Cosmos Rossellius

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Cosmos Rossellius (died 1578) was a Florentine Dominican monk whoe wrote a book about memory.

Theasurus artificosae memoria was published in Venice in 1579. He gives a Dante-esque description of hell as a memory space system arranged around a well at the top of a flight of steps comprised of the punishments for heretics, Jews, idolators and hypocrites. In contrast heaven is depicted as the throne of Christ, surrounded by a celestial hierarchy of Apostles, Patriarchs,Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors, virgins, Holy Hebrews and an enormous array of saints]. He also advocates the use of the constellations as loci. He also discusses the visual alphabet describing it as a digital alphabet, or a manual manual of signs for the fingers. The five woodcuts contain the earliest known representation of a digital sign language.