The Medieval Technique for Memorizing Entire Books: The Mind Palace | Mary Harrington

[00:00:00]I'm working on a book at the moment, which is about the end of the print era and what happens afterwards. So, the age of mass post-literacy is is my my topic of interest at the moment.

[00:00:10]What what does that look like? What does that do to politics? What does it do to religion? What does it do to culture?

[00:00:14]What does it do to everything?

[00:00:16]And in the course of that, I I was recommended a book by an an historian, a scholar of Mary Carruthers, who writes about the medieval art of memory.

[00:00:27]And this this just absolutely lit up the work that I was doing in the book because up to that point, I'd to to the best of my understanding, the contrast had been between orality, so a culture of the spoken word, you know, as characterized the age before Socrates, really. And illiterate cultures, you know, all the way up to really the printing press. And then literacy, which is which is to say the a culture formed around the capacity to read.

[00:00:53]Being learning to read is literally mind-altering in that it rewires people's neurology and it does so permanently. Once once Yeah, it's >> Learning to read rewires your brain.

[00:01:02]It's literally It's literally mind-altering.

[00:01:05]>> Or literally brain-altering.

[00:01:06]>> Yes, it's brain-altering, but it's consciousness-altering. And once you scale that up, it it does very profound things.

[00:01:11]>> sounds like I should learn to read.

[00:01:13]>> [laughter] >> No, seriously, that's very interesting.

[00:01:15]I'd never heard that.

[00:01:16]>> You've written how many books? I don't know how you did that without learning to read.

[00:01:19]>> number of books.

[00:01:20]>> I know, but I've no idea how you did that without learning to read, but teach me, sensei.

[00:01:24]>> It's not easy. [laughter] >> Okay. So, so but what I I I sent I sent the draft of some early early work I'd done to to a friend who's a scholar of the Middle Ages. And he said, "Oh, this is great, but have you have you read Mary Carruthers?" And I said, "No, who's who who who that?" And he said, "Now, she she's a scholar of the He basically told me that there was a piece missing in what I was in my account, which was the the the middle that the the connective tissue between spoken word culture and the culture of literacy, which existed through the entire Middle Ages, really all the way from from the the arrival of the alphabet circa Plato, >> [snorts] >> um all the way up to Gutenberg, um which was the art of memory.

[00:02:06]>> This is so fascinating. I mean, um I don't I don't tend to think I I've never thought of that, I have to say, and um maybe very few people have to think about these eras, these because I I care very much about Homer, and there's still no real consensus on when uh the Iliad and Odyssey were composed or how they were composed. I mean, some people pretend as though, no, we figured it out, but they haven't quite figured it out. But, the concept of people memorizing vast swaths, or is it swades?

[00:02:46]Uh how do you say it?

[00:02:47]>> I would say swades, but perhaps >> You would say swades, you'd be wrong, Mary. No, I think >> It's a scholar's >> It's either way, it's a lot. It's a big chunk, a huge chunk. But, that idea is absolutely antithetical to the age in which we live. It's amazing. So, please continue.

[00:03:03]>> So, I think the the the importance that the key point is that you're really from Plato onwards, this is the this was already a literate culture, but it's but in a in a sense which is constrained by the scarcity of reading materials. I mean, if you think about it, before the printing press, um every text has to be written by hand.

[00:03:21]>> Right.

[00:03:22]>> Um vellum is scarce, vellum is precious, um nobody's invented paper yet.

[00:03:27]>> any.

[00:03:28]>> I don't have You're right, it's it's skin skin specially treated, scraped, thin, and flat. It's incredibly expensive. Every single book is I mean, it's like a Titian, it's a work it's it's like an old master in terms of the labor and the value and the sheer preciousness of it. Um in the in the course of exploring all of this, I got you know, there's there's an account of St. Wilfrid, who was an early English saint, who founded a founded a monastery in England in Anglo-Saxon times. And he he went he goes off to Rome and he comes back with a with a with a with a scripture um that's beautifully bound, covered in jewels, and in in and illuminated in letters of purest gold.

[00:04:03]And you've got to picture these these these books. They're not They're not, you know, the paperback that you chuck in your your suitcase or to read on the plane or, you know, it's it's um the these are treasures. They're incredibly rare and precious things. But if you think about how as a as a scholar as an aspirant scholar you would relate to those, you might get one go on it in your lifetime. You know, you have to travel arduously for months to get to the location where this treasure exists.

[00:04:26]And then you have one you have a you have a period a limited period of time where you can you can engage with this marvelous thing.

[00:04:32]>> That's And that's something that is certainly not sufficiently appreciated.

[00:04:36]What an idea.

[00:04:37]>> You can't take notes because, I mean, what are you going to write them on?

[00:04:41]>> You can't take notes.

[00:04:41]>> You can't take notes. So, what do you do? You learn to remember. And what they And And this is this is a skill which was developed really in classical times.

