Un trattato cinquecentesco sulla memoria: «L’arte del ricordare » di G.B. Della Porta.

This article has two main objectives. The first is to document the similarities between Della Porta’s Arte del Ricordare and the writings he devoted to alchemy, physiognomy, natural magic and theatre. The second aim is to provide an interpretation of this treatise on mnemonics with a variation on the age-old theme of ut pictura poësis. For Della Porta, words take on an ekphrastic role, whereby it is the task of the word to make one actually see what it is describing. The article will examine how Della Porta drew from the repertoire of figurative arts (at times even unscrupulously), transferring entire passages from Alberti’s De pictura into his work and recognizing the ‘mnemonic’ value of the paintings of Michelangelo and Titian.