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The Art of Memory

The Art of Memory

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re: "method of loci" (De memoria et reminiscentia l. 6 n. 377); mentions St. Thomas Aquinas; DjVu pp. 85ff.

cf. De memoria et reminiscentia l. 5 nn. 370-1:

Secundum signum ponit ibi, et sunt. Et dicit quod illa sunt magis reminiscibilia, quaecumque sunt bene ordinata , sicut mathematica et theoremata mathematicorum , quorum secundum concluditur ex primo, et sic deinceps. Illa autem quae sunt male ordinata, difficulter reminiscuntur. | 370. He gives the second sign, where he says, "Those things are easier to recollect, etc." He says that those things are easier to recollect which are well ordered , such as mathematics and mathematical theorems , for the latter are concluded from the first, and so forth. Those things, however, which are badly ordered are recollected with difficulty."
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Sic ergo ad bene memorandum vel reminiscendum, ex praemissis quatuor documenta utilia addiscere possumus. Quorum primum est, ut studeat quae vult retinere in aliquem ordinem deducere. Secundo ut profunde et intente eis mentem apponat. Tertio ut frequenter meditetur secundum ordinem. Quarto ut incipiat reminisci a principio. | 371. Therefore, to remember or recollect well, we can learn four useful lessons from the foregoing. First one must be careful to reduce to some order what one wishes to retain; then one must apply the mind profoundly and intently to those things; next one must frequently meditate (on them) in order; finally one must begin to recollect from the starting point.

cf. "muscle memory"