a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They
have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance
and in the nineteenth century. Such books are similar to scrapbooks filled with
items of many kinds: sententiae, notes, proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims,
quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, prayers, legal formulas,
and recipes. Entries are most often organized under subject headings.
Commonplaces are used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for
remembering useful concepts or facts. Each one is unique to its creator’s
particular interests but they almost always include passages found in other
texts, sometimes accompanied by the compiler’s responses.
