1Over the recent decades, the cultural evolution of ideas about the mind has ceased to be a purely historical concern and has drawn the attention of researchers across academic domains. New theoretical approaches and the broader availability of digital data gave rise to interdisciplinary studies investigating our understanding of mental activities, with their spiritual, social, and physiological implications.
2Contemporary memory studies highlight their transdisciplinary nature by incorporating perspectives from psychology, history, sociology, and linguistics to deepen our understanding of memory processes on both personal and societal levels. Memory is a multifaceted phenomenon that operates both individually and collectively, intertwining personal experiences with shared cultural narratives (Sprenger & Schwedler [2021]). From an individual perspective, memory is essential for constructing personal identity. Psychological research differentiates between episodic memory, which involves personal experiences like recalling a family vacation, and semantic memory, which encompasses general knowledge like understanding the concept of gravity. (Olick [2011]). Far from being a static record, memory is reconstructive, shaped by current knowledge, emotions, and cognitive frameworks.
3From a sociological standpoint, memory is seen as an inherently social activity rooted in frameworks provided by family, religion, and nation (Halbwachs [1950]). Scholars have been arguing that, beyond a sum of individual accounts, there exists collective memory that is retrieved through group remembering activities, e.g. preserving knowledge about the past that exceeds individual recollection in museums and libraries. This cultural memory, transcending the capacities of one person, is thus investigated as a set of social practices emphasizing the role of institutions, media, and rituals in shaping communal remembrance and forgetting.
4Cultural and historical perspectives emphasize the transmission of collective memory through storytelling, literature, art, and education. These media serve as conduits for preserving and reshaping historical events across generations. Collective memory is often politically instrumentalized. Governments and institutions may curate collective memory to foster unity, nationalism, or a particular ideological stance, while marginalized groups may engage in “memory activism” to assert alternative narratives. The relationship between individual and collective memory is deeply interwoven: personal experiences contribute to collective narratives, while collective memory provides a framework for individuals to understand their own past. This interplay can lead to tensions, particularly when personal memories conflict with dominant societal narratives, as seen in historical or cultural contexts where personal trauma is suppressed or marginalized in favour of collective pride.
5An overview of existing works on memory history, all disciplines combined, demonstrates a massive concentration of work in the modern period (from the late eighteenth century onward). Memory scholars have repeatedly stressed the importance of extending the chronological framework of research to pre-modern times in the hope that it will help reveal not only striking dissimilarities with more recent perceptions of memory but also quite possibly certain commonalities when it comes to the role of memory for cultural sense-production (Schwedler [2021: 12]).
6Therefore, the present study seeks to contribute to the transdisciplinary discussion of memory in the pre-modern period by exploring the language of memory and remembrance in Middle English texts. Aiming to reveal how individuals and groups frame their recollections, this lexical study is an initial inquiry into memory language that is conceived as a part of a larger project exploring the lexical categorisation of mind and cognition in Middle English, with the goal of engaging in a wider exploration of medieval models of mind and their significance for understanding memory, imagination, emotion, and the connection between mind and body.
7Before exploring Middle English representations of memory and oblivion, we must consider existing scholarship on earlier periods of language history. In her doctoral thesis, Paula Warrington investigates Anglo-Saxon cultural ideas about memory and remembrance (Warrington [2005]). Stemming from a detailed lexicographical study of memory-related terms within a defined Old English corpus, Warrington’s research work employs contextual analysis to further explore the figurative representations of memory events. The scholar focuses on a selection of Old English texts recorded in or around the tenth century that cover a wide range of topics. The study is corpus-illustrated and uses the contexts that refer to memory events to demonstrate that Anglo-Saxon authors did not solely view memory as a tool for rhetoric, composition, and oratory. The scholar uncovers the salient features of the concept such as the need for sustained effort when ‘bearing in mind’ and the internalisation of exterior. By examining each memory term in its textual context, she identifies semantic nuances often absent from standard lexicographical descriptions.
8To be able to define the concept, the researcher uses contemporary scientific theories on memory as a measure against which to gauge Anglo-Saxon ideas on memory and remembering. Additionally, the thesis aims to draw a comparison between the Anglo-Saxon literary representations of memory and the modern figurative language used to denote remembering activities. The scholar concludes that there are no core conceptual differences between how Old English texts capture the notion of memory and how it is perceived now. Few existing dissimilarities can be accounted for by culturally specific nuances.
