Commonplace book: Difference between revisions

"Commonplace" is a [[Calque|translation]] of the [[Latin]] term ''locus communis'' (from Greek ''tópos koinós'', see [[literary topos]]) which means "a general or common topicplace", such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. In this original sense, commonplace books were collections of such sayings, such as [[John Milton]]'s example. '"Commonplace book'" is at times used with an expansive sense, referring to collections by an individual in one volume which have a common theme (e.g. ethics) or explores several themes. The term overlaps with aspects of the terms '"[[anthology]]'" or '"mixed-manuscript'" in these productions but most properly refers to a collection of sayings or excerpts by an individual, often collected under thematic headings.

The commonplace system of categorized note-keeping was not restricted to books. In the twentieth century, [[Henri de Lubac]] traveled with his notes in a sack.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Contreni |first1=John |title=(Book Review) de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis, Vol 1: The Four Senses of Scripture |journal=The Medieval Review, University of Indiana |date=1999-08-13 |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/14822/20940 |access-date=10 June 2023}}</ref> [[Erasmus]] of Rotterdam traveled with a chest of notes, including examples of well-written Latin that formed the basis of his ''AdagioAdagia''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Perry |first1=Alan T |title=(Book Review) Collected Works of Erasmus |journal=Arc: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University |date=1992 |volume=20 |page=105 |url=https://arcjournal.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/593 |access-date=10 June 2023}}</ref> In ''De Copia'' his ''Method of Collecting Examples'' (''Ratio collegendi exampla'') advocated a hierarchical but ''ad hoc'' breakdown of topics: for example, the top-level might be ''Piety'' and ''Impiety'', under Piety might come ''Gratitude'', and under these headings one puts example texts.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=On Copia of Words and Ideas : De Utraque Verborum Ac Rerum Copia |date=1999 |publisher=Marquette University Press |isbn=0874622123 |page=88 |url=https://library.uoh.edu.iq/admin/ebooks/55989-donald-king,-david-rix-desiderius-erasmus-of-rotterdam_-on-copia-of-words-and-ideas-(mediaeval-philosophical-texts-in-translation)-marquette-univ-pr-(1963).pdf |access-date=10 June 2023}}</ref> The commonplace [[Literary topos|proper]] would be some simple aphorism or moral, possibly several, that can be drawn from the example, such as ''The crowd loves and hates thoughtlessly.''<ref>{{cite book |last1archive-url=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=On Copia of Words and Ideas https: De Utraque Verborum Ac Rerum Copia |date=1999 |publisher=Marquette University Press |isbn=0874622123 |page=184 |url=//web.archive.org/web/20230804140841/https://library.uoh.edu.iq/admin/ebooks/55989-donald-king,-david-rix-desiderius-erasmus-of-rotterdam_-on-copia-of-words-and-ideas-(mediaeval-philosophical-texts-in-translation)-marquette-univ-pr-(1963).pdf |accessarchive-date=10 June 2023-08-04}}</ref> The commonplace [[Literary topos|proper]] would be some simple aphorism or moral, possibly several, that can be drawn from the example, such as ''The crowd loves and hates thoughtlessly.''{{sfnp|Erasmus|1999|p=184}}

While there are ancient compilations by writers including [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] and [[Diogenes Laertius]], many authors in the Renaissance credited [[Aulus Gellius]] as the founder of the genre with his commonplace ''Attic Nights''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blair |first1=Ann M. |title=Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age |date=2010 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=33 |url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300165395/too-much-know}}</ref>

In the first century AD, [[Seneca the Younger]] suggested that readers collect commonplace ideas and sententiae as if like a bee collects pollen, and by imitation turn them into their own honey-like words. By [[late antiquity]], the idea of employing commonplaces in rhetorical settings was well established.<ref name="Havens">{{Cite book |last=Havens |first=Earle |title=Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University}}</ref>

Presumed[[Stobaeus]], toa havewriter beenusually writtenplaced in the fifth century [[Stobaeus]], compiled an extensive two volume manuscript commonly known as ''The Anthologies'', ofcontaining excerpts containingfrom 1,430 works of poetry and prose; quotationsall ofbut works315 of whichthese only 315works are stilllost extantexcept infor theStobaeus's twenty-first centuryquotations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moller |first1=Violet |title=The Map of Knowledge |date=2019 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-54176-3 |pages=3 |edition=1st}}</ref>

Precursors to the commonplace book were the records kept by Roman and Greek philosophers of their thoughts and daily meditations, often including quotations from other thinkers. The practice of keeping a journal such as this was particularly recommended by Stoics such as [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] and [[Marcus Aurelius]], whose own work [[Meditations]] (second century AD) was originally a private record of thoughts and quotations. ''[[The Pillow Book]]'' of [[Sei Shōnagon|Sei Shonagon]], a courtier of the tenth or eleventh-century Japan is likewise a private book of anecdote and poetry, daily thoughts and lists. However, none of these includesinclude the wider range of sources usually associated with commonplace books.

