Commonplace Books - Part 1

Since the beginning, when humans began to put writing tool to wall, they have been recording thoughts and making stories that would be referenced through generations. Humans have always needed a way to gather, sort, and organize information that they felt was relevant to them. What eventually developed was a tool called the commonplace book.

A commonplace book is a personalized collection of knowledge. The term comes from the Latin locus communis - communal place. It is different from a journal and diary in that those two writing tools are used to record a person's own writing whereas the commonplace book is where one records information.

As far back as the ancient Greek and Roman eras, well-known men like Aristotle, Cicero, and Marcus Aurelis created books to help them retain information, ideas, observations and quotes. In Medieval times, it was mostly monks organizing Bible passages, notes and words of religious leaders who produced commonplace books.

It was during the Renaissance that the concept began to experience rapid growth, thanks to the invention of the printing press. The printing press allowed more books to be produced, and access—once largely restricted to a small portion of the population, such as religious and academic figures—expanded to reach more people. Because of this, people began to experience information overload (much like we do today), and the increasing popularity of the commonplace book was partly a response to it.

As you can imagine, books were very expensive, so a person would reread them several times, record the parts they wanted to remember, and then pass them along. The intellectuals of this time recorded pieces of knowledge from their readings and organized the material into categories so they could locate their learning more easily. Some of the more popular topics covered in commonplace books included recipes, songs, quotes, and legal material.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the commonplace book became part of a student's education. The rational behind this was the belief that the act of organizing information promotes critical thinking and deeper understanding of the material, reinforcing the notion that they were an intellectual tool. The famous philosopher John Locke used a commonplace book as a way to organize his books and both Thomas Jefferson and Isaac Newton were known to use commonplace books.

The Victorian era saw commonplace books take a form that is more identifable with people today who practice using them. It was this period that transitioned the commonplace book from an academic learning tool to a more personal and reflective one. It became a record of the intimate life and a source of social documentation for this age.

Today, the commonplace book practice has been experiencing another surge in popularity. John Barger, an American blogger, developed a weblog (as it used to be known) called Robot Wisdom and listed interesting stories he collected from the internet, largely around topics he was interested in. He included links with short descriptions. This eventually morphed into what we today call blogs where bloggers use an online platform including links and images to reflect on personal and/or world events and information. Besides blogging platforms, there are several apps available - Notion, Obsidian, Evernote are three that are popular. Rocketbook is another option that allows one to scan handwritten notes and upload into digital storage.

For the same reasons there has been a renewed interest in 'granny' hobbies like crochet and embroidery, commonplace books are seen as a counter to the prevalence of digital age. As commonplace books have become more widespread, the knowledge recorded becomes highly individualistic and includes: quotes, news stories, observations, music, TV shows, books, notes, conversations, lists, process on projects...you get the idea. Any topic that you feel has value and worth remembering. People still enjoy holding a physical book in their hands. They appreciate the tactile experience of using a physical commonplace book, which makes it feel more personal.

The nature of commonplace books promotes personalized reading by providing a filter through which the social norms of the time help determine what is considered important and worth recording. How people go about it and what they view as important enough to record has shifted with the times. Besides giving a person a place to process and memorize the knowledge they felt was meaningful enough to record, it encourages a leisurely, more relaxed way to engage with the information. The fact that it has evolved and is still in practice is a testament to people still needing to seek out learning, process it and intergrate the knowledge gained. Commonplace books foster a lifelong love of learning and personal growth.