Kabbalism in J. Romberch’s Congestorium and Its Context: An Approach

Abstract

In the Renaissance, a great evolution took place in many disciplines related to very diverse fields of knowledge. Among them were the arts of memory and Christian Hebraism, whose development went hand in hand with Christian Kabbalism and other speculative sciences. Both disciplines had long previous traditions and some previous contact, starting with Raimundus Lullus, but it is from the first years of the 16th century that mnemonics and Kabbalistic studies appear to converge on certain authors. This may be the case of Johannes Romberch, author of the Congestorium artificiosae memoriae (1520), who makes very particular mention of Kabbalah in this well-known treatise. This paper aims to be an approach to the points of contact established in the Congestorium to later develop a comparative study.