This is a history of mnemonics... fascinating subject to look into.
The art of memory (1966)
This unique and brilliant book is a history of human knowledge. Before the invention of printing, a trained memory was of vital importance. Based on a technique of impressing 'places' and 'images' on the mind, the ancient Greeks created an elaborate memory system which in turn was inherited by the Romans and passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, during the Renaissance. Frances Yates sheds light on Dante’s Divine Comedy, the form of the Shakespearian theatre and the history of ancient architecture; The Art of Memory is an invaluable contribution to aesthetics and psychology, and to the history of philosophy, of science and of literature.
- ISBN:
- 9780712655453
- Length:
- 400 pages
Genres: classics, nonfiction
Lists: …
Similar books
Aphrodite's Tortoise
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
2003 · 358 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveGreek women routinely wore the veil. That is the unexpected finding of this major study. The Greeks, rightly credited with the invention of civic openness, are revealed as also part of a more eastern tradition of seclusion. Llewellyn-Jones' work proceeds from literary and, notably, from iconographic evidence. In sculpture and vase painting it demonstrates the presence of the veil, often covering the head, but also more unobtrusively folded back onto the shoulders. This discreet fashion not only gave a priviledged view of the face to the ancient art consumer, but also, incidentally, allowed the veil to escape the notice of traditional modern scholarship.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction84%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations16%Histories
Herodotus
1998 · 417 pages · 1 review
Others: NeutralDavid Grene, one of the best known translators of the Greek classics, splendidly captures the peculiar quality of Herodotus, the father of history. Here is the historian, investigating and judging what he has seen, heard, and read, and seeking out the true causes and consequences of the great deeds of the past. In his History , the war between the Greeks and Persians, the origins of their enmity, and all the more general features of the civilizations of the world of his day are seen as a unity and expressed as the vision of one man who as a child lived through the last of the great acts in this universal drama. In Grene's remarkable translation and commentary, we see the historian as a storyteller, combining through his own narration the skeletal "historical" facts and the imaginative reality toward which his story reaches. Herodotus emerges in all his charm and complexity as a writer and the first historian in the Western tradition, perhaps unique in the way he has seen the interrelation of fact and fantasy.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction86%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations14%A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking
1988 · 208 pages · 2 reviews
Others: MixedStephen Hawking's ‘A Brief History of Time* has become an international publishing phenomenon. Translated into thirty languages, it has sold over ten million copies worldwide and lives on as a science book that continues to captivate and inspire new readers each year. When it was first published in 1988 the ideas discussed in it were at the cutting edge of what was then known about the universe. In the intervening twenty years there have been extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and macro-cosmic world. Indeed, during that time cosmology and the theoretical sciences have entered a new golden age . Professor Hawking is one of the major scientists and thinkers to have contributed to this renaissance.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction89%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations11%The Greek myths
Robert Graves
1955 · 416 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedCombines in a single volume the complete text of the definitive two-volume classic, citing all the ancient myths. For a full appreciation of literature or visual art, knowledge of the Greek myths is crucial. In this much-loved collection, poet and scholar Robert Graves retells the immortal stories of the Greek myths. Demeter mourning her daughter Persephone, Icarus flying too close to the sun, Theseus and the Minotaur … all are captured here with the author’s characteristic erudition and flair. The Greek Myths is the culmination of years of research and careful observation, however what makes this collection extraordinary is the imaginative and poetic style of the retelling. Drawing on his experience as a novelist and poet, Graves tells the fantastic stories of Ancient Greece in a style that is both absorbing and easy for the general reader to understand. Each story is accompanied by Graves’ interpretation of the origins and deeper meaning of the story, giving a reader an unparalleled insight into the customs and development of the Greek world.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction90%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations10%Mythica
Emily Hauser
2025 · 320 pages · 4 reviews
Others: PositiveDid you love Madeline Miller’s Circe? Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls? Jennifer Saint's Elektra? Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships? But did you ever wonder who the real women behind the myths of the Trojan War were? Now award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.Because, contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men – and it's not only men's stories that deserve to be told . . .In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women – queens, mothers, warriors, slaves – were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them.A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction91%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations9%Against Interpretation
Susan Sontag
1966 · 304 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Positive"'Against Interpretation' was Susan Sontag's first collection of essays and is a modern classic. Originally published in 1966, it has never gone out of print and has influenced generations of readers all over the world. It includes some of Sontag's best-known works, among them "On Style", "Notes on 'Camp", and the titular essay "Against Interpretation", where Sontag argues that modern cultural conditions have given way to a new critical approach to aesthetics."
Why?
What made the match, strongest first
Also classics and nonfiction91%Similar descriptionsPersonalize your recommendations9%





