academic work on mnemonic techniques serves as evidence for the use of memory palaces in the religious setting. She adds, "This introduces the novel idea that the places of Hell, varied in accordance with the nature of sins punished in them, could be regarded as variegated memory loci" (94).

What I gathered from Yates' discourse on the matter is that learned religious men of the medieval era used visual cues as a way to supplement their teachings. After reflection upon that notion, its logic becomes more and more apparent. During the age of scholasticism, the foundations of Christian doctrine remained essentially the same, but they became much more complex. This was particularly true in regards to the virtue-vice scheme which was made famous in the era's literature (i.e. morality plays). Due to this increase in information,

 "The moral man who wished to choose the path of virtue, whilst also remembering and avoiding vice, had more to imprint on his memory than earlier and simpler times" (84).

As a result, memory techniques became necessary as a means to remember the era's new database of theological knowledge. It was during this era that the Dominican Order of the Preachers was founded, whose main object was to deliver powerful sermons that would lure audiences into religious obedience through increasing their memory. It was during said oratories that the "medieval transformation of the artificial memory would have been chiefly used" (85). The most effective method that the preacher would have used would be to clearly delineate the attributes of virtue and vice and reinforce the repercussions of choosing either path.

 Nardo de Cione, Florence Chapel, 14th century

 It is easy for the audiences of religious sermons to blend information together due to their monotonous nature when compared to the grotesque, carnal imagery that is so easily remembered by the human mind. As Thomas Aquinas cogently explains, "spiritual and simple intentions slip easily from the soul unless they are linked with certain corporeal similitudes" (83). Religious orators of the medieval era were able to enhance the power of their teachings by employing visual mnemonic techniques as originally described in the classical text, Ad Herennium, and later expounded by the great "Professors of Memory" (102). Clear, well-lit memory theaters of Heaven and Hell were laid out for sermon audiences, and memorable images of the consequences for disobedience were strategically placed in the houses of worship.