On the Shadows of the Ideas

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to announce that my translation of Giordano Bruno's On the Shadows of the Ideas is now available in paperback. This is Bruno's first major publication on the Art of Memory, or as he puts it: "an art of investigating, discovering, judging, ordering, and applying, set forth for the purpose of inner writing, and not for vulgar operations of memory." Aspiring mentats in training might want to give this a good solid look, and of course it's also a primary source for magical images -- Bruno was a mage as well as a mnemonist, and wove Renaissance astrological magic all through his work. Here's the blurb:

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LOST SECRETS OF THE ART OF MEMORY

 

One of the forgotten traditions of Western occultism, the Art of Memory was a set of disciplines dating from ancient times that enabled the scholars and mages of the Renaissance to upgrade their own brains, storing vast amounts of data in their own memories. In 1592, Giordano Bruno, the greatest master of the Art of Memory, published the secrets of his advanced version of the Art in an enigmatic Latin text. Now noted occult scholar John Michael Greer has translated the entire text of "On the Shadows of the Ideas", and provided it with an introduction, detailed notes, examples of Bruno's memory images, and a detailed guide to practical work with his system.
 

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Interested? You can get a copy here. (Yes, this is through Amazon; the publisher, Azoth Press, mostly focuses on fine editions and uses Amazon's print-on-demand service for paperback copies once the fine editions have sold out.) 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It won't ship to Canada. Do you know if there's anywhere which will?

[ecosophia]

You'll want to check Amazon.ca in a few days. They have it listed here, but it's not yet available.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! When I tried searching for it nothing came up, but it may have just been I was too early.

[(Anonymous)]

https://i.imgur.com/hoKDyRb.png

Congratulations! Not everyone can say they contributed with a 16th century author ;)

[ecosophia]

What can I say? Bruno and I ran into each other in a bar on the astral plane and after a couple of beers, decided that we should work together. ;-)

[jpc_w]

Heh.

When you bumped into him, did he tell you where to find a manuscript of his lost Clavis?

[ecosophia]

No, but I'm most of the way to figuring out the structure of his system. All I have to do is chase down more Renaissance-era books on Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm... So he hasn't reincarnated yet.

[tunesmyth]

“Inner writing”— that’s very suggestive, isn’t it. Has anyone been in touch with you that has tried out Bruno’s memory system on for size yet? (Have *you* tried it on for size, for that matter?)

[ecosophia]

Of course. I don't publish technical books unless I've worked with the system long enough to know how to do it.

Wonderful!

[(Anonymous)]

This is great news. I'll be buying a copy as soon as it is available in Europe.

Can this be used alongside the DMH-Dolmen Arch combo? I haven't started DA yet but I'm reading through it and I'm very excited about the memory techniques there.

Re: Wonderful!

[ecosophia]

That would be interesting to experiment with! The Dolmen Arch comes from the other end of the memory-training spectrum, the one that focuses on strengthening the natural memory rather than constructing an artificial memory system in the imagination. How exactly those would mesh together is a complicated question that can only be settled by experiment, but I know of no reason why they wouldn't work together.

Re: Wonderful!

[(Anonymous)]

Oh okay thanks. I'll take a look, and if I end up giving it a whirl I'll write up a quick essay and report back in a year or so.

Kindle version

[rationalist858]

Is a Kindle version coming? I have bought most of your (and other author’s) books digitally.

Re: Kindle version

[ecosophia]

I've just emailed the publisher to ask about that.

Update: I just heard back from the publisher. He's looking into it and seems interested in producing an e-book version. I'll post something when there's news.

Re: Kindle version

[rationalist858]

Sounds good, thanks!

[(Anonymous)]

Does the system work for assimilating information that's more than disjointed collections of factoids? I've always had trouble adapting mnemonic techniques to more abstract arguments and long chains of reasoning and don't have convenient 'hooks' or soundbytes that can become fodder for the system.

[ecosophia]

You can certainly use Bruno's system, or any other imagery-based mnemonic system, to work with sequential material like chains of reasoning. The Art of Memory was used in ancient times by Roman lawyers who needed to have all the details of each case and the relevant laws at their mental fingertips. The two things you have to learn to do that are, first, how to convert abstract concepts into vivid concrete images, and second, how to link every image to the ones before and after it in sequence. Bruno covers both of those, though not in vast detail; they were ordinary elements of the Art of Memory in his time.

[(Anonymous)]

In my estimation, Bruno is one of the most fascinating cases in Renaissance magic. Recently read "De Magia" in translation and am finishing up Yates's overview of his life. It strikes me that he seems to have followed a solar path that sadly led him to a literally fiery end.

How much of his mnemonic system derives from Lull? It's my understanding that Lull used such devices more for argumentation rather than as a spiritual system proper. It's interesting to note that there is current research on these systems still ongoing out there (Lynne Kelly is one I have heard of recently).

Thanks.

[ecosophia]

Bruno's system fuses the classic art of memory with Lull's ars combinatoria -- that's why he put in the subtitle that his method isn't just for "vulgar operations of memory." Lull's methods, though, were spiritual as well as rhetorical; you can find a very good guide to them here --

https://lullianarts.narpan.net/cont.htm

-- including computer programs to help you learn Lull's system. The guy who runs the site, Dr. Yanis Dambergs, is a devout Catholic and a practitioner of Lull's art.

Great news!

[(Anonymous)]

Very happy to hear about this..until I tried ordering it

Not available in the UK!

Although I'd prefer the paperback, could settle for ebook if available...

Please let us know when you have an update for the ones that live on the other side of the pond

Thanks!

Re: Great news!

[ecosophia]

I'll see if the publisher knows anything.