Architecture and Memory

The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro

Robert Kirkbride

 

Arca is a term Isidore of Seville links with arx, "one of the family of storage-room metaphors for memory" that represents, according to Carruthers, a visual pun "on the Temple citadel of Ezekiel, the 'city on a hill' in Matthew, and the Johannine 'Heavenly Jerusalem'" (Isidore, Etymologiae, 15.2; also Carruthers, Craft of Thought, 19, 281 n. 31). The first image in Publicius' Art of Memory, illustrating rules for places, depicts a fortified city on a hill. Romberch included such an image in his 1533 treatise. Publicius underscores the value of etymology, onomatopoeia and other forms of wordplay for the selection of memory images (Art of Memory, 21-22). Drawn by Amelia Amelia after Romberch's rendering of Publicius.

Source: © Robert Kirkbride

Arca is a term Isidore of Seville links with arx,