660j. Cosimo Rosselli (1439-1507) edited by Damiano Rosselli .

Thesaurus artificiosae memoriae.concionatoribus, philosophis, medicis, iuristis, oratoribus, procuratoribus, caeterisq ; bonarum litterarum amatoribus, negociatoribus insuper alijsq ; similibus, tenacem ac firmam rerum memoriam cupientibus, perutilis : ac omnes sui amatores & possessores valde locupletans, insimulq ; decorant : cum rerum c[ae]lestium atq ; terrestrium tenax, ac tutum scrinium esse possit.

Venice, Antonio Padovani, 1579                     $4,500

Quarto x cm.  Signatures: a-d⁴ A-2M⁴ 2N⁶ First and only edition. Bound in full contemporary vellum. The vellum on the rear upper corner is slightly torn and a small part is missing. The text has very nice margins with a consistent water stain in the bottom margin, never affecting the text or image.

Three engraved woodcuts, one of which folded 27 full page diagrams and illustrations depicting the circles of hell, celestial spheres, the human body, a tree, animals, alphabets, a sign language. 

This is the earliest known representation of a sign language. Full of illustrative woodcuts, it includes a chapter on the cosmography of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and gives coverage to various forms of alphabet. ‘Thesaurus artificiosae memoriae’ is divided into two sections: the first is concerned with ‘loci’, or mnemonic places where memories can be stored. Simple but very attractive woodcuts show how these realms of memory – and all their constituent parts – can be imagined.

The second part deals with ‘figurae’, or images, which can aid memory through visual associations. Among the most interesting examples, several tables contain ‘visual alphabets’, in which letters are formed using pictures of objects that resemble their shape; they are meant to be used to compose inscriptions in the mind.

Remarkably, this volume also contains the earliest known representation of a finger alphabet, a manual sign language. Rosselli shows how to position fingers in different ways to make letters, and combinations of letters will be easily remembered through repeating gestures. Though presented here as a mnemonic technique, this is a fundamental step towards the development of the hand as an instrument of communication that can substitute oral and written language. 

 As well as letterpress lists of synonyms for trees, aromatic plants, minerals, snakes, vegetables, birds, etc., there are tabular woodcuts of picture alphabets, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic characters, and the 52 finger positions used in sign language; a table of zodiacal signs ends the display of esoteric knowledge.

Remarkably, the phrenological illustration on p.138 shows definite recognition that different parts of the brain perform different functions.  In the 16th century, the Dominicans were the main advocates and users of mnemotechnics, and published works to make this art more widely accessible. Together with the German Johannes Romberch (c. 1480-1532), Cosma Rosselli is regarded as one of the most influential Dominican memory teachers.

Yates writes that …”Small in format but packed with detail, apparently intended to make the Dominican art of memory generally known … [in this work Rosellius]divides hell into eleven places, as illustrated in his diagram of Hell as a memory place system … Rossellius also envisages the constellations as memory place systems, of course mentioning Metrodorus of Scepsis in connection with the zodiacal place system. A feature of Rossellius’s book are the mnemonic verses given to help memorise orders of places, whether orders of places in Hell, or the order of the signs of the zodiac. These verses are by a fellow Dominican who is also an inquisitor. These ‘carmina’ by an Inquisitor give an impressive air of great orthodoxy to the artificial memory … “. (Yates).”

Brunet IV, 1402; NLM Durling 3947; Wellcome I, 5572; Graesse VI1, 167; Rosenthal, Magica 6083; BMC STC it. p. 588; Young 307. BM STC, Italian Books S. 588. Young 307.

Cf. F. Yates, The Art of Memory, 1966.

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