[ilds] Art of Memory

[Bruce Redwine]

Any evidence that Durrell was familiar with the classical ars memoriae (art of memory)?  Specifically, re Cicero's De Oratore, as in this passage translated by J. M. May and J. Wisse in On the Ideal Orator (Oxford UP, 2002), p. 219:  "Those who would like to employ this part of their abilities should choose localities, then form mental images of the things they wanted to store in their memory, and place these in the localities.  In this way, the order of the localities would preserve the order of the things, while the images would present the things themselves."  The relevance to Durrell is obvious, although probably just a coincidence.  Frances A. Yates has a classic study on this topic:  The Art of Memory (Chicago UP, 1966).

Bruce

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