Historical Figures and Their Commonplace Books
In our world of digital note-taking apps and cloud storage, sometimes I find myself drawn to something more tactile and personal—the humble commonplace book. These fascinating windows into how great minds collected and organized knowledge throughout history have captivated my imagination. Far from being passive collections of quotes, these personal repositories served as active tools that shaped the thinking of political leaders, scientists, poets, and philosophers across centuries. Before I dive deeper, I should note that this tradition evolved from ancient rhetorical practice to become personalized knowledge systems that continue to influence how we manage information today.
The Origins and Evolution of Commonplace Books
The practice of keeping commonplace books stretches back to antiquity, though I've found they really flourished during the Renaissance and remained vital well into the nineteenth century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a commonplace book is "a book in which 'commonplaces' or passages important for reference were collected, usually under general heads; hence, a book in which one records passages or matters to be especially remembered or referred to, with or without arrangement." These weren't just scrapbooks or journals—they were sophisticated information management systems before we had digital databases and search engines.
I discovered that the term "commonplace" comes from the Latin "locus communis," referring to general themes or arguments useful in rhetoric. While early forms appeared in ancient Greece and Rome, the formal method of commonplacing really took off during the Renaissance when humanist scholars revived classical learning techniques. These early repositories were organized around rhetorical principles, arranging quotations and excerpts under topical headings for easy retrieval when crafting speeches, essays, or engaging in debates.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I've learned that the commonplace book became one of a writer's most essential tools. They weren't merely collections of favorite quotes but carefully constructed systems that allowed writers to process and internalize what they read. By extracting, organizing, and recording meaningful passages, scholars created personalized reference works that reflected their intellectual development and served practical purposes in their work.
I've noticed how the practice evolved over time from a purely academic exercise to something more diverse and personalized. By the early eighteenth century, commonplace books had become sophisticated information management devices where note-takers stored quotations, observations, and definitions. They were used in private households to collect ethical or informative texts, sometimes alongside practical information like recipes or medical formulas.
John Locke and the Systematization of Commonplacing
In my research, I've found that perhaps no figure did more to formalize and popularize commonplacing than the English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke. In 1685, Locke wrote a treatise in French on commonplace books, later translated into English in 1706 as "A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books." His work transformed what had been a somewhat idiosyncratic practice into a more methodical approach to knowledge management.
Locke provided specific advice on how to arrange material by subject and category, using key topics such as love, politics, or religion as organizing principles. His method was so influential that publishers began printing empty commonplace books with spaces for headings and indices to be filled in by their users. One notable example I came across was "Bell's Common-Place Book, Formed generally upon the Principles Recommended and Practised by Mr Locke," published by John Bell almost a century after Locke's treatise. This particular blank commonplace was used by Erasmus Darwin from 1776 to 1787 and later by his grandson Charles Darwin, who fondly referred to it as "the great book" when composing his grandfather's biography.
What fascinates me about Locke's systematization is how it emphasized categorization and accessibility, treating the commonplace book as an external memory system that could be efficiently searched and referenced. His influence extended beyond his contemporaries and shaped how generations of thinkers organized and accessed information, creating a methodology that in many ways anticipated our modern database systems and information architecture.
Thomas Jefferson: Commonplacing as Intellectual Foundation
One of my favorite examples is America's founding father and third president, Thomas Jefferson, who was a dedicated keeper of commonplace books. He maintained separate volumes for literary and legal matters throughout his life. Jefferson's commonplace books reflected his broad intellectual interests and served as foundations for his political philosophy and legal thinking.
I'm impressed by how Jefferson kept meticulous track of quotes and passages from the books he read, creating a personal library of ideas that he could draw upon in his writings and speeches. His "Literary Commonplace Book" and "Legal Commonplace Book" reveal the intellectual underpinnings of his political thought and his approach to law and governance.
These volumes offer me a window into Jefferson's mind, showing which ideas he found worth preserving and how he synthesized diverse sources into his own distinctive worldview. For Jefferson, the commonplace book served not merely as a repository of others' wisdom but as a laboratory for developing his own ideas through engagement with texts ranging from classical philosophy to contemporary political theory.
Benjamin Franklin's Systematic Approach to Self-Improvement
I'm particularly struck by Benjamin Franklin, known for his methodical approach to personal development, who employed commonplace books not just as repositories of wisdom but as tools for systematic self-improvement. According to his autobiography, Franklin developed a remarkably structured system consisting of seven specific drills to master writing. These drills transformed him from a primary school dropout into one of America's most accomplished writers and thinkers.
Franklin's method included progressively more complex exercises: first, taking notes on the content of each sentence in a passage; then rewriting the passage from memory using only those notes; next, comparing his version to the original and correcting mistakes; followed by converting the prose into poetry; then reconverting the poetry back to prose; jumbling his notes and reassembling them in the proper order; and finally, repeating the process as needed. This system reflects Franklin's belief in deliberate, structured practice as the path to mastery.
