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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 222: Mnemonics in Word and Image, I

Monday 2 July 2018, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Huygens ING, De Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen
Organisers:Seb Falk, Girton College, University of Cambridge
Amanda Gerber, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
Irene A. O'Daly, Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (ING - KNAW), Amsterdam
Moderator/Chair:Laura Cleaver, Department of History of Art & Architecture, Trinity College Dublin
Paper 222-aCues as Clues: Reconstructing the Use of Stemmatic Diagrams in the Medieval Classroom
(Language: English)
Irene A. O'Daly, Huygens Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (ING - KNAW), Amsterdam
Index terms: Education, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Philosophy, Rhetoric
Paper 222-bVerses to Remember and Diagrams to Forget: The Case of Aristotle's Figures
(Language: English)
Ayelet Even-Ezra, Department of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Index terms: Education, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Manuscripts and Palaeography, Philosophy
Paper 222-cExplaining and Recalling: Students' Diagrammatic Glosses in Manuscripts of Roman Law
(Language: English)
Susan L'Engle, Vatican Film Library, Saint Louis University, Missouri
Index terms: Education, Law, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

Medieval manuscripts are replete with mnemonic devices. Chronologies, scientific speculations, schoolroom commonplaces from grammatical and rhetorical books, and even material for prayers and sermons were visually and verbally arranged to facilitate ease of recollection. These sessions aim to assess the respective impact of graphical and discursive mnemonic models. In this first of two sessions, we look at the diverse applications of stemmatic and tree-diagrams in philosophical and theological studies. They were used as mnemonic tools, but also as compositional prompts. It examines their development in the medieval classroom, before looking at their employment in other contexts, such as sermon-writing.