Abstract
This article examines the role of memory techniques in medieval astronomy. Using a mnemonic written by a Franciscan friar c. 1330 as a case study, it shows how astronomers and astrologers simplified the sky for practical purposes, using verses and codes to make their science memorable. The article decodes the mnemonic and its underlying astronomical data, assessing its usefulness, memorability and adaptability alongside some other popular astronomical and calendrical mnemonics of the later Middle Ages. It argues that astronomical learning could be a creative, playful activity. And it situates the astrological practices of this particular friar, who made wide-ranging annotations in a 13th-century astronomical compendium, within the scientific and educational traditions of his order.
Highlights
How did medieval people make sense of the heavens? This is a central question in the history of early science
While attention has been paid to the higher-level practices of mathematics and observation, to calculation and discovery, there has been less focus on the lower-level practices of teaching and learning
One much-copied computistical text that does contains notable astronomical mnemonics is the Computus chirometralis by Johannes Algeri, an astronomer who taught in Erfurt in the second quarter of the 14th century.[25]
Summary
How did medieval people make sense of the heavens? This is a central question in the history of early science. One much-copied computistical text that does contains notable astronomical mnemonics is the Computus chirometralis by Johannes Algeri, an astronomer who taught in Erfurt in the second quarter of the 14th century.[25] Algeri’s mnemonics cover the luni-solar cycles integral to the Christian calendar, giving the times of new moons to the nearest minute, and encode details of less immediate computistical relevance This verse charts the progress of the Sun through the signs: Gre . The entry into Taurus is represented by ‘at’, the start of the word ‘atque’, which was allocated to 12 April in popular German versions of the Cisio Janus; is ‘ser’ for St Servatius (13 May), and so on The latter part of the verse offers the entries of the mean Sun, beginning with the ‘ri’ of ‘Gre-go-ri-o’ (14 March) and ending with the ‘ti’ of ‘Sco-las-ti-ca’ (12 February). We can examine how it sits alongside mnemonics which were clearly part of a pedagogical relationship
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