The History and Evolution of the Major System for Memorizing Numbers

The major system is a technique for memorizing numbers that is at least several hundred years old. The basic idea may even be thousands of years old.

In this article, we’ll look at how the major system has evolved over time.

Pierre Hérigone

From Wikipedia: “Pierre Hérigone (1580–1643) was a French mathematician and astronomer and devised the earliest version of the major system.”

I couldn’t find the details of the system, but apparently he used both consonants and vowels in Latin and French.

Update: There is a brief description here:

[He] introduced a code by which numbers were translated into words to aid memorising them. The code was as follows:

[list edited for clarity]

• 0 = n, ur, ru
• 1 = p, a
• 2 = b, e
• 3 = c, i
• 4 = d, o
• 5 = t, u
• 6 = f, ar, ra
• 7 = g, er, re
• 8 = l, ir, ri
• 9 = m, or, ro

So to remember a number such as 314159 one produced a word such as ‘cadator’ which then translated back into 314159. The assumption here was that ‘cadator’ was easier to remember than 314159.

Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein

From Wikipedia: “The major system was further developed by Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein 300 years ago.”

His system, published in 1648, is online here, but it’s in German. Here is a screenshot of one illustration of his early Major System

Richard Grey

From Wikipedia: “In 1730, Richard Grey set forth a complicated system that used both consonants and vowels to represent the digits.”

At this point in history, the system still uses both consonants and vowels, but interestingly it alternates consonants and vowels almost like the Ben System:

• 0 = z, y
• 1 = b, a
• 2 = d, e
• 3 = t, i
• 4 = f, o
• 5 = l, u
• 6 = s, au
• 7 = p, oi
• 8 = k, ei
• 9 = n, ou

Some examples of usage that he gives are:

• 10 = az
• 325 = tel
• 381 = teib
• 1921 = aneb
• 1491 = afua

I haven’t read the whole book, but it seems like he is just making nonsense words, not images. Download a PDF of his book here: Memoria Technica [7 Mb]

Gregor von Feinaigle

From Wikipedia: “In 1808 Gregor von Feinaigle introduced the improvement of representing the digits by consonant sounds…”

This is the first version that starts to look like the modern Major System. He assigns the following letters to digits:

• 0 = s, x, z
• 1 = t
• 2 = n
• 3 = m
• 4 = r
• 5 = l
• 6 = d
• 7 = c, k, g, q
• 8 = b, h, v, w
• 9 = p, f

I uploaded a PDF copy of his book here: The New Art of Memory [14 Mb].

Aimé Paris

I’m editing this post again (January 22, 2014) with a few updates. I wanted to mention Aimé Paris who modified Gregor von Feinaigle’s system to create what we know as the modern major system. It seems that he was the person who first published it in the modern form, so it might even be accurate to call it the Paris System. You can read his book here.

Major Beniowski

Some people believe that Major Beniowsky is the “Major” in the major system (but see the comments below for an alternate opinion). His book, The Anti-Absurd or Phrenotypic English Pronouncing and Orthographical Dictionary, contains the modern version of the major system. You can download the book for free here.

Francis Fauvel-Gourad

I’ve edited this post (Jan 15, 2013) to add Francis Fauvel-Gourad. He published the first version of used Aimé Paris’ version of the modern Major System in his 19th century book Phreno-Mnemotechny.

Harry Lorayne

The Wikipedia article says that the major system in its current form was popularized by Harry Lorayne. EDIT: The version of the Major System that he popularized appears to be Francis Fauvel-Gourad’s Aimé Paris’ system.

I think individual people also modify the system for their own use. I use a modified major system for consonants where 6 is “b” because they look similar.

See also the memory wiki page for the major system, because it has additional information, including some notes about other early writers like Ernest E. Wood.

Ernest Wood

In chapter 17 of his 1936 book, Mind and Memory Training, Ernest Wood claimed to have made some changes to von Feinaigle’s mnemonic system to produce the modern major system as we know it today, but it appears that Wood’s version of the system was published almost 100 years earlier by Gouraud. Wood does mentioned that he studied Gouraud’s memory methods, so it could have been that Wood forgot where the idea originated. This part of the history requires more research.

Ben Pridmore

Ben Pridmore added vowels back to the basic major system, along with some other changes, to create the Ben System.

Older Systems

The Katapayadi system from India is an ancient system for remembering numbers that has similarities with the Major System.

In some languages, like Hebrew and ancient Greek, letters have been used to write numerals, so it seems likely that people would have been able to easily see words in them. It’s hard to imagine that they didn’t have similar methods for remembering numbers, especially when paper was not available.

In Hebrew, for example, the number 14 is written with the letters יד (yad), which is also the word for “hand”.

To read more about the history of the major system, see this historical perspective.