Commonplace Books: Medieval Roots of Modern Junk Journals
A month ago my stepdaughter accidentally launched me into another excellent historical rabbit hole. She got me interested in Junk Journaling. With that I of course wondered if anything like it existed in SCA period. I learned the closest thing was medieval commonplace books. And with that I accidentally opened a much bigger “rabbit hole” door.
The more I looked