[00:04:49]You know, it was it was the foundation for statesmanship in in the Roman Empire was the the ability to to remember and to compose mentally your your speeches and then to be able to deliver them as though you were just coming out with it off the cuff. Um but you'd actually prepared and and and the [snorts] the foundation of that was the art of memory. And this is a this is a fundam- It's a visualization practice.

[00:05:13]Um I think the the classical the classical version the the the the best known classical account of it is by Quintilian, who I think is yeah, early early in the in about around the 3rd century AD, I think. But you somebody more knowledgeable can correct me on that.

[00:05:29]Anyway, he's he's a he's >> Any Quintilian experts out there?

[00:05:31]>> Any Quintilian experts out there can correct me on it cuz I'm uh I'm reaching a little bit here. But he And his And And he he he he he suggests that what you should do is visualize a building, a room that you know well. So, it can be an actual place. And then every idea in the sequence of ideas that you want to you want to expand that you want to store um should be should be visually visualized in one of the locations in that room and then you always move around it in the same direction and you visualize each of the elements that you want to remember in in a place in your mind.

[00:06:01]>> an actual room from one's life that >> It yes it can be I mean you >> an imaginary room it's a room from one's actual >> This this is the classical approach. So so for I mean you could imagine your house and you all all your garden or a walk you do regularly.

[00:06:15]Um and then [snorts] and because you always move around that imaginary space in the same direction it means you can remember the order and because you've stored the information visually it's much denser and much easier to to recall the the the totality of that >> Yeah.

[00:06:29]Yeah.

[00:06:29]>> Um so this was this was just the foundation of uh memorizing.

[00:06:33]And [snorts] and what the what the medieval monastics um got the hang of over time they they developed an incredibly sophisticated uh memorization practice. So Wilfrid St. Wilfrid who we're talking about just now. So he goes off to Rome to to get books and while he's there he didn't just memorize the entire Book of Psalms and he already had that. That's like table stakes. Right he may he had the whole he had the whole memory he had the whole Book of Psalms.

[00:06:57]>> You must be kidding.

[00:06:58]>> No no no not even that Eric it's it's more it's more crazy than that. He he he he updated his edition of the Book of Psalms in his memory while he was there to the latest version.

[00:07:08]>> I I don't think this can be put down to some fancy technique. I think this is just some people are outrageously gifted.

[00:07:16]>> No no well I mean that's this was relatively unusual I think in the 8th century AD but by the by the 12th this was table stakes. You know the the kids kids entering you know and entering an addition.

[00:07:28]>> had memorized the Psalms.

[00:07:29]>> by the by the time you were if you were if you were being sent if if you were joining uh if you were expected to become a a monastic >> Mhm.

[00:07:37]>> learning the Book memorizing the Book of Psalms was table stakes. it. kid stuff.

[00:07:40]It was like learning your multiplication tables.

[00:07:42]>> is news to me. I'm I I I'm not going to pretend not to be astonished.

[00:07:47]>> And what they the way they did it was it it it became progressively more abstract. So, you would they they would visualize a numbered series stretching off into infinity. And the first stage in would just be to practice visualize jumping back and forth to from 1 to 8 to 9 to 12. And once you could do that consistently, you would place different ideas 1 to 8 to 9 to 12. And and and visualize hopping about between between those those points and and retaining which one belonged where. And then once you could get the hang of doing it in a line, you could do it in a grid. And once you could do it in a grid, you could do it in a you could do it in a in a three-dimensional grid. And these guys had in they they held entire three-dimensional spreadsheets full of visualized ideas in their minds. So, William of Ockham, I think 14th century I 13 something I if I remember rightly, there about. Um [snorts] he was say he was exiled from he was he was he was sent into exile for being rude to the Pope or something like that.

[00:08:47]And while he and he wrote most >> tried to cut him with a razor.

[00:08:50]>> I mean it was it was bad. Whatever it was, the Pope was upset. Um he he was not and and he was not allowed to take any of his books with him. Um he was sent into exile without any of his reading material. And he did all he did most of his most important work in exile from what he had stored in his mind. And he says at some point in I think it's in one of his letters, "Oh, you know, I advise any any young scholar to make sure your your your they they they did use metaphors like the treasure house or the honeycomb or the [snorts] you know, they I forget the the the uh the the medieval Latin word, but a sort of money pouch that people would carry with them. You know, you must make sure that this is well-stocked so that you can take it with you anywhere you go and even if you don't have your books, you'll you'll you'll have ready access to everything you need to to with.

[00:09:36]Um And this is And And this And when I discovered this, it completely lit up the Middle Ages for me. It made sense.

[00:09:44]That the whole culture just And why it feels so >> the Middle Ages to be lit up for you?

[00:09:48]>> Of course. I mean, I I I like I like I love discovering different ways of thinking about the world. And I think it it really shed light for me on why that culture feels so different and so difficult to get your head in to to difficult to grasp for for one of us, for a modern. Now, why it feels I I don't want to say alien, but in in some respects, actually, yeah, alien. You know, you we look at those illuminated marginalia that they you know, the the the funny little creatures and the weird monkey lion thing, the guys with eyes in their stomachs or whatever, or or the pointing hands or the funny or like the the gross bits. Um And what I And I didn't realize until I read Carruthers that all of the These are all aids to memory.