9While the questions we ask and the objective we set in this research are not entirely dissimilar to that of the study mentioned above, the approach to memory language that we adopt is fundamentally different. Like Warrington, we examine a corpus of texts with the goal of uncovering cultural assumptions about memory encoding and remembering. Moreover, her study sheds light on the Anglo-Saxon portrayal of memory and remembering and thus provides us with a starting point for an exploration of the Middle English conceptualisation of memory.
10Having said that, one of the key methodological differences of our study consists in opting for an onomasiological approach. A brief survey of existing lexicographical sources shows that consulting them is not enough to provide us with a more nuanced understanding of the concept of memory. For instance, while the Historical Thesaurus of Oxford English Dictionary (HTOED) mentions 1,392 terms related to memory and remembering, only 19 of them are attested in the Old English period, and 147 in the Middle English period. However, it should be noted that an undisputable advantage of the HTOED vocabulary lists is that they were conceived with the objective of reflecting lexical categorisation in mind. We strongly believe that the HTOED semantic classification will only benefit from future research as many of its existing categories could be complemented with the results of historical lexical studies.
11In the framework of an onomasiological study, we avoid setting out with a preselected set of words to perform a semantic analysis on. Instead, following Geeraerts and Gevaert’s model for historical cognitive lexical semantics (Geeraerts & Gevaert [2008]), we start with the concept and make a selection of contexts that refer to different aspects of memory. We then select the most frequently occurring terms and search for them in the corpus. The yielded concordances are used to ascertain the degree of entrenchment of a given term, explore the collocations in which the term occurs, and identify its most salient semantic features. Searching the corpus for recurrent 3-grams and 4-grams containing a keyword helped to better capture contextual information, refine our understanding of a term’s semantics, and get insight into its metaphorical underpinnings. Sketch Engine and #Lancsbox were used as principal corpus analysis tools.
12This paper examines the language of a collection of 289 Middle English texts recorded between 1100 and 1500. Curated by the University of Michigan as a part of the Middle English Compendium project, the selection includes texts of various genres covering a wide range of topics compiled into the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse (CMEPV).
13Figure 1 demonstrates the distribution of text genres in the CMEPV collection. A substantial part of the featured texts, roughly one-third of the collection items, are literary works. This broad category encompasses works of fiction and includes plays, romances, and fabliaux written in Middle English. Imaginative fiction offers valuable insights into cultural attitudes and elucidates how the mind and senses were perceived in secular culture.
14Religious discourse is represented by religious poems, sermons, and homilies (approximately a quarter of the featured texts belong to these genres). Additionally, theological treatises and translations of the Bible and other religious texts from Latin should be mentioned. Some of the theological treatises from CMEPV were not listed among translations as they should be considered retellings of Latin treatises rather than translations in their own right. Medical treatises and other texts exploring practical domains of human knowledge comprise the scientific discourse component of the collection.
15An initial survey of memory-related vocabulary demonstrated that an analysis of memory language should take into account factors such as genre, discourse type, and text origin, i.e. whether the texts in which memory-related terms occur are original Middle English creations or translations.
Figure 1. Distribution of genres in the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse (CMEPV)
While the analysis methods used in cognitive studies are powerful tools for uncovering the semantic and cultural weight of a concept, historical linguists have repeatedly pointed to their primary focus on cognitive processes in individuals and the insufficient integration of socio-cultural and historical factors in understanding cognition, despite efforts by historical linguists to incorporate cultural elements (e.g. the humoral theory underpins Geeraerts’s and Grondelaars’s analysis of the language of anger and the conceptual metaphor anger is heat).16Bearing in mind that cognitive dimensions alone cannot fully explain conceptual variations in language use, we believe that historical language studies should thoroughly consider social, cultural, economic, and political factors accompanying semantic and conceptual shifts. An investigation of medical and philosophical treatises dealing with memory can shed light on the history of memory practices and the medieval knowledge of memory anatomy, without which any attempt at analysing medieval memory representations seems pointless.
