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metonymy for cause: silkworms for clothing;
metonymy for effect: the flayed Marsias for the scene of a massacre;
metonymy for ruler and ruled: Neptune for the nautical arts;
metonymy for agent and action: Paris for the tribunal;
metonymy for agent and end: a maiden with a vial of fragrance for perfumery;
antonomasia: Prometheus, giver of fire, for the artisans;
vectorial iconism: Hercules drawing an arrow with three points and aiming toward the heavens for the sciences of heavenly things;
direct inference: Mercury with a cock for trade.
The most systematic of these works is perhaps Cosma Rosselli's Thesaurus Artificiosae Memoriae (1579). Rosselli lists the following correlations:
by a sample: a quantity of iron in order to recall iron;
by similarity, which in turn is subdivided into similarity of substance (the human being as the microcosmic image of the macrocosm) and of quantity (ten fingers for the Ten Commandments);
by metonymy and antonomasia: Atlas for the astronomers or for astronomy, a bear for the angry man, the lion for pride, Cicero for rhetoric;
by homonymy: the animal dog for the dog star;
by irony and contrast: the fool for the wise man;
by vestigial traces: the track for the wolf, the mirror in which Titus admired himself for Titus;
by a word of different pronunciation: sanguine for sane;
by similarity of name: Arista for Aristotle;
by genus and species: the leopard for the animal;
by pagan symbol: the eagle for Jove;
by peoples: the Parthians for arrows, the Phoenicians for the alphabet;
by zodiacal sign: the sign for the constellation;
by relation between an organ and its function;
by common attribute: the crow for Ethiopia;
by hieroglyphic: the ant for prudence;
and finally, totally idiosyncratic associations such as any monster of any sort for anything to be remembered.
The main feature of Hermetic drift seems to be the uncontrolled ability to shift from meaning to meaning, from similarity to similarity,

 
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