I learned that Franklin's uncle, also named Benjamin Franklin, kept a commonplace book from 1718 to 1720 with diary entries noting current events, original poetry and epitaphs, practical information like instructions for making dyes, and a list of street names in Boston. This suggests a family tradition of commonplacing that the younger Franklin would have been exposed to early in life.
What I find most valuable about Franklin's systematic approach is how it demonstrates that commonplace books could be used not merely to collect information but to actively transform the keeper's skills and abilities through structured engagement with texts. His method anticipated modern theories of deliberate practice and skill acquisition, showing his remarkable intuitive understanding of effective learning processes.
Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks: Visual Thinking in Action
For me, Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks represent perhaps the most visually stunning and intellectually diverse example of commonplace books in history. Though not typically classified as commonplace books in the traditional sense, Leonardo's notebooks functioned in much the same way, serving as repositories for his observations, thoughts, inventions, and artistic studies.
I've discovered that Leonardo began recording his thoughts in notebooks from around the mid-1480s when he worked as a military and naval engineer for the Duke of Milan. His approach to paper was unique among his contemporaries – a single sheet might contain an unpredictable constellation of ideas and inventions, reflecting the workings of both a designer and a scientist. The notebooks contain careful sketches and diagrams annotated with notes in 16th-century Italian mirror writing, which reads in reverse and from right to left.
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London houses five of Leonardo's notebooks, known as the Forster Codices, which contain his thoughts on technology, mechanics, hydraulics, architecture, and many other subjects. These notebooks, dated from 1487 to 1505, contain accurate sketches, diagrams, and information in Italian and in his famous mirror writing. While some have speculated that Leonardo used mirror writing to keep his notes secret, I think it's equally possible that, being left-handed, he simply found it easier to write from right to left.
I'm amazed by how Leonardo's notebooks document his investigations into perpetual motion, anatomical studies of humans and animals, designs for hydraulic engineering devices, and architectural sketches, among countless other subjects. They even include drawings of hats and clothes that may have been ideas for costumes at balls, reflecting the breadth of his interests and professional responsibilities. According to contemporary accounts, Leonardo carried his notebooks with him wherever he went. In 1517, in his last residence at Amboise, there were an "infinity of volumes," which were dispersed after his death.
What I find most inspiring about Leonardo's visual approach to note-taking is how he integrated text and images seamlessly – creating notebooks that engaged both linguistic and spatial thinking. His notebooks demonstrate how commonplace books could extend beyond purely textual forms to incorporate visual elements that captured complex ideas in ways words alone could not express.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Poetic Commonplace Book
I'm particularly drawn to the British poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who maintained what he called "memorandum or common-place books" along with other inventively named collections such as "Volatilia" and "Fly-Catchers." Throughout his life, Coleridge kept seventy-two surviving notebooks that scholars have re-evaluated as part of the commonplace tradition, though with distinctive characteristics reflecting his uniquely associative mind and poetic sensibilities.
Coleridge's 1796 notebook reveals the working processes of a poet, containing eight of his poems with extensive revisions and corrections throughout. His grandson, Ernest Hartley Coleridge, referred to it as the "MS quarto copy-book" in his 1912 publication "The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge." This notebook apparently functioned as both a drafting space for his own compositions and as a traditional commonplace book, as Coleridge included fragments of poetry by others, including a fragment of a Robert Southey poem and a poem by Thomas Dermody.
I've observed how Coleridge's approach to his notebooks evolved throughout his life, reflecting his changing intellectual interests. His earliest commonplace books show his training in classical rhetoric as a student, while his Lake District commonplace books contain loco-descriptive contents reflecting his engagement with nature. His later notebooks reveal his struggle to find a form for his notes on transcendental idealism, and his religious notes in the "Fly-Catchers" show his development of the aphoristic form, which he theorized as a way to revitalize commonplaces.
To me, Coleridge's notebooks demonstrate how the commonplace tradition could be adapted to serve the needs of a creative mind engaged in both poetic composition and philosophical inquiry. His approach was less systematic than those of Locke or Franklin, but no less productive, suggesting that the value of commonplacing extended beyond strict methodology to the stimulation of creative and intellectual activity.
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau: Shared Literary Practice
I find it fascinating that Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, central figures in American Transcendentalism, shared not only philosophical affinities but also a commonplace book of poetry. Both were taught how to use commonplace books at Harvard, reflecting the continued importance of this practice in formal education well into the nineteenth century.
Emerson, in particular, advocated for the practice of keeping a commonplace book. Michel de Montaigne, whose essays began as his own commonplace book, influenced Emerson's approach to reading and note-taking. Montaigne advised readers to keep what was known as a "commonplace book" or a hand-written compilation of sayings, maxims, and quotations from literature and history that they felt were important.
