The Congestorium artificiose memorie by Iohannes Host Romberch (Venetiis, 1520 y 1533): between scholasticism and humanism

Abstract

From the very title of the text (Congestorium) the idea has imposed itself that Romberch’s Congestorium artificiose memorie is no more than a complex ccumulation 
of materials about memory, from which only the doctrine concerning loci deserves to be rescued, to a large extent, because it serves to explain the texts of other authors who preceded him, like Publicius, and, like Dolce, those who followed him in the long history  of the art of memory. And these are precisely the points with which this work will be concerned: first of all, to outline the context in which the work was composed; second, to specify the actual meaning of the term Congestorium from the influence of the humanist Iohannes Reuchlin; and third, to consider to what extent the use of classical sources and the recognized authority of authors such as Publicius, Petrus Ravennas and Reuchlin allow us to catch some glimpses of a humanistic sensibility in Romberch, beyond his close relationship with the inquisitor of Cologne, Hoogstraten.