A New Way To Revive Commonplace Books
I first learned about the Commonplace Book from Shuanta Grime’s article, the Commonplace Book Project — An Experiment back in 2019.
Since then, I have kept a commonplace book with me. In fact, I have several now.
A commonplace book is basically a scrapbook where you collect things that fascinate you. It could be quotes, proverbs, poems, letters, recipes, or prayers.
They differ from journals or diaries, which are chronological and introspective.
History of Commonplace Books
People have been keeping them from antiquity, however, they became very popular between the Renaissance and the nineteenth century.
Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations” is often considered a precursor to the commonplace books, where he recorded his thoughts and quotations.
Erasmus Darwin, a noted physician (and Charles Darwin’s grandfather) kept a commonplace book between 1776 to 1787, which was later used by Charles Darwin.
In 1685, the English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke suggested a technique for entering proverbs, quotations, ideas, and…
