in the rooms”.When we return to a place after a considerable absence, we not merely recognize the space itself, but we remember things we did there”. (Bruno, 2002, p. 221)) As mnemonic devices, they rely on memorized spatial relationships to establish, order and recollect memorial content (Yates,1966) As imaging techniques, they use visualization to organize and recall information. This method of devices and techniques is known as the ‘method of loci’. The subject memorizes the layout of a sequence of spaces, some sort of building, which is composed of discrete loci. In order to recall a sequence of information, the subject literally makes a mental walk through these loci, and reads the different images or discrete information elements he has attached to different spots within these loci. Retrieving of these images is achieved by walking through the loci. Thus, the method of loci is based on a series of LOCI (places) and IMAGINES (events). Loci are the places grasped by memory, for mnemonic purposes usually deserted solitary places, and many different unalike loci, constructed of the right size: when too big, the narrator will lose oversight, when too small, the narrator will lack oversight. Imagines are the forms, marks or simulacra of which we wish to remember. They are placed within a specific location in Loci, in order to obtain memory. The plot of sequences of loci is then filled with imagines. LOCI = Frames = Places. IMAGINES = Events = Images. For a better understanding of of the actual representations of memory palaces, a closer look at some examples is necessary: the memory theatres of Giulio Camillo, Giordano Bruno and Robert Fludd.
Giulio Camillo, “Memory Theatre” (11)