Medieval memory image and text ; [International conference on "Memory in the Middle Ages" which took place from 7 to 9 march at the University of Antwerp

Scholars of medieval literary and cultural history have grown more aware of the crucial role of memory in the production, reception and functioning of texts and manuscripts. We owe this to the pioneering studies of Frances Yates and, more recently, Mary Carruthers and Susan Hagen. Historical linguists for their part try to describe the linguistic means by which listeners and readers are enabled to store the information flow in their memories. The relationship between medieval texts and memory is at the centre of this book. Seven historians of literature, three linguists and one art historian have contributed eleven essays, subsumed under three sections. The first section, ‘Memory Texts’, discusses genres that belong to medieval mnemonics. In the second and most extensive section, ‘Memory Aspects in Texts’, the focus is on literature and, more particularly, on how attention for mnemonics can enhance our insight into the form, composition and functioning of literary texts and manuscripts. Mental and visual images play a central role here. ‘Text Memory’, the final section, analyses medieval (French) literary discourse as a fabric of reference chains, in which different grammatical markers generate and organise mental representations in the memory. Front matter (“Preface”, “Table of contents”), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. ix Frank Willaert, Herman Braet, Thom Mertens, Theo Venckeleer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2160 Le cœur voyant. Mémoriser les Sentences de Pierre Lombard, p. 3 Susanne Rischpler https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2161 Mnemonics in the Vernacular. More than a Linguistic Paradigm Shift?, p. 41 Sabine Heimann-Seelbach https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2162 Memory’s Two Doors. Mnemotechnical Aspects of Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amours and the Low-Rhenish Morality Book (Hannover, SLB, IV 369), p. 61 Willem P. Gerritsen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2163 Mémoire, mnémotechnie et récit de voyage allégorique. L’exemple du Pèlerinage de vie humaine de Guillaume de Digulleville, p. 77 Fabienne Pomel https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2164 Margaret’s Booklets. Memory in Vanden seven sloten by Jan van Ruusbroec, p. 99 Frank Willaert https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2165 L’image du livre comme adjuvant mémoriel dans le Conte des trois chevaliers et des trois livres, p. 129 Anne-Marie Legaré https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2166 The Visual Theology of Julian of Norwich, p. 145 Susan K. Hagen https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2167 Imprint on Your Memory. An Exploration of Mnemonics in the Work of Anthonis de Roovere, p. 161 Johan Oosterman https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2168 L’article défini et la mémoire du texte en ancien français, p. 179 Walter De Mulder https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2169 Chaînes mémorielles et ruptures subjectives dans les Chroniques de Froissart. L’évolution des marqueurs grammaticaux d’intensité, p. 209 Christiane Marchello-Nizia https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2170 Totevoie et l’enchaînement concessif chez Chrétien de Troyes, p. 231 Anne Vanderheyden https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2171 Back matter (“Index”), p. 255 Free Access Colour plates, p. 267 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.TEMA-EB.3.2172 Eleven revised essays from an international conference held at the University of Antwerp in 2002, discuss the ways in which mnemonic devices were used in the literature of the medieval period. Historians and historical linguists look at how information was encoded in texts, designed to be retrieved by the reader, the role of mnemonic devices in literary creation and strategies for easing the reception and retention of textual content, drawing on French, Dutch and English examples. In this way they also presnet new insights into the content, composition, style, presentation and illustrations of texts. English and French papers. "This book contains the - sometimes thoroughly revised and extended - lectures delivered at the International Conference on 'Memory in the Middle Ages', which took place from 7 to 9 March 2002 at the University of Antwerp. ... Not all articles are based on presentations during the conference"--Preface