17Spanning several centuries, the Middle English period was marked by a considerable shift in the patterns of medical thought. The vernacularisation of Latin scholarly treatises resulted in the dissemination of the scholastic medical tradition (Pahta & Taavitsainen [1998: 165]). Often trained in universities that relied on Latin translations of Galen’s works, medieval physicians used his theories to diagnose and treat illnesses through methods such as bloodletting, dietary regulation, and herbal remedies. Scholastic authors were widely studied by medieval medical scholars, who attempted to give them an updated interpretation by reconciling the sometimes conflicting views of Latin and Greek authors.
18Vernacular medical writings of the late fourteenth century contain numerous references to Galen. His name occurs over 70 times in the CMEPV texts, primarily in the vernacular translations of medical treatises and medical writings created after 1350, but also in Chaucer’s works. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the scholastic tradition had long since asserted its position as the dominant school of medical thought in medieval England, with Galen’s and Hippocrates’s names even appearing in a verse written as a light-hearted preface for a medical treatise.
19Therefore, it seems most logical to divide the time span of the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse into two periods using the vernacularisation of medical texts over the fourteenth century and the establishment of Galenic medicine as the dominant medical tradition as the dividing line. As a result, two sub-corpora were created. The first sub-corpus includes early Middle English texts written before 1350, totalling 973,112 tokens, while the second sub-corpus consists of late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century writings, containing 1,307,741 tokens.
20It should be noted that the approach to the study of the texts mentioned herein is primarily linguistic and not historical. It is the lexical categorisation of memory and the changes in its perception that it entails that interest us most. It is therefore not our objective to retrieve information about memory from relevant medieval medical and philosophical sources.
21Instead of pursuing historical reconstruction of memory-related practices, the aim of this paper is to trace the shifts in the lexical and conceptual categorization of memory and identify the sociocultural factors that could account for them. In this study of memory language, we follow Warrington’s assumption that “clues to the polysemy of [memory and remembering] concepts can be found in the language of writers whose main concern may not be memory per se” [2005: 8]. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be on the memory and oblivion events that occur within the narratives of the texts featured in the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
22In the framework of cognitive lexical semantics, studies of conceptual metaphors have shed light on how the inner workings of human mind are categorised in the language from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. First described by Kurath, the MIND as BODY metaphor lays a foundation for historical analyses of mind-related language. They often depart from the assumption that lexical items denoting feelings or mental activities such as knowing, learning, remembering, etc. are often derived from terms used to describe physical states and sensations accompanying these activities or bodily organs associated with them. Previous diachronic studies have explored the evolution of embodied metaphors in the domain of emotions (Anglo-Saxon anger in Geeraerts & Gevaert [2008], Old English lexicon of fear in Diaz-Vera [2011], French metaphors for fear in long diachrony in Pierens [2014], a collection of essays on Old English emotions in Jorgensen, McCormack & Wilcox [2015], Anglo-Saxon sadness vocabulary in Castaño Castaño & Verdaguer Clavera [2018], positive emotions in Old English in Diaz-Vera [to appear in 2025]) and mental processes (for Old English knowledge language see Diaz-Vera [2011], for my own study of Middle English knowledge metaphors see Cziganj [2025]).
23An investigation of the key memory terms uncovers a striking difference in the ways to frame memory encoding and retrieving between earlier and later Middle English texts. A survey of the texts created prior to 1350 demonstrates that verbs and nouns referring to mind and thinking in a general way were predominantly used to describe remembering activities. The act of retrieving recollections stored in memory is recurrently referred to by using the verb thynken, which serves as a Middle English equivalent of the Latin memento in vernacular translations:
Þan says our Laverd God almyghty Agayne til man, þus shortly: Memento, homo, quod cinis es, et in cinerem reverteris. “Thynk man”, he says, "askes er-tow now, And in to askes agayn turn. (Prick of Conscience, 1325-1350).
[Then our Lord God Almighty says again to the man so shortly, Memento, homo, quod cinis es, et in cinerem reverteris. “Remember man”, he says, “that you are ashes, and to ashes you shall return.”]
24The process of storing information in memory is described with a number of collocations of the verb have with the nouns mynd and thoght: have mynde (87 occ.), have mynd of/on (57 occ.), have in thoght (32 occ.), which confirms the embodied character of the figurative language used to frame memory encoding and retrieving.
