Is Memory a Matter of Complexion? On Memory Disorders in the Latin Commentaries on De memoria (1250–1300)

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of the theory of complexions made by medieval commentators to explain the pathologies or dysfunctions of memory as outlined by Aristotle in his treatise on Memory and Reminiscence. More particularly, it focuses on the Aristotelian issues of the young and the old, the slow- and quick-witted, condensed in the Latin commentaries into an aporia that we will call the “aporia of the opposites” and into the aporia of the melancholics, questioning the influence that complexions can exert on memory. We examine three contrasting solutions, as given by Albert the Great (1200–1280), Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), and Radulphus Brito (d. 1320/21), to shed light on their use and interpretation of theories of complexion within their accounts on memory. The main question that arises in the midst of these interpretations is about which complexion is the most appropriate to memory.