This is really the book to start with if you are interested in the Art of Memory. I read it ages ago, and I do not remember it being a particularly easy read. I was frustrated that the reader was expected to know so many languages---but it is a book written for a scholastic crowd. If you want to try to understand Giordano Bruno, the power of imagination, and the critical role that mnemonic arts played in history, this is where you've gotta start.