Giordano Bruno and the Art of Memory

(4 Credits)

The Art of Memory reached a peak of refinement during the Italian Renaissance. Far more than instruments for remembering, memory devices aimed to organize knowledge and were intended as tools for creative output. We examine the impact of the culture of memory on the literary production of the time, highlighting the interdependence between textual and visual codes. Focuses on the heretic philosopher and cosmologist Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake by the Roman Inquisition in 1600, who conceived his imposing mnemonic system as an inner mirror of the infinite universe. Sampling the varied textual genres of Bruno's work (philosophical dialogues, writings on magic, a satirical comedy), we seek to answer the same question posed to Bruno by Henry III of France: is the Art of Memory acquired "by magic" or "by science"?