25The faculty of memory is most frequently denoted by the noun mynd, e.g. when listed among other admirable faculties and characteristics: haffen minde, wille and witt “have good memory, will, and intelligence” (Ormulum, 1175). While this use is attested throughout the Middle English period, a survey of the sub-corpus of late Middle English texts yielded two key nouns denoting memory and most frequently used in contexts referring to memory-related activities after 1350: memorie (total occ. 175, relative freq. 0.12 per 10k tokens) and remembraunce (total occ. 174, relative freq. 0.12 per 10k tokens). The use of the two terms, fourteenth-century borrowings from Old French, is evenly distributed in the corpus, both occurring in roughly 40% of the texts.
26A survey of the contexts in which the terms occur points to their semantic proximity, both nouns denoting the store of experiences available to an individual’s recollection, their capacity to recall the past, as well as individual recollections and mementos. Furthermore, as shown in Figure 2, the two terms occur in similar contexts and share a significant number of collocates (a selection of up to 3 collocates to the right and left was taken into account).
Figure 2. Collocation network graph (remembraunce and memorie / memorye)
27The most frequently occurring 3-grams featuring the target word (remembraunce or memorie) include almost exclusively combinations with spatial prepositions, e.g. unto your remembraunce, in your remembraunce, out of memorie, in his memorie, which are indicative of the conceptualisation of memory as a place where mental images of past events are stored and echo the earlier Middle English expressions.
28Furthermore, the nouns are most frequently used as verbal complements for prepositional verbs conveying the idea of storing elements within a space, e.g. put in memorye, be in memorye, bringen to remembraunce, comen unto remembraunce. A spatial representation of memory in literary texts is a reflection of St. Augustine’s metaphorical understanding of memory as a large and boundless inner chamber. This spatial understanding of memory highlighted its integration with other faculties, such as imagination, reason, and will.
29While there exists significant contextual and semantic proximity between the two nouns, further investigation of contexts in which the nouns occur demonstrates that memorie rather than remembraunce is used to denote the faculty of memory in its broader sense, especially when contrasted with other mental abilities, such as imagination, wit or intellect:
Right as a man hath sapiences thre: Memorie, engyn, and intellect. (G. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, 1387-1400)
[Similar to how a man has three faculties: memory, talent (wit), and intelligence.]
30This quotation from The Canterbury Tales echoes the Augustinian model of mental faculties, which viewed the intellect as a bridge between the human soul and the divine, allowing for a higher form of knowledge that transcended empirical or discursive thought. Memory played an important role in this process as a repository of past experiences and knowledge, which could be recalled and used in reasoning and moral deliberation. Memory was thought of as an essential part of human identity, almost equal in its importance to the intellect and mental sanity:
‘Kyng Eualach,’ sche seide, ‘I se by the Thow hast lost bothe mynde & Memore.’ (The History of the Holy Grail, 1420-1430)
[Kind Evalach, she said, I see through that that you have lost both your mind and memory.]
31A bridge between the sensory and intellectual realms, memory processed and organized sensory impressions to be recalled and utilized by higher faculties. While mynde denotes, in this context, the faculty of logical reasoning and sanity of mind, the term retains, throughout the Middle English period, the ability to express a variety of memory-related senses, most of which were related to the idea of mind as a place in which memory resides.
32It is common in Modern English and in its earlier historical varieties to refer to memory as being confined within a certain location. Existing surveys of Old English figurative representations of memory events reveal the metonymic mapping of the site of memory encoding. If Anglo-Saxon poetry frequently relies on heorte as the locus of memory events (Warrington [2005: 62], Lockett [2015: 35]), there is significant evidence that, similarly, mod is perceived as a container for memories. Semantically intricate, the Old English noun mod has been a focus of many discussions on Anglo-Saxon ideas about thought, feelings, and cognition.
33Lexicographical sources define the noun as a complex amalgam of the human spiritual side and intellectual abilities. They also point to its ability to metonymically refer to a person (similar to Modern English spirit or soul). As it is frequently the case with Old English terms referring to abstract notions and phenomena, it seems difficult to present the meaning of mod as a list of clear-cut semantic components and separate ‘spirit’ and ‘mind, intellect’ into two semantically distinct items. The task of outlining the possible meanings of OE mod is rendered even more daunting by the limitations of analysis methods that rely on contextual cues to ascertain a word’s meaning.
