Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2012
Abstract
The article seeks the origins of the imagines agentes of the classical art of memory in a Greek inspiration by and reinterpretation of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The principles of Egyptian hieroglyphic writng system are described and compared with the principles of the formation of memory imagines, as known predominantly from the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium and from the detailed description by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, aimed at a learned Chinese audience.
The Greek fascination with Egypt and its script is explored and linked with the development of the art of memory.