If we accept that interpretation, it is necessary to consider Dante as having been indirectly influenced by the founder of the “Art of Memory”, the Greek poet Simonides of Ceos, who also influenced the Latin authors – Quintilian and the unknown author of the “Rhetorica ad Herennium” – and subsequently the fathers of the church Saint Albertus Magnus and Saint Thomas Aquinas, and ultimately Boncompagno da Signa.
Second, although progress has been made, a more extensive set of indicators is still missing. Third, clear-cut mandates are necessary for the formulation of reporting requirements and for the cost assessments; all the parties involved have to acknowledge that the production of statistical data is costly and burdensome and that budgets for statistical reporting are in no case “unlimited”. 4  BIS Review 23/2004