Skip to main content

IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 322: Mnemonics in Word and Image, II

Monday 2 July 2018, 16.30-18.00

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:Philipp Nothaft, All Souls College, University of Oxford
Paper 322-aDrawn, Diagrammed, and Versified: The Various Guises of Scientific Mnemonics in Classical Commentaries
(Language: English)
Amanda Gerber, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
Index terms: Education, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Science
Paper 322-bDiagrams in Pseudo-Lullian Alchemy
(Language: English)
Marlis Hinckley, King's College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Art History - General, Medicine, Philosophy, Science
Paper 322-cAstronomical Mnemonics in Late Medieval Monasteries
(Language: English)
Seb Falk, Girton College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Education, Medicine, Monasticism, Science
Abstract

Historians have drawn attention to the range of mnemonic devices used by medieval scholars, but have tended to treat graphical and discursive models separately. These two sessions aim to bridge the divide, reconnecting the two fields of mnemonics in order to better understand how form related to function. The papers in this second session will consider the applications of different mnemonic techniques in natural sciences such as astronomy and alchemy. They will ask how ever more specific content was reflected in developing forms, and how complex technical ideas were memorized and communicated in different settings.