34It should be noted that, throughout the Old English period and until the second half of the Middle English period (1350-1500), there existed no conceptual opposition of heart and brain. While Modern English metaphorical mappings are often based on emotions being ascribed to the heart and rational thinking to the mind, it is not before the fourteenth century that this dichotomy is attested in Middle English writings (for examples from Middle English literature see Lockett 2015).
35This may be accounted for by the fact that pre-Norman literary, exegetical, and medical texts do not characterize brain as the seat of the mod (Lockett [2015]). The latter does not only encompass the faculty of thinking, memory, imagination, will, and governance of the body but also, strikingly, the whole range of emotions and passions, traditionally localised in the heart.
36The Middle English mynde retains most of the Anglo-Saxon term’s semantic complexity. However, in this paper, we will focus primarily on its memory-related senses. While the faculty of memory is almost exclusively referred to with the noun mynde in earlier Middle English texts, as discussed in the previous section, its use can be observed in the sub-corpus of late Middle Englis texts. Similar to memorie and remembraunce, mynde occurs primarily in 3-grams and 4-grams bringing to the fore its spatial conceptualisation. These include such combinations as of his mynde, in his/thy mynde, haue in mynde, in mynde of, oute of his mynde, the latter denoting the fact of forgetting something and occurring in an idiomatic expression oute of siȝt oute of mynde:
Whan man is oute of siȝt, sone he passiþ oute of mynde. (De Imitatione Christi, a 15th-century Middle English translation)
[When a man is out of one’s sight, he is soon out of one’s mind.]
37While in the previous section we saw that memorie and mynde could occur in the same syntagm and convey different intellectual faculties, mynde is systematically used in John Trevisa’s Middle English translation of Polychronicon as a term denoting memory, a direct equivalent of Latin memoria:
Seneca.was so myȝty of mynde þat he rehersed two þowsand names by herte. (John Trevisa’s Translation of the ‘Polychronicon’ of Ranulph Higden, 1387)
[Seneca had such a strong memory that he could learn two thousand names by heart].
38Interestingly, the context demonstrates no conceptual juxtaposition between mynde and herte. Both are used to speak about memory: the idiomatic expression rehersed by herte echoes the Anglo-Saxon idea of memories and intellect residing in the heart, while mynde incorporates memory into a complex of mental abilities confined within it.
39The theme of the mind as a container for recollections is construed through spatial and temporal categories. The amount of information a person can remember is mapped onto the period of time one can “hold” within their mind in the group of Middle English expressions referring to what is within or out of the reach of memory:
The said barony..wherof we and our praedecessourȝ have been peaseably possessid from tyme of mynde afor the said intrusion. (J. Raine, Correspondence, Inventories, Account Rolls & Law Proceedings Priory of Coldingham, 1471)
[The barony in question.. of which we and our predecessors have been in peaceable possession since as long as we can remember before the intrusion].
40While it would be hasty to claim that there is a semantic relation of equivalence between the brain and mynde at that point, language data suggest that the faculty of memory is thought to be located in the same place as other mental faculties, with which it is closely intertwined. Memory is also measured by the length of a period of time that a person can recollect, and this information is stored within the mind, which is metaphorically perceived of as a physical organ of a human body.
41The modern tradition of neuropsychological description of memory finds its origin in Aristotelian theories about mind and cognition. However, psychological descriptions of memory and recollection articulated by Aristotle were unknown to medieval England until the twelfth century (Decaix [2021]).
42This late medieval concern with the anatomy of memory contrasts with the pre-scholastic understanding of memoria as “the praxis of liturgical and devotional prayer” [Carruthers 1998: 56]. Medieval monastic and spiritual practices often involved deliberate memorization and meditation on scripture, prayers, and religious texts. Rather than a merely intellectual exercise, it was considered a way of embedding divine truths in the soul. By memorizing Psalms and biblical passages, monks believed that these sacred words, lodged in memory, could fortify the soul against sin and distraction.
43It is difficult to discern the accessibility of cephalocentric Latin doctrines in Anglo-Saxon England but there is evidence that none of the early medieval Latin medical treatises foregrounding the role of the brain in mental activities have been assimilated into any Old English medical text (Banham [2011: 342]). Cephalocentrism of Galenic anatomical treatises has gained influence in late medieval England through translation of medical texts contesting the popular belief that regarded the heart as the centre of understanding and emotion. By providing evidence from head injuries, medieval medical authors claimed that rational functions resided in the brain.
