Memory and Medieval Preaching: Mnemonic Advice in the Ars praedicandi of Francesc Eiximenis (ca. 1327-1409)

Abstract

Memory and Medieval Preaching: Mnemonic Advice in the Ars praedicandi of Francesc Eiximenis (ca. 1327-1409). Although scholars often assume that the friars, the group in medieval society most devoted to a kind of public oratory, would be the people most in need of memory techniques like that of the Rhetorica ad Herennium, relatively little medieval material has been found to support that assumption. The most abundant sources for understanding the preaching of the friars, sermons and ars praedicandi treatises, rarely address the topic of memory explicitly. The lack of direct information about the role of memory in medieval preaching makes the ars praedicandi of Francesc Eiximenis particularly important. Written in the last half of the fourteenth century, Francesc's tract includes an entire chapter detailing techniques for preachers to remember their sermons, techniques that are similar to those found in the Ad Herennium. His recommendations explain ways that medieval preachers could recall what they want...