Studium memoriae Hriberšek, Matej
Ars & humanitas,
12/2018, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The first theoretical notes on memory can be found in the Hippocratic texts; the subject was treated also by Alexandrian physicians Herophilus and Erasistratus and later by Galen. The first ...scientific work on memory was Aristotle's treatise On Memory and Recollection; most of the earlier writers discussed memory only sporadically. In Antiquity there was a special topic, narrowly connected with memory and of great importance because of rhetoric: mnemonics. The most renowned Latin writers who wrote on memory were Cicero and Quintilian. Among many commentators of Aristotle's works only two wrote commentaries on his treatise On Memory and Recollection: Pseudo-Themistius (Sophonias) and Alexander of Aphrodisias. Very significant links between Antiquity and the Middle Ages were Aurelius Augustine of Hippo and especially Boethius. The translations of Aristotle's works into Latin, also of Parva naturalia, were made in 12th century AD. Two translators appeared here: James of Venice and William of Moerbeke. But the true impulse to Aristotle's doctrine of memory was given by two Arab scholars: by Avicenna with his treatise Liber de anima and Averroes with his commentary-compendium on Parva naturalia; Avicenna's work was translated into Latin in the 12th century AD by Avendauth in collaboration with Dominicus Gundissalinus, but Averroes's compendium on Parva naturalia in the 13th century AD by Michael Scot. Based on Avicenna's and Averroes's works some anonymous treatises on memory were also written, and memory was also the subject of treatises written by French Franciscan theologian Jean de la Rochelle and by Guillaume de'Auvergne. But a completely new chapter in dealing with memory begins with the work of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas.
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