Handbook of Early Modern Mnemonic Images

Research project P 13892 Handbook of Early Modern Mnemonic Images Wolfgang NEUBER 11.10.1999 The project`s object is to make an inventory of early modem mnemonic imagery. These images demonstrate the range of the visual imagination as formulated by the early modern theory of memory. They are a first rate source for cultural history since they make visible what was socially codified in the field of visual imagination. Their scope comprises the shocking images as proposed by Roman rhetoric as well as an imagery designed to serve early modern systems of knowledge such as mnemonic trees, hands, or architectural diagrams. There are about 2500 prints of approximately 1000 mnemonic treatises written by 800 authors from the beginning of printing to the year 1700. The goal is the publication of a systematic handbook to early modem mnemonic imagery as a counterpart to Henkel/Schöne`s famous "Emblemata" and also to the applicant`s bibliography of mnemonic sources from the same period, which has almost been completed.