Host von Romberch, Johann

Congestorium artificiose memorie … omnium de memoria preceptionesaggregatim complectens

      Melchior Sessa Venice 1533 Small 8vo, pp. 100 (of 104) leaves, without leaves A2, J7-8, and colophon; 14 full-p. woodcuts, 9 half-page woodcuts, historiated woodcut initials, musical notation on K1v; full contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title on spine; early faint manuscript ex-libris at the bottom of the title-p., a few leaves shaved close, very slight loss to the ends of 4 or 5 lines on N7; aside from the missing leaves, a very good copy. A famous book on memory, "originally published in 1520. Host von Romberch's work draws on a wide variety of sources, including the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Quintilian, Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), and Peter of Ravenna (b. 1448). He gives to the usual use of memory loci (mental places for storing data) a novel twist, that of employing Dante's Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. In discussing mental images or symbols of information to be recalled, he offers the reader a section on visual alphabets, in which the images used resemble the shape of letters. The final portion of Congestorium deals with the memorization of grammar and of abstract concepts from the sciences and theology. This portion has been much influenced by Thomas Aquinas (1225?-1274)" (see Books on Memory and Mnemonics from the Arnold Semeiology Collection, University of Washington). In the general street scene on E3v is an illustration of a bookstore. Brunet IV, 1369; Graesse VI, 154; BMC Italian Books, 239.