Dame Frances A. Yates, 1899-1981

Biography

Born at Southsea in 1899, MA from London University in 1926, Reader in the History of the Renaissance at the Warburg Institute, University of London, from 1941 to her death at home in Claygate in 1981. Awarded the OBE in 1972 and made DBE in 1977.

Dame Yates was the first to emphasize the crucial role of Hermetism in Renaissance thought.

Annotated Bibliography

Yates wrote many books and articles. Here we list only the books most important to Ficino studies.
Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, 1964.
The first recognition of Bruno as a crucial figure in the long line of Hermetic thought: Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Pseudo-Dionysius, Agrippa, Bruno, Campanella, and Fludd.

The Art of Memory, 1966.
Following from her study of Bruno, Yates returns here to Bruno's Hermetic art of memory. The first work to relate the memory art to cultural history. Memory in the ancient world, Camillo, Bruno, Llull, Ramus, and Fludd.
Revd by Ralph H Abraham, 19 Nov 2000