Codognet's article talks about how images and hyperlinking on the internet have origins that go back to the 15-17th Century. He notes how in that time, it was more important to learn to memorize things since recording tools were not common, so they used images as part of the "art of memory" to train themselves at remembering things, since images are more effecive than words.
Codognet then talks about how during the Renaissance, certain people developed languages consisting only of images; these images were then indexed and referenced in text, which elaborated the image. This idea came about in both China and in France, by a Jesuit missionary and a humanist, respectively.
I think this is interesting to hear that this was created in China, because when I recently went to a Chinese restaurant for the first time, and I was surprised to see that the menu consisted of only pictures with numbers. It was then on the back side of the menu that the numbers were indexed and I could read what the dish was called. I think this method of indexed images is also used in catalogs; as a child I had a subscription to Lego magazine and I remember they used this method for listing their piece sets.
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