Article ID: CBB844155596

‘El Capri Kylex’: A Franciscan astronomical mnemonic (2021)

unapi

This article examines the role of memory techniques in medieval astronomy. Using a mnemonic written by a Franciscan friar c. 1330 as a case study, it shows how astronomers and astrologers simplified the sky for practical purposes, using verses and codes to make their science memorable. The article decodes the mnemonic and its underlying astronomical data, assessing its usefulness, memorability and adaptability alongside some other popular astronomical and calendrical mnemonics of the later Middle Ages. It argues that astronomical learning could be a creative, playful activity. And it situates the astrological practices of this particular friar, who made wide-ranging annotations in a 13th-century astronomical compendium, within the scientific and educational traditions of his order.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB844155596/

Similar Citations

Article Marco Matteoli; (2024)
Between geometric schemes and mnemonic images: The three paradigmatic figures of Giordano Bruno’s Articuli adversus mathematicos

Chapter Jones, Peter M.; (2011)
Mediating Collective Experience: The Tabula Medicine (1416--1425) as a Handbook for Medical Practice

Thesis Sean Babbs; (2017)
Instruction from the Book of Creation: Animals and Mendicant Preaching in the Thirteenth Century

Article Kira L Robison; (2020)
For the Benefit of Students: Memory and Anatomical Learning at Bologna in the Fourteenth to Early Sixteenth Centuries

Book Sonja K. Pieck; (2023)
Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservation along the Former Iron Curtain

Article Lucia Delaini; (2024)
Walking through ideas: Memory and the body in the premodern memory palace

Article Clément Poupard; (2024)
Memorizing numerical data in the 17th and 18th centuries. Technical innovations and new practices

Article Tommaso Ghezzani; (2024)
Theatres of memory and anatomical theatres: Notes on Giulio Camillo, rhetoric, magic and anatomy between 16th and 17th century

Article Koji Kuwakino; (2024)
The ars memorativa and ecfrasis: Technical and exhortative descriptions to construct the great theatre of memory

Book Hoffman, Christoph; (2008)
Daten sichern. Schreiben und Zeichnen als Verfahren der Aufzeichnung

Article Christensen, Lars Lindberg; (2007)
The Pluto Affair: When Professionals Talk to Professionals with the Public Watching

Article Bernard R. Goldstein; José Chabás; (2023)
Joseph Ibn Waqār and the treatment of retrograde motion in the middle ages

Article Matthieu Husson; Marie-Madeleine Saby; (2019)
Le manuscrit Erfurt F. 377 et l’astronomie alphonsine parisienne

Article Ohashi, Yukio; (2008)
Introduction of Persian Astronomy into India

Article Hagar Kahana-Smilansky; (2018)
Violas de Rodez's Astrological Prognostication for 1355: Introduction, Text and Translation

Book Hughes, Jonathan; (2012)
The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England: Plantagenet Kings and the Search for the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Laure Miolo; (2022)
Retracing the Tradition of John of Genoa's Opus astronomicum Through Extant Manuscripts

Book Maria Sorokina; (2021)
Les sphères, les astres et les théologiens: L’influence céleste entre science et foi dans les commentaires des Sentences (v. 1220 - v. 1340)

Chapter Duba, William; (2012)
The Souls after Vienne: Franciscan Theologians' Views on the Plurality of Forms and the Plurality of Souls, ca. 1315--1330

Thesis Matus, Zachary Alexander; (2010)
Heaven in a Bottle: Franciscan Apocalypticism and the Elixir, 1250--1360

Authors & Contributors
Bruce, Scott G
Christensen, Lars Lindberg
Duba, William
Goldstein, Bernard R.
Hoffman, Christopher R.
Hughes, Jonathan
Journals
Galilæana: Journal of Galilean Studies
Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Mémoires de la Classe des sciences. Académie Royale de Belgique
Tarikh-e Elm (The Iranian Journal for the History of Science)
Publishers
Brepols Publishers
Harvard University
Continuum
Diaphanes
The MIT Press
University of Colorado at Boulder
Concepts
Astronomy
Memory
Astrology
Mnemonics
Franciscans (religious order)
Theology
People
Bacon, Roger
Bruno, Giordano
Camillo, Giulio
Cassirer, Ernst
Della Porta, Giovan Battista
Johannes de Rupescissa
Time Periods
14th century
Medieval
16th century
13th century
15th century
17th century
Places
France
England
East Germany
Holy Roman Empire
India
Iran
Institutions
Bologna. Università
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment