Ink and paint image from Stephan Fridolin’s Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtumer des Heils (Treasury of the true riches of salvation), published in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger in 1491. Here the hands contain numbers that correspond to meditations in the book, creating a table of contents.
Featured on PDR in the essay Handy Mnemonics: The Five-Fingered Memory Machine
Before humans stored memories as zeroes and ones, we turned to digital devices of another kind — preserving knowledge on the surface of fingers and palms. Kensy Cooperrider leads us through a millennium of “hand mnemonics” and the variety of techniques practised by Buddhist monks, Latin linguists, and Renaissance musicians for remembering what might otherwise elude the mind.
Also appearing in the essay…
Hands with Numbers to Make a Table of Contents
Date
1491
From
Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtumer des Heils
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