Rhétorique du secret et arnaque mnémotechnique : le Modo sicuro e facile per farsi la memoria (1774)

Abstract

The Modo sicuro e facile per farsi la memoria (1774) is a good example of a manual with
false promises, where the rhetoric of secrecy is used to persuade buyers to part with their
money for a work that does not explain how to practice the art of memory. Only one copy
is known to exist today, and it does not seem to have had any impact on the mnemonic
tradition. However, the scarcity of sources dealing with memorization at the end of the
18th century makes it a rare testimony to the perception that contemporaries had of the ars
memoriae and the permanence of its status as a marketable ‘secret’.