[00:10:27]They're there in the margin because somebody has This this passage next to it is really important.

[00:10:32]>> Does Mary Carruthers write about that?

[00:10:34]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:10:35]>> It's great book. It's great book.

[00:10:36]>> of the title of her book?

[00:10:37]>> It's called The Book of Memory.

[00:10:39]>> It's called The Book of Memory.

[00:10:40]>> of Memory.

[00:10:40]>> If only I could remember that.

[00:10:42]Really?

[00:10:43]>> Maybe I'll we'll put it in the show notes.

[00:10:44]>> Mary Carruthers. Well, no, but that's just it's a it's extraordinary and a little overwhelming to me to think that civilization for many centuries existed in some part because of people who were able to do this.

[00:11:01]>> It's It's kind of mind-blowing. It's really mind-blowing.

[00:11:04]>> also uh I guess related to that is just the idea that we don't or at least most of us don't. Sounds like you do to some extent.

[00:11:14]>> Uh only as a only as a thought experiment. And I I read this and I I was so fascinated uh by by what she's describing. So, I thought, well, I'm going to try it. And it so happened that I I was kindly invited by these these marvelous people at Socrates in the City to come and do these conversations. And I'm thinking My my usual approach to ideas is much more solitary. I'm a nerd who lives in a cupboard full of books.

[00:11:37]Um facilitated by the printing press, I should say. Um and I I I'll think through very I'll deliberate and then put down in writing what it is that I want to say. I can't do that in one of these conversations. So, how am I going to, you know, if it's my my responsibility to guide the conversation and to keep it flowing and to ensure that that that spark of relationality and the the encounter um is is made possible. I'm going to have to think of some way of storing the the themes that I want to So, I thought, "Oh, this is a great opportunity to experiment with the medieval mind palace. So, So, I I mean, it's it's pretty primitive, you know, I don't have a an eight-dimensional Nozark spreadsheet in my mind or anything like that. But what I what I do do is I I visualize 10 to 15 that I have 10 to 15 locations on my usual morning dog walk.

[00:12:21]I'm describing a circle in the air because it's a it's a loop.

[00:12:24]>> So, wait. So, for you, you use your your morning dog walk.

[00:12:28]>> It's a very It's a very beautiful walk cuz around the local woodland. Um [snorts] and there are there are familiar locations which are distinct enough. You know, it's not just a tree or you know, there's a bench or there's a there's a there's a there's a place where my where where one of my nieces lost a gumboot in a puddle. And you're right, there's just like little specific or there's a little bridge. Um then this and that.

[00:12:49]And each of those sort of has its own character. And because I walk past it every day, I I'm I can picture it very clearly. And in each of those location I'll I'll write I'll prepare my questions in writing. And then I'll I'll I'll I'll abstract from the from the written question an image which which which encodes the which encodes the ideas.

[00:13:08]>> Yeah.

[00:13:09]>> Um you know, and usually the the weirder and sillier and more surreal the image, the more easier it is to remember.

[00:13:15]>> Mhm.

[00:13:16]>> I'm trying to >> Wouldn't it just be easier for you to jot your notes down on a piece of paper >> Um >> as I may have done here?

[00:13:23]>> [laughter] >> Well, yes, yes in theory, but also no.

[00:13:26]Because if I have to look away from Now, if somebody is speaking to me, um and I have to look away, >> Yes.

[00:13:32]>> then then the that moment there's a moment of interruption in the conversation. Whereas if I have in my mind as you know, if all I'm thinking, "Okay, well well what what's next on the dog walk?" And it's just a picture.

[00:13:43]Because it's in in pictures, not words, it doesn't interrupt the flow of conversation. Um but it also helps to shape where where and how I respond and where I where I think I'm you know, we might we might move the conversation next and how. And it it just it just for me, it makes it I've I feel reassured because I'm I'm not going to panic and go blank. Um and >> [laughter] >> I think only people who would never panic and go blank would worry about panicking and going blank.

[00:14:11]>> Oh, you say that, but one of the most traumatic experiences of my life was delivering was was when I I had to do a talk in front of my class um as part of the GCSE English curriculum. This is just you know, one of those moments that still I still wake up in a cold sweat, you know, sort of thing that gives you nightmares for years. And I prepared and I prepared and I prepared and I was supposed to done and it was recorded.

[00:14:29]And I stood up in front of the classroom and I was just like I couldn't do it. Just completely corpsed, froze, went blank. It was awful. And for year like all all the way for all the way from the age of 16 to the age of 40-something, I was completely sure that I I was terrible at public speaking. And somehow somehow or other I ended I I do a lot of that now.

[00:14:50][laughter] And it's fine and it's fun. It turns out that actually the difference is you you the the difference is if you're talking about something that you're interested in and feel passionate about, then you just never run out of things to say. Um that apparently that's the secret.

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