BellaOnline Forums Education Renaissance Memory Palaces

Has anybody ever used the 'Memory Palace' technique popular at the time of the Renaissance? I know several Pagans who use it a lot, and it has come to prominence with it's use in the UK TV drama 'Sherlock' the other week

Hi Ian!

While I'd heard of "memory palaces", I never really associated the use of this technique to the Renaissance. I'll certainly be looking further into this! Have you tried the system yourself?

Yes. More for magick than for actual memorising per se. Giulio Camillo was perhaps the best exponent of the technique in Renaissance times, or at least the most well-known. An excellent book of the subject is Francis Yates "The art of Memory", and some of the best examples of its' multiple uses are covered in the book "Hannibal" by Thomas Harris. I covered some of the magickal uses of the technique in an article a while back.

All the best