"Commonplace Books"
"Commonplace books have their origin in the Renaissance as one means of coping with the information overload of that era. They helped students select, organize, classify, and remember key moral precepts."
"Commonplace books sanction the selection of passages made significant by personal experience and conscience. Many commonplace passages urge contentment and console the reader on the imminence of death, while also containing traces that indicate the particular character of the possessor. One book dated ca. 1670, for example, lists under "Precepts of liveing" thirty-seven short, numbered verses in couplets, seldom exceeding six lines, that turn the commandments into memorizable verse."
-- Barbara M. Benedict, "Making the Modern Reader: Cultural Mediation in Early Modern Literary Anthologies" (1996)
17th century commonplace book
When it came time to put away childish things, the role of the copy book was assumed by its close cousin, the "commonplace book." The process of maturation required the production of more-personal collections of writings, meant to provide inspiration, direction, and moral fortitude. Reading the commonplace books of historical figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or any number of antebellum Southern ladies gives us an interior view of each person's self-image and the words that motivated him or her.
-- Rachel Toor "Commonplaces: From Quote Books to 'Sig' Files", The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 25, 2001