44The brain’s ventricles played a central role in memory, following a tripartite model of cognition developed by Galen and refined by Avicenna and Albertus Magnus. This model assigned three cognitive functions to specific ventricles: imagination in the anterior, reason and judgment in the middle, and memory in the posterior. Memory was believed to work like a seal pressing into wax – images or “phantasms” would imprint themselves onto the brain’s moist, pliable substance.
45Memory was also understood through the humoral system, where the balance of four humors – blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile – affected one’s memory capacity. In Aristotelian conception, images or “phantasms” would imprint themselves onto the brain’s moist, pliable substance. Therefore, people whose humours are out of balance can be significantly better at memorization, or, on the contrary, experience great difficulty retaining information. Thus, people who are too fluid do not retain images well and recollect uncontrollably. Conversely, dry people are slower at creating images but can remember things easily. Additionally, an excess of black bile was thought to weaken memory by cooling and drying the brain while a blood-dominant (sanguine) temperament was believed to enhance memory by providing ideal warmth and moisture (Sorabji [1972]).
- 1 Drawing on classical sources like Hippocrates and Galen, the treatise systematically combined theor (...)
46The perception of the process of memorization as somatic in nature accounts for numerous medical recipes and treatises providing advice for those willing to maintain and improve their memory. Descriptions of memory impediment attested in Middle English medical treatises mention liquid imbalance as a factor accompanying memory loss and mental disorders. The Middle English translation of Guy de Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie, a late fourteenth-century landmark medieval medical treatise written in Latin1, mentions a case of a disease affecting mind and memory. In accordance with Galenic anatomical model, the surgeon places memory in the posterior part of the brain:
Of þe hynder partie of þe brayne..went out a litel of þe substance..which knowen by hurting in þe memorie, i. mynde, which he recouered after þe cure. (Guy de Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie, a 15th-century Middle English translation)
[From the posterior part of the brain… went out a small quantity of solid mass … which is known to affect memory and mind. After the cure, these faculties were restored.]
47Among other cephalocentric medical texts, the treatise’s popularity in late medieval England marks the shift from an Anglo-Saxon cardiocentric view of memory activities to a more brain-centered understanding of memory anatomy. Furthermore, this extract is indicative of the physiological perception of memory as something that can be damaged by external factors and can be restored as a result of medical treatment.
48The necessity of restoring memory, which is perceived as being fragile and prone to disappearance if efforts are not made to preserve it, is reflected through the recurrent use of the verb reduce in a collocation with memory-related terms, e.g. (a) and (b).
(a) Therefor this mater redus to youre memorie (Early English Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, late 15th century)
[Therefore, this deed is brought back to your memory].
(b) … he made the offyces and legendes of holy sayntes, & dyd reduce in to mynde and̛ remembraunce the passyons of holy marters (Lyf of the noble and Crysten prynce, Charles the Grete, a 1485 Middle English translation by William Caxton)
[… he wrote down the legends of the holy saints and restored in memory the passions of the holy martyrs].
49A brief survey of the verb’s occurrences in the late Middle English sub-corpus demonstrates its wide use in translated medical treatises, in which it is used as a versatile term denoting medical treatment for a range of health issues such as bone fractures (c), dislocations (d), and open wounds (e):
(c) reducyng algebras (The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac’s Grande Chirurgie)
[healing fractures]
(d) It [the bone] be reducid to þe same place þat it schulde be reducid to (Medical Works in Glasgow, Hunterian 95, 15th century)
[The broken bone will be restored to the place to which it should be restored.]
(e) þe lippes schal ben reduced naturellie in as muche as it is possibel. (Medical Works in Glasgow, Hunterian 95, 15th century)
[The lips will heal (be restored) naturally as much as possible.]
50In the medieval mindset, the medical and the spiritual were deeply intertwined, reflecting a worldview that saw human health as inseparable from the moral and metaphysical dimensions of existence. Rooted in both classical medical traditions and Christian theology, this perspective held that physical and mental ailments were not only natural phenomena but also manifestations of spiritual realities. Drawing on the early Christian understanding of memory as a place where the soul could encounter divine truths, retrieve, and reflect on knowledge, Thomas Aquinas incorporated memory into the understanding of the virtues, linking it to prudence – the ability to make wise decisions based on past experiences and knowledge.
