Beineke Library MS 84, Girdle Book, 15th century"Silva rerum they were called, commonplace books that contained a 'forest of things'. Excerpts of exceptional thought were dutifully copied into these bound books for further reflection and digestion. Commonplace books were considered necessary tools for learning that commonplacing was taught in universities such as Oxford. Milton, Hardy, Emerson, and Thoreau all kept their own commonplace books.
Commonplacing wedded reading and writing as necessary ingredients, they were inseparable. Bits and pieces from one book joined with other excerpts from elsewhere. The way the ideas were assembled revealed the personality of the commonplacer…what topics interested him, what key arguments did he find cogent that he could build upon…what turns of phrases could he learn by heart so that he, too, could express himself with clarity and winsomeness." from Lightly Locked.
And another, more straightforward and elegant, and featuring just the works, from my colleague Jonathan Milner, who teaches politics at UNCSA. Looking at this collection, I can start to draw conclusions about his aesthetic. I wonder what a commonplace by Kurt Cobain, D.J. Spooky, Christian Boltanski, Barak Obama, or I might look like.
You might find commonplaces by students from 2008-2009 interesting.
Brittni Moore, Ian McClerin, Daniel Satinoff, Jenny Ford... I will share some non-digital commonplaces in class.
Jonathan Edwards, early 1700's
How might you rethink the format of a book? Jonathan Edwards did so by dint of necessity: his style called for it. That happened to Marcel Proust, too, who edited so much his manuscripts became layered and pasted.
Marcel Proust, Manuscript page from In Search of Lost Time, around 1920
Beineke Library MS 327 - Merchants Commonplace Book - Venice - 1312
Your class notebooks will be a little bit different, as you will include, at least for the first term, your class notes, class writing assignments, your sketches, notes and identifications of each key work, as well as your own bits and pieces of inspiration.
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