# Memoria Technica

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PREFACE.
It may be proper to acquaint the reader with what improvements have been made in this work since its first publication. In the tables of the patriarchs and ancient kings, care has been taken to signify, with the utmost brevity, the relation which every person bore to his immediate predecessor. In the geographical part, besides the adding of many remarkable places both in ancient and present geography, the memorial lines for the general and particular divisions have many of them been formed anew, with particular regard to the situation of the respective kingdoms, provinces, or countries into which those divisions have been made; so that every line is in some measure the epitome of a map. The tables of ancient coins, weights, and measures have been carefully reviewed, and very much augmented; and decimal tables subjoined, of great use for the more speedy and exact reduction of them. There is likewise added an Index of the historical, chronological, and geographical words; of the usefulness of which is given an account in the proper place. Besides these, there are several alterations and additions of less moment, interspersed throughout the whole; such as either my own experience or the judgment of my friends had suggested to me, in order to render the design more useful. I shall not trouble the render with the reasons of them, which, if he compares the editions, he will very probably find out him. self: nor do I think it necessary to apologize for having made them, since it could not be expected that an inventior ​of this kind should be so perfect at first, as not to be capable of being considerably improved. And I was the more willing to bestow some care and pains upon it, and to give it what improvement I was able, in return for the favourable reception it has met with from the public, beyond what was expected by myself or others. An Art of Memory has by many been looked upon as a thing either in itself impracticable, or, at least, in the common methods of it, useless and trifling. And I was sensible that the following method would lie under the additional disadvantage of a whimsical and out of the way appearance; besides that, the seeming difficulty of it at first sight would, I foresaw, deter many from so much as attempting to make themselves masters of it. Notwithstanding these discouragements, it has had the good fortune to give some satisfaction, and to meet with some success; and will, I hope, continue to be looked upon as an useful help to those who delight in reading, and would retain what they had read with faithfulness and accuracy, particularly in such points wherein their memories are most likely to fail them.
The objections which have been made to it from the difficulty of remembering the memorial lines would most effectually be removed by habituating young minds to then betimes, by the frequent transcribing and repetition d them. The technical words would by this means become natural and familiar, and of no small advantage to them in the course of their future studies; they would be easily received and long retained. But I shall say no more upon this point, having already touched upon it in the Introduction; to which also I refer the reader for what might further be expected by way of Preface.
Introduction.
It is a general complaint amongst men of reading, and to many a discouragement from it, that they find themselves not able to retain what they read with any certainty or exactness. And in no part of literature is there greater room for this complaint than in History: to the studying of which with pleasure and improvement, as nothing contributes more, so nothing has been thought more difficult to be retained, than a distinct and accurate knowledge of Chronology and Geography. Upon this account several attempts have been made to remedy, in some measure, the defects of the memory, by chronological and geographical tables, cuts, and maps, and by reducing the principal parts of history to certain epochas or æras, so disposed and contrived, as may be most likely to affect the imagination, and make the deeper impression upon the mind. Thus Mr. Hearne, in his Ductor Historicus, has reduced the whole tompass of chronology to thirteen grand epochas, all beginning with the letter C. Dean Prideaux, in his Introduction to History, has made use of the number seven, throughout his whole book; "not out of affectation (as he tells us) but experience, as most easy for the memory;" with others of the like nature, which serve at least to show that the memory wants assistance, and that small helps are better than none. But of all the inventions made use of for this end, none has been found to contribute more to the assistance of the memory than that of technical verses; both as they generally contain a great deal in a little com​pass, and also because being once learned, they are seldom or never forgot. For the truth of which I may venture to appeal to the weakest memories, whether they have not to the last found themselves in possession of that ever-memorable line,
Barbara Celarent Darii Feiro Baralipton.
Of this nature is the following method; the design of which is, not to make the memory better, but things more easy to be remembered; so that by the help of it, an ordinary, or even a weak memory, shall be able to retain what the strongest and most extraordinary memory could not retain without it. For, as he, who first contrived to assist the eye with a telescope, did not by that pretend to give sight to the blind, or make any alteration in the eye itself, but only to bring the objects nearer, that they might be viewed more accurately and distinctly; so neither is it pretended by this art to teach those to remember everything who never could remember anything; or to make men in an instant skilful in sciences which before they were utterly unacquainted with; but only to enable them to retain, with certainty and exactness, what they have already a general and competent knowledge of: that they may not be obliged upon every occasion to have fresh recourse to their books or maps, or be under the tiresome necessity of reading the same things again and again, still forgetting them as fast as they read them.
To those who may object, of what use is it to be thus exact, and content themselves with an imperfect and confused remembrance of what they read; it might be answered, ​that such as think it of no use, need not, as I presume they will not, trouble themselves about it; this being designed for the benefit of those only who think it is of use; and who, even at the expense of a little pains, would remember if they could: but, besides this, I believe it will be agreed on all hands, that to instance in history only, a man who has an exact notion of time and place, finds incomparably more pleasure, and makes a speedier progress in that study than he who has not.
I shall here beg leave to transcribe a passage from Addson'S Dialogues, upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals:
If this be such a considerable advantage in medals, I hope it will be allowed that the following method is of some use, since by it a man may be enabled to remember when any emperor, from Julius Cæsar to Jovian, began his reign, and that as readily as you can name him, by the help of ne more than seven memorial lines. The like he may do, with the same ease and readiness, by the kings of England, and so proportionably for any other part of sacred or profane history. For, how impracticable soever it may seem at first view, I have reason to believe, that any reader of a ​common capacity may, by a regular proceeding and ordinary application, be able readily and exactly to answer most if not all, the questions that can be proposed, from the following tables.
The manner in which I would advise him to proceed (after having premised that he must not be too hasty at first, but make himself master of one thing before he proceeds to another, beginning with such particulars as he has most occasion or inclination to retain) is this. First, let him learn to explain the several memorial lines, according to the method hereafter to be laid down, by consulting the tables to which they belong. 2. This done, let him, by Looking upon the tables, learn to make out the lines; and 3, Let him charge his memory with them, by frequent repetition. By this means the words will become familiar, how harsh and uncouth soever they may appear at first, and he will find it as easy to know the diameter, distance, and magnitude of any planet; the particular time or age of any remarkable person or thing; the longitude and latitude of any place, and the like, as it is to remember their names the whole art being in effect nothing more than this; to make such a change in the ending of the name of a place, person, planet, coin, &c. without altering the beginning of it, as shall readily suggest the thing sought, at the same time that the beginning of the word being preserved, shal. be a leading or prompting syllable to the ending of it so changed.
I would willingly here let the reader a little more into my meaning, which he may not otherwise so readily ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/15 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/16 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/17 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/18 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/19 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/20 ​Page:Dr. R. Grey's Memoria technica, (IA drrgreysmemoriat00grey 0).pdf/21 ​upon the whole this attempt shall be found to contribute to the more speedy attainment of useful knowledge, and to give men of reading, instead of an imperfect and confused remembrance of what they read, a satisfactory certainty and exactness, as I cannot think the little time I have spent upon it ill bestowed in respect of my own improvement, so I shall be glad that it proves of as much benefit to others as I have found it to myself.
* ↑ Hæc ars tota habet hanc vim, non ut totum aliquid cujus in ingeniis nostris pars nulla fit, pariat et procreet; verum ut ea, quæ sunt orta jam in nobis et procreata, educat atque confirmet. Cicero de Oratore, lib. ii. edit. C. Steph, p. 182.
* ↑ Assumendus usus paulatim, ut pauca primum complectamur mimo quæ reddi fidelitur possint: mox per incrementa tam momica ut onerari se labor ille non sentiat, augenda usu et exercitatione multa continenda est, quæ quidem maxima ex parte memoria constat. Quintilianus, lib. x. edit. Gibson. Ox. p. 534.
The probable reasons why Grey's Memoria Technica has not been more generally received in Grammar Schools, where any separate regard is paid to History and Chronology, are, that it abounds with matter which has not a strict relation to classical authors, and that it is extended to branches of knowledge, such as Geography, Astronomy, &c. where the necessity of the art is not so evident, and the difficulty of application much greater.
In defence of this art as a subsidiary aid to young persons in History and Chronology, I will not say, that by the help of it the weakest memory may be able to retain what the strongest could not retain without it; but I have no scruple in recommending it to those who wish to avoid the necessity of perpetual recurrence to chronological maps or tables, and who prefer accuracy and fidelity to confused recollection and imperfect remembrance. It does not, indeed confer a new faculty, but it teaches us to manage with skill the capacity of the memory, and contrives such helps as greatly assist its natural powers.
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This work was published before January 1, 1930, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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