Theatres of memory and anatomical theatres: notes on Giulio Camillo, rhetoric, magic and anatomy between 16th and 17th century

The aim of this study is to highlight the links between rhetorical-mnemotechnical, magical-alchemical and anatomical investigation, starting with the works of Giulio Camillo Delminio (c. 1480-1544). Through this reconstruction, it is possible to observe how for Camillo and for others in his milieu, especially the Venetian academies of the 16th century, these arts were conceived in terms of profound interdisciplinarity, thereby moving towards a new encyclope-dia of knowledge. The key to this knowledge was memory and its ars, through which the homo loquens was able to dominate both the natural and transcendental worlds by rediscovering the innate traces of knowledge dormant in their soul. We will also observe the profound links between this cultural paradigm and the parallel birth of new tools used in anatomical investigation, including anatomical tables and, above all, anatomical theatres, paying particular attention to the case of the Anatomical Theatre of Bologna.