51In accordance with this idea, Middle English texts and translations contain numerous examples depicting memory as an activity shaping judgment and improving moral conduct, rather than a passive or nostalgic contemplation of past events. Integrated into devotional practices, memory activities such as remembering religious teachings (f) or reflecting on past deeds (g) fostered spiritual awareness and enabled a deeper engagement with the sacred.
(f) Holi chirche..hath ordeyned.., for-to reduce to oure mynde that we ben putte away out of paradyse. (Aelred of Rievaulx’s De Institutione Inclusarum, late 14th century - mid-15th century)
[The Holy Church has decreed that we should remember why we were chased out of the Paradise].
(g) He, wepynge hys dedis and reducyng to mynde the scapis of his yougth and ignoraunces, prayd to oure lorde for remyssioun. (Foundation of St. Bartholomew’s Church, a 1400 translation)
[Regretting his deeds and remembering the misdeeds and ignorance of his younger years, prayed to Lord for forgiveness]
52Shaped by the interplay of medical and spiritual paradigms, the medieval understanding of memory reflects a deeply holistic worldview. Numerous contexts referring to memory and the activity of remembering foreground its dual role as both a physiological function anchored in the brain’s anatomy and a moral-spiritual exercise central to religious life. This duality is reinforced by a transition from early Christian and Anglo-Saxon cardiocentric notions to late medieval cephalocentric models, influenced by Galenic and Aristotelian traditions. The recurring use of the verb reducen with regard to memory in medical and devotional contexts exemplifies the era’s perception of memory as a fragile yet essential faculty, capable of being restored or fortified through physical treatment or spiritual reflection. By integrating memory into both medical frameworks and moral-theological discourses, medieval thinkers articulated a vision of memory that transcended mere cognition, casting it as a dynamic process that shaped individual health, moral conduct, and the soul’s connection to the divine.
53The paper presents the results of an initial survey of the Middle English memory language. In the framework of this onomasiological study, we analysed a corpus of Middle English texts of diverse genres to identify the key terms used to frame memory activities, retrieve their immediate collocates through n-gram analysis and collocational graphs, and examine their use in the figurative language employed to speak about memory.
54The findings reveal that early Middle English texts do not categorize memory as a separate mental activity, using general terms for thinking when referring to remembering and memorising. The lexical field of memory terms expands in the second half of the fourteenth century with the appearance of Old French loanwords specifically referring to the faculty of remembering and not the faculties of mind in general, as well as new metaphorical expressions with mynd.
55Throughout the Middle English period, memory encoding is conceptualized as an inward movement of information into the mind. Memory and mind are represented as vast spaces in which countless instances of the past are being stored. This metaphor, already attested in the 12th and 13th-century texts, is further developed in the late Middle English texts. Memory gaps and memory impairment are metaphorically mapped as information located outside of the mind. Memory is measured in time, and therefore, a person might have no recollections about events that happened a long time ago, as prolonged time frames are thought to be impossible to be contained within the mind.
56This study has revealed the dichotomous nature of the medieval understanding of memory, shaped by the interplay of medical and spiritual paradigms. In late Middle English texts, memory is both a physiological function grounded in anatomical and humoral theories and a spiritual exercise deeply embedded in Christian devotion and morality. The transition from cardiocentric models, which associated memory with the heart, to cephalocentric views that situated memory in the brain reflects the broader impact of Latin medical treatises on English intellectual culture in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The brain was increasingly seen as the locus of memory, with specific cognitive functions – imagination, judgment, and memory – assigned to distinct ventricles. Simultaneously, memory was shaped by the humoral system, where imbalances in bodily fluids influenced memory capacity and recall.
57Beyond the physiological, memory retained its profound spiritual significance, as evidenced by its role in devotional practices like scriptural memorization and moral reflection. Expressions such as reduce to mynde illustrate the dynamic interplay between medical and spiritual paradigms, presenting memory as both fragile and essential. Linguistic patterns across genres reveal how memory was embedded in moral, intellectual, and cultural discourses, serving as a bridge between corporeal health and spiritual salvation.
58By combining linguistic analysis with insights into socio-cultural and historical contexts, this study underscores the centrality of memory in late medieval thought. It provides a foundation for further interdisciplinary exploration of how medieval models of mind and cognition inform our understanding of language, identity, and cultural practices in pre-modern England.