16th Century 43 Folders

I recently wrote a term paper where I reviewed the history of personal archiving / personal information management, which I found pretty enjoyable to put together. One of the key early publications in this area was the second book of Erasmus’ De duplici copia verborum ac rerum where he describes what came to be known in English as a commonplace book. To put the following quote in context, the mind was compared to the cells of a beehive in 16 and 17th century Europe.

And so the student, like the industrious bee, will fly about through all the authors’ gardens and light on every small flower of rhetoric, everywhere collecting some honey that he may carry off to his own hive. Since there is such a great abundance of subjects in these, a complete gleaning is not possible, and he will be sure to select the most important and adapt them to the pattern of his work. There are some which can be adapted not only for different, but even for opposite uses, and therefore should be noted down in several places. For example, if you should be treating the incurable cupidity of a miser, you would rightly adapt the fable of Charybdis. Likewise, if you were discussing insatiable gluttony, or the inexhaustible lust of a woman, the same fable would certainly be appropriate.(Translated by Rix and King)