Daily Thoughts 1/20/2010

Guidonian hand from a manuscript from Mantua, last quarter of 15th century (Oxford University MS Canon. Liturg. 216. f.168 brecto) (Bodleian Library). This is a method using the hand to remember musical notation. There is a chapter in The Medieval Craft of Memory An Anthology of Texts and Pictures on this.

Daily Thoughts 1/20/2010

Sometimes, I think that book pagination is a memory device. There are three main methods of memory number, place, and time. This is why the bible is divided first by number, then heading, and then sequential location inside the bible. Biblical citations are a form of memory device so the bible can be memorized. I am reading about this in The Medieval Craft of Memory. It may also be why books are numbered, chaptered, and dated.

Robert B. Parker died on January 19, 2010 at age 77. He was very important in reviving the mystery genre. He wrote many novels. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/books/20parker.html I am doing a display of some of his books.

While reading through Publishers Weekly, I found a rather interesting looking title; Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran. There are supposed to be two new Hercule Poirot short stories. It is coming out on March 1, 2010.