About trees and books. Creation and memory in the mystic Literature in the XIII Century

Abstract

In this article we want to establish the importance of the studies specialized in medieval mnemonic practices in order to focus on the concept of writing and reading in the thirteenth century. After reviewing recent studies that support this complexity, we will try to demonstrate why it is particularly desirable to apply them to the mystical literature. For their eminent meditational and/or visionary character, these texts present a “visual” nature which, analyzed historically, can be reconstructed and studied. We propose, as examples, two cases of Marguerite d'Oingt († 1310): a letter where we find the image of an inverted tree, echoing a diagrammatic scheme very popular in the doctrinal works of these centuries; and the vision of a book written in different colors, a memorizing mark that we find in her Speculum.