This is a very good book on the subject and History of the Art of Memory .... It is simply amazing to me how the orators of old were able to memorize entire books, the entire Torah and recite them without fail.
I am lucky if I can remember a phone number. What has happened to our memories ??????
The Art of Memory by British historian Frances A. Yates follows the history of mnemonic systems from the classical period of Simonides of Ceos in Ancient Greece to the Renaissance era of Giordano Bruno, ending with Gottfried Leibniz and the early emergence of the scientific method in the 17th century.
The Art of Memory : http://amzn.to/2AMJ8aJ