About the author

Henry Herdson (c. 1611–c. 1651?) has left little biographical trace, although Thomas Fuller's anecdote may shed light. In about 1649, Fuller was approached after church service by an individual who announced publicly that he had taught him the art of memory at Sydney College. Fuller scathingly denied the assertion, claiming that he could not even remember ever seeing the man's face. Fuller does not mention a name, only identifying the person as subsequently authoring a book on the topic. Given Fuller's fame for possessing an exceptional memory, was Herdson's public declaration a bid for self-promotion? Styling himself ‘Professor of the Art of Memory in the University of Cambridge’, Herdson invites readers interested in mnemonic instruction to seek him out at the Green Dragon near St Antholin's Church.

About the text

As befitting an entrepreneurial populariser of the art of memory, Herdson's short treatise purports to make the art accessible through using plain language along with digestible lessons. Ars memoriae (1651) is divided into two sections, a theoretical part and a practical one. The first section prescribes rather schematically – and at times tediously – the architecture of a memory palace, what Herdson terms a repository, although he recognises the importance of the practitioner choosing his own images to deposit in the places. The repository consists of four square chambers laid out in a square pattern. Each chamber, distinguished by distinctive wall hangings, is furnished with five distinctive tables, one in each corner and in the room's centre. A single table occupying the repository's centre outside the four chambers brings the total to twenty-one tables. Furthermore, every tabletop has five places mirroring the arrangement of each chamber's tables and at each place is an imagined friend, so that in sum 105 friends populate the repository, their hands holding images representing significant numbers. Finally, the practical section explains the types of ideas or images in the repository and suggests immediate uses for Herdson's perfunctory rendition of an artificial memory.

The arts of memory

Herdson cannot be said to offer anything distinctly new to the art of memory and maybe that is why his treatise has received such little attention over the centuries, even though it is one of only several English examples from the period. Herdson's clumsy and uninspiring writing does not help the situation.