MEMORY IN MOTION
[PUBLICIUS, Jacobus.]
Ars memorativa.
[Cologne, Johann Guldenschaff, c. 1481.]
4to, ff. 20 (of 22); [a]8 [b]6 [d]6, lacking [c]2 (2 ff. of mnemonic grids); comprising [28] pp. of text in gothic letter and [12] pp. of woodcut diagrams, each with 4 blank woodcut roundels, 2 roundels to penultimate leaf retaining woodcut volvelles; some slight staining, mostly to [a]1r, [b]6v, and [d]1r, a few small tears to diagrams where pointers have been lost, but a good, wide-margined copy; bound in late nineteenth-century calf, front board lettered in gilt; early manuscript quiring, ink stamp of Stonyhurst College to [a]1r and [b]6v.
First illustrated edition of this treatise on the art of memory, with moving parts; the first general treatise on memory to be printed.
Jacobus Publicius was an itinerant scholar and poet of the mid to late fifteenth century, who taught in Salamanca, Erfurt, Leipzig, Cologne, and elsewhere. It is likely that this tract was printed to accompany his lectures, which would account for the variety of printing locations; from Toulouse, to Cologne, to Venice. Publicius seems to have trained as a physician, which would explain the medical aspects of memory training that appear in his text, for example urging readers to avoid ‘noxious odours which damage the brain. We value aromatic things as if they contribute to our intelligence’ (trans.).
The Ars memorativa appeared in print around twelve times in the fifteenth century: four as standalone editions, five alongside other works on memory or health, and three as part of a longer work by Publicius, his Ars oratoria, ars epistolandi et ars memorativa, which was printed perhaps most elegantly by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice. This Cologne edition is considered the first edition with surviving illustrations. The forty-eight roundels were designed to have woodcuts of objects attached to them to create a visual mnemonic alphabet, the majority coinciding with those of the Venetian edition of 1482 (forty-two circular woodcut initials without moving parts); they comprise animals, tools, people, and household objects. Our copy retains two of these moving parts, depicting what appear to be a pair of scissors and a paintbrush, respectively. While most editions name Publicius as the author, he is not mentioned here.
ISTC lists eleven copies, only one of which in the US (NYPL).
Hain 13549; HCR 1824; Pell 9672; Proctor 1225; BMC I 256.IA; GW M36437; Goff P1094; CIBN P-692; Bod-Inc P-535; ISTC ip01094000. See Luis Merino Jerez, ‘Iacobus Publicius’s Ars memorativa: An Approach to the History of the (printed) Text’, in AUC Philologica 2020, no. 2 (2020), pp. 85–105.