Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- I Studying the Velislav Bible: An Overview
- II Image and Text in the Velislav Bible: On the Interpretation of an Illuminated Codex
- III The Velislav Bible in the Context of Late Medieval Biblical Retellings and Mnemonic Aids
- IV The Books of Genesis and Exodus in the Picture Bibles: Looking for an Audience
- V The Life of Antichrist in the Velislav Bible
- VI The Antichrist Cycle in the Velislav Bible and the Representation of the Intellectual Community
- VII Ibi predicit hominibus: In Search of the Practical Function of the Velislav Bible
- VIII The Velislav Bible: Critical Edition with Commentary
- Bibliography
- Index
III - The Velislav Bible in the Context of Late Medieval Biblical Retellings and Mnemonic Aids
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- I Studying the Velislav Bible: An Overview
- II Image and Text in the Velislav Bible: On the Interpretation of an Illuminated Codex
- III The Velislav Bible in the Context of Late Medieval Biblical Retellings and Mnemonic Aids
- IV The Books of Genesis and Exodus in the Picture Bibles: Looking for an Audience
- V The Life of Antichrist in the Velislav Bible
- VI The Antichrist Cycle in the Velislav Bible and the Representation of the Intellectual Community
- VII Ibi predicit hominibus: In Search of the Practical Function of the Velislav Bible
- VIII The Velislav Bible: Critical Edition with Commentary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
I claim it as established that all books that have been written, or have existed, in every region of the earth, all tools, records, inscriptions on wax tablets, epitaphs, all paintings, images, and sculptures; […] eye extractions, mutilations, and various tortures of bandits and forgers; […] the slaps that bishops give to adults during sacramental annointings; the blows given to boys to preserve the events of history in the memories; the nods and signals of lovers; the whispers of thieves; courteous gifts and small presents – all have been devised for the purpose of supporting the weakness of natural memory.
Boncompagno da Signa (c. 1170-1240), teacher of rhetoric at the University of Bologna, includes this curious list in his treatise on memory. On the one hand, anything may indeed serve to improve natural memory, and the authors of late medieval treatises on the art of memory, in accordance with their primary source, Rhetorica ad Herennium, always stressed that one should search for one's own tools, those suited to one's own mind. On the other hand, strategies for memorizing changed throughout the Middle Ages and there are discernible patterns in the character of the methods, as well as periods of special interest in mnemonics. The most distinguished period is the late Middle Ages and early modern era (especially the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), when practical mnemonics flourished primarily at universities and in the context of preaching alongside the rediscovered and reshaped art of memory. Mnemonic tools of this time are far more systematic and logically structured than before, even though they still frequently surprise the modern reader as being confusing and impractical.
Biblical mnemonics form a special group which cannot be easily separated from biblical retellings. It may seem that mnemonics should serve as pure memory aids, while retellings would strive to offer interpretation as well. But they are much more closely interrelated: both often include interpretation, and both often serve primarily to help readers remember the contents of the Bible. Only Late Antique biblical retellings (e.g., by Cyprianus, Sedulius Scotus, or Arator) might be seen as a specific type, since their main aim was to put the correct content (the Bible) into the appropriate form: Virgilian poetry.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Velislav Bible, Finest Picture-Bible of the Late Middle AgesBiblia depicta as Devotional, Mnemonic and Study Tool, pp. 69 - 86Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018