The idea behind this practice, as Montaigne explained it, was that "over a lifetime of reading, one can cumulatively amass a fantastic resource of wisdom—wisdom that can be accessed in times of crisis, depression or joy." This perspective aligned with Emerson's transcendentalist belief in the transformative power of individual engagement with texts and ideas.
I appreciate how Montaigne cautioned against treating reading like rote memorization, famously questioning whether the scholar Erasmus was "searching in his books for a way to become better, happier, or wiser." If not, Montaigne suggested, the reading was a waste. From this perspective, a commonplace book served as "a way to keep our learning priorities in order. It motivates us to look for and keep only the things we can use."
This utilitarian approach to reading and note-taking, focused on personal transformation rather than mere accumulation of knowledge, characterized both Emerson's and Thoreau's engagement with texts. Their commonplace books reflect their belief that reading should lead to self-improvement and wisdom, not merely the collection of facts or quotations.
Women and Commonplace Books: An Intellectual Haven
Something I've come to appreciate deeply is how, for women who were often excluded from formal higher education, commonplace books served a particularly important function as repositories of intellectual references and creative expression. Elizabeth Lyttelton kept a commonplace book from the 1670s to 1713, demonstrating the longstanding tradition of women engaging in this practice despite barriers to their formal education.
Another notable example I've discovered is Mrs. Anna Jameson, who published a typical example in 1855, including headings such as "Ethical Fragments," "Theological," "Literature," and "Art." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an American suffragist, kept a commonplace book with private notes, correspondence, and literary transcriptions, using it to develop her thinking on women's rights and other social issues.
I love how Virginia Woolf reflected on the passionate beginnings of commonplace books: "Let 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...."
Woolf's observation captures the aspirational nature of commonplace books, which often began with great enthusiasm but might remain partially unfilled. Nevertheless, these books provided women with a space for intellectual exploration and self-education at a time when their access to formal educational institutions was limited. The commonplace book thus served as an alternative educational space, allowing women to engage with ideas and develop their intellectual identities outside traditional academic structures.
Methods and Approaches to Commonplacing
I've been fascinated to discover that historical figures developed a variety of methods and approaches to keeping commonplace books, reflecting their particular needs, interests, and thinking styles. These different methodologies offer insights into how the practice of commonplacing could be adapted to serve diverse purposes.
John Locke's methodical approach, as I mentioned earlier, involved organizing material by subject and category, creating a system that anticipated modern database structures. His influence led to the publication of blank commonplace books with pre-established organizational frameworks, standardizing what had previously been a more idiosyncratic practice.
Benjamin Franklin's seven-drill system focused on using commonplacing as a tool for self-improvement. His method was remarkable for its active engagement with texts, requiring the practitioner not merely to copy passages but to transform them through various exercises, from prose to poetry and back again, and from memory to written form. This active approach reflects Franklin's belief in deliberate practice as the key to mastery.
I've also explored other note-taking methods that evolved alongside or from the commonplace tradition. The Cornell Method, for instance, divides the page into three sections – the right column for main points and keywords, the left column for questions and cues, and the bottom section for summarizing the main ideas. Similarly, the Outline Method organizes notes in a structured and hierarchical manner, using headings and subheadings to categorize information.
Leonardo da Vinci's approach integrated visual thinking with textual notes, creating notebooks that contained both written observations and detailed sketches. His method allowed him to capture complex ideas that might be difficult to express in words alone, anticipating modern visual thinking techniques and sketchnoting practices.
Different figures adapted commonplacing to their particular professional needs. I've learned that lawyers, for example, used commonplace books to synthesize information from written texts and oral sources, creating personalized libraries of legal precedents and principles. The small early seventeenth-century legal commonplace book I came across was probably compiled by a law student at the Inns of Court in London and served as both a professional tool and a personal document through which the lawyer made the disciplinary structure their own.
In a Nutshell
Though the practice of commonplacing may seem archaic in our digital age, I firmly believe its fundamental principles continue to influence how we organize and engage with information. Modern note-taking applications like Evernote, Notion, and Roam Research incorporate many features that echo the principles of traditional commonplace books, allowing us to collect, categorize, and connect information from diverse sources.
The methodical approaches developed by figures like Locke and Franklin anticipated modern theories of learning and knowledge management. Franklin's seven-drill system, for instance, reflects contemporary understanding of deliberate practice and active learning, while Locke's categorical organization foreshadows database structure and information architecture.
I've found research suggesting that the tactile nature of traditional commonplace books – the physical act of writing out passages by hand – enhances memory and understanding. Studies have demonstrated that taking notes by hand increases the amount of information retained after a meeting or lecture, suggesting that there may be cognitive benefits to these analog methods employed by historical figures.
Contemporary fans of commonplacing or similar practices often emphasize the countercultural aspect of slow, deliberate engagement with texts in our fast-paced, information-saturated society. Personally, I cannot separate myself from my beloved digital note-taking workflow, but whenever I have time I do jot down a few notes in a physical notebook or two - it's pleasurable and distraction free, and takes me back to a time when the world seemed simpler.
