\[ **broader term: [[note-taking]]** ] --- # Commonplace books [[Personally gathered collections of quotes (commonplace books) were popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.]][^1] [[Commonplace books would often ‘result in a wonderfully tangled mixture of reading and writing, where disparate ideas could be fruitfully thrown together onto the same pages.’]][^2] Also known as *commonplaces*.[^3] --- ## A brief history The form has existed, under various names, since antiquity. [[Aulus Gellius (Roman author)|Aulus Gellius]]’s *[[Aulus Gellius. 'The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. With an English Translation', trans. Rolfe, 1927|Attic Nights]]*, for example, can be considered a commonplace book. --- ### 1500s Commonplace books became more popular in the 1500s, as ‘books became more common in society’.[^4] --- ### 1600s Re. the commonplace book, [[Jonathan Swift|Jonathan Swift]] wrote: ‘[[Of the commonplace book, Jonathan Swift wrote, ‘a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that great wits have short memories.’|a provident poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial reason, that great wits have short memories.]]’[^5] He called the system of ‘commonplacing’ a ‘supplemental memory’.[^6] In 1689, [[John Locke|John Locke]] wrote about [[John Locke ‘attempted to simulate Pascal’s “hyperthymesia” … upon the page.’|attempting to simulate Blaise Pascal’s ‘hyperthymesia’ in written form—via the commonplace book]].[^7] --- ## Methodology **Jean Le Clerc (c. 1706):** 1. Only write out those extracts ‘which are Choice and Excellent, either for the Matter itself, or else for the Elegancy of the Expression’, and nothing more—after all, if one’s extracting habit is too over-extended, ‘that Labour would abate our Desire to go on with our Reading’[^8] 2. *Cite your sources* 3. Do not write out your extracts during your first read (‘for that will make the Reading both Tedious and Unpleasant’[^9]) but rather, instead, during your second read. --- ## ↬ External resources - [A Commonplace Book](https://3stages.org/quotes/_) - [Whiki](https://whitneyannetrettien.com/whiki/index.php/Main_Page) [^1]: Sam Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’, 2019|John Locke's Method for Common-Place Books (1685)]]’, *The Public Domain Review*, 8 May 2019, https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/john-lockes-method-for-common-place-books-1685/. [^2]: Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’, 2019|John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books]]’. [^3]: ‘Commonplace book’, IndieWeb, last edited 6 November 2024, https://indieweb.org/commonplace_book. [^4]: ‘Commonplace book’. [^5]: Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’, 2019|John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books]]’. [^6]: Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’, 2019|John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books]]’. [^7]: Dolbear, ‘[[Dolbear, ‘John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books (1685)’, 2019|John Locke’s Method for Common-Place Books]]’. [^8]: Jean Le Clerc, ‘Monsieur Le Clerc’s Character of Mr. Lock’s Method, with His Advice About the Use of Common-Places’, in *[[Locke, A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books, 1706|A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books ; Written by the Late Learned Mr. John Lock, Author of the Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. Translated from the French. To Which Is Added Something from Monsieur Le Clerc, Relating to the Same Subject. A Treatise Necessary for All Gentlemen, Especially Students of Divinity, Physick, and Law.]]*, unknown translator (J. Greenwood, 1706), p. ii. https://archive.org/embed/gu_newmethodmaki00lock. [^9]: Jean Le Clerc, ‘Monsieur Le Clerc’s Character of Mr. Lock’s Method, with His Advice About the Use of Common-Places’, p. iv.