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wickedcestus's review
5.0
I thought this book was just going to be about how the Greeks were good at remembering things, but boy howdy, the Art of Memory really went flying off the rails pretty quickly. The Renaissance was a wild time, I tell you what! This book is loads of fun - the author has plenty of personality and helps guide you through a strange and baffling history of occult magic systems and esoteric philosophy, all based on the ideas of a few Greeks who just wanted to memorize a speech or two.
fletchorama's review
This book is one of those that makes you want to read other books so you can reread it and maybe understand it a little more. This book is a university degree. This book could possibly contain the secret occult key to the history of science. This book.
boomt's review
2.0
The invention of the memory palace or method of loci in antiquity is the reigning mnemonic device for so-called artificial memory. Medieval scholars elaborated upon it in the service of retaining theological precepts and scripture and later renaissance writers developed elaborate systems wrapped in the occultism of the time. As a cultural history of memory, Yates leaves no stone unturned and if you are really into this sort of thing, you will enjoy the book. Personally, I tired of the passionate inspection of what seemed to me minutiae.
glanotte's review against another edition
The book is interesting, but is extremely dry. I could make it only so far into the book. It was extremely informative but it read more like a text book.
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