Commonplace Books

I came across a fascinating section in Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows (What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains) on the subject of commonplace books. 

The term was first coined by the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus who championed the importance of memorization on the road to erudition and understanding. Echoing the advice of the Roman philosopher Seneca, Erasmus encouraged the reader to keep a notebook of memorable quotations, and to fill it at every available opportunity. The tradition would spread like wildfire through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with disciples advocating the commonplace book as a vital tool in the cultivation of an educated mind. With the advent of the Industrial age, the practice would slowly fall by the wayside before being extinguished by the global establishment in the first half of the twentieth century. 

It’s fascinating to reflect on this practice in the age of the Internet, to accept just how much we rely on the computing power of search engines and Wikipedia in the pursuit of knowledge. 

I’ve been under the thumb of computers for most of my adult life and wouldn’t trade it for the world. But I can also appreciate the importance of balance. Putting pen to paper to ensure I never lose touch with the very practices that shaped my mind.

Xo