The Art of Memory
Willis invented a popular shorthand and wrote often on memory. This is the fullest English handbook, with practical examples and no heavy debt to foreign writers.
what it teaches
Writing is the best memory aid, but you cannot write everything. The art of places and images is closest to writing: places are leaves, images are letters, rehearsing is reading.
The poet Simonides was called out of a banquet just before the roof fell; he later named every crushed guest by where they had sat. King Darius won a throne because his horse neighed at the right place.
Seeing beats hearing. Picture each thing as if you were looking at it, like blowing an ember back into flame. Memory only stores; understanding arranges and uses.
Colour code each of your imagined buildings. Dress every image in the colour of its repository: a sailor with a golden chain in the first, a silver chain in the second, and so on. If an image goes missing, its colour tells you where to look.
Compound images join a picture with a written motto, like an emblem in a book.
Keep a pocket notebook of striking sentences under headings, instead of repeating them endlessly.