- Aug 2022
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forum.artofmemory.com forum.artofmemory.com
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Carl Otto Reventlow (1817-1873) and the history of the Major System
I was delving into the history of mnemonic techniques earlier hunting down some of the origins of the major system and ran across a reference to Reventlow from the late-1800s. He apparently borrowed much of his work from Aime Paris, but helped to popularize a variation of the method in Germany and Prague.
A sketch with some great references (in German) was already hiding on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Otto_Reventlow
Bonus points for anyone who can track down a digital edition of his 1843 textbook.
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en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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After publishing a textbook on his mnemonic system in 1843,[2] he travelled widely in Germany to popularize it. His most notable lectures were given in Leipzig, but also in Prague. A dictionary that substituted mnemonic terms for numbers[3] and a guideline for the use of mnemotechnics in schools[4] which listed some 3,000 mnemotechnically annotated facts from history and geography courses followed in 1844 and 1846, respectively. The novelty of Otto's "substitution method" was disputed almost immediately,[5][6] his opponents stating it to be just one more derivative of the method proposed by Aimé Paris. However, it received highly favorable reviews as well.[7][8]
Karl Christian Otto (aka Carl Otto Reventlow) published a textbook on a mnemonic system in 1843 and then travelled to publicize and popularize it including notable lectures in Leipzig and Prague. His system, likely broadly similar to the major system, may have been take from Aimé Paris' method.
Sources indicate that it was borrowed from Paris, but it received favorable reviews.
Sources to look into (likely needing translation from German): - Otto, Carl Christian (Pseudonym: Carl Otto Reventlow): Lehrbuch der Mnemotechnik nach einem durchaus neuen auf das Positive aller Disciplinen anwendbaren Systeme. Ed.: J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen 1843; 240 p.<br /> - Reventlow, K. O. Wörterbuch der Mnemotechnik nach eignem Systeme. Ed.: J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen 1844.<br /> - Otto, C. Leitfaden der Mnemotechnik für Schulen. Ed.: J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1846.<br /> - Rauk C. W. Reventlov und die Mnemonik, und die Mnemonik und die Schule. Cottbus 1844.<br /> - Pick E. Mnemonik und ihre Anwendung auf das Studium der Geschichte. Ed.: Steiner'sche Buchhandlung. Winterthur 1848.<br /> - E. M. Oettinger, Karl Otto genannt Reventlow oder die Mnemonik in ihrer höchsten Ausbildung. Leipzig 1845. Charivari, 1847, Ausgabe 222, p. 3546.
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Carl Otto Reventlow (actually Karl [Carl] Christian Otto; born 1817 in Store Heddinge (Denmark); died in 1873) became notable as the developer of a mnemonic system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Otto_Reventlow
Carl Otto Reventlow (1817-1873)
Source used by Edward Pick for some of his history of memory.
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ConradCeltes, a German poet of some renown,‘born in 1459, made the great discoverythat the alphabet could be substituted in
Mnemonics for the places or pictures used by his predecessors. The historians of Mnemonics, especially Aretin, Reventlow, and the learned and famous bibliographer, Edward Marie Oettinger, in Leipzic, to whom I owe the above-mentioned and some of the following details on the history of Mnemonics, give a dozen other names of authors on Mnemonics belonging to this epoch.*
Edward Pick mentions Conrad Celtes in passing for having "made the great discovery that the alphabet could be substituted in Mnemonics for the places and pictures used by his predecessors. He doesn't provide a textual source for the information.
Pick indicates that his primary sources were Edward Marie Oettinger, (Johann Christoph Freiherr von) Aretin, and (Carl Otto) Reventlow who may have more detail on Celte's potential influence on the major system as well as potential alternate names from that era.
see also: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Maria_Oettinger<br /> - History of Mnemonics by J. Ch, Baron von Aretin
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