[[File:Zibaldone di pensieri VI.djvu|thumb|right|''Zibaldone di pensieri'', written by the Italian poet [[Giacomo Leopardi]]]]{{Main article|Zibaldone}}

During the course of the fifteenth century, the Italian peninsula was the site of the development of two new forms of book production: the deluxe registry book and the [[zibaldone]] (or hodgepodge book). What differentiated these two forms was their language of composition: a vernacular.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Petrucci |first=Armando |urldate=http://worldcat.org/oclc/31435476January 1995 |title=Writers and readers in medieval Italy : studies in the history of written culture |date=January 1995 |isbn=0-300-06089-0 |oclc=31435476}}</ref> [[Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai|Giovanni Rucellai]], the compiler of one of the most sophisticated examples of the genre, defined it as a "salad of many herbs".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kent |first=Dale |urldate=http://worldcat.org/oclc/3158803342006 |title=Cosimo de' Medici and the Florentine Renaissance : the patron's oeuvre |date=2006 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08128-6 |oclc=315880334}}</ref>

Zibaldone were always paper [[Codex|codices]] of small or medium format – never the large desk copies of registry books or other display texts. They also lacked the lining and extensive ornamentation of other deluxe copies. Rather than miniatures, a zibaldone often incorporates the author's sketches. Zibaldone were in cursive scripts (first [[Chancery hand#Cursive chancery hand|chancery minuscule]] and later mercantile minuscule) and contained what [[palaeographer]] Armando Petrucci describes as "an astonishing variety of poetic and prose texts".<ref>{{sfnp|Petrucci, |1995|p=187.</ref>}} Devotional, technical, documentary, and literary texts appear side by side in no discernible order. The juxtaposition of taxes paid, currency exchange rates, medicinal remedies, recipes, and favourite quotations from [[Augustine]] and [[Virgil]] portrays a developing secular, literate culture.<ref>An example is the [http://www.metafilter.com/46800/Commonplace-books Zibaldone da Canal] merchant's manual held at the Beinecke Library, which dates from 1312 and contains hand-drawn diagrams of Venetian ships and descriptions of Venice's merchant culture.</ref>

By far the most popular literary selections were the works of [[Dante Alighieri]], [[Francesco Petrarca]], and [[Giovanni Boccaccio]]: the "Three Crowns" of the Florentine vernacular traditions.<ref>{{sfnp|Kent, pg. |2006|p=81.</ref>}} These collections have been used by modern scholars as a source for interpreting how merchants and artisans interacted with the literature and visual arts of the Florentine Renaissance.

* [[W. Ross Ashby]] (1903–1972) started a commonplace book in a journal in May 1928 as a medical student. He kept it for 44 years until his death at which point it occupied 25 volumes comprising 7,189 pages and was indexed with 1,600 index cards. The [[British Library]] created a digital archive of his commonplace which has been published online with extensive cross-linking based on his original index. https://ashby.info/ Old site: {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208020827/http://www.rossashby.info/index.html |date=2009-02-08 }}

* [[Amos Bronson Alcott]], 1877: "The habit of journalizing becomes a life-long lesson in the art of composition, an informal schooling for authorship. And were the process of preparing their works for publication faithfully detailed by distinguished writers, it would appear how large were their indebtedness to their diary and commonplaces. How carefully should we peruse Shakespeare's notes used in compiling his plays—what was his, what another's—showing how these were fashioned into the shapely whole we read, how Milton composed, Montaigne, Goethe: by what happy strokes of thought, flashes of wit, apt figures, fit quotations snatched from vast fields of learning, their rich pages were wrought forth! This were to give the keys of great authorship!"<ref>{{cite book |last= Alcott |first= Amos Bronson Alcott'',|date= 1877 |title= Table-Talk of A. Bronson Alcott'' (|location= Boston: |publisher= Roberts Brothers, 1877), |p.&nbsp;= 12.}}</ref>

* [[Virginia Woolf]], mid-twentieth century: "[L]et us take down one of those old notebooks which we have all, at one time or another, had a passion for beginning. Most of the pages are blank, it is true; but at the beginning we shall find a certain number very beautifully covered with a strikingly legible hand-writing. Here we have written down the names of great writers in their order of merit; here we have copied out fine passages from the classics; here are lists of books to be read; and here, most interesting of all, lists of books that have actually been read, as the reader testifies with some youthful vanity by a dash of red ink."<ref>{{cite book Virginia|last= Woolf, "|first= Virginia |date= 1958 |chapter= Hours in a Library", ''|title= Granite and Rainbow: Essays by Virginia Woolf'' |location= (New York: |publisher= Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1958),|p= p.&nbsp;25.}}</ref>

** Burke, Victoria E. ''Recent Studies in Commonplace Books''. English Literary Renaissance. The University of Chicago Press. 43 (1 (Winter 2013)): 153–177. {{doi|10.2307/43607607}}. Retrieved 3 August 2021. A thorough bibliography of research and writing on commonplace books with associated notes.

* [[RodolphusPhilip AgricolaMelanchthon]], ''De formandolocis studiocommunibus ratio''. Antwerp,Augsburg 1532; composed 1484[1593].