Bruno’s writings directly inspired Tommaso Campanella’s (1602)
philosophical utopia, The City of the Sun, in which images externalized as pictures
were used entirely for educational purposes. In the story, the city itself serves as
the basis for the classical mnemonic system. Earthly knowledge is represented in
innumerable pictures and explanations that adorn outer walls, temples, and
galleries of the city. There are mathematical figures; pictures of the seas and
rivers; specimens of minerals, trees, herbs, wines, and animals of all kinds;
representations of weather phenomena; depictions of mechanical arts and
historically important people. Teachers provide verbal instruction by reading
aloud explanatory verses that accompany the pictures and by reading from one
great book. We see later that it is not much of a conceptual stretch to interpret
Campanella’s pictorial-verbal educational system in dual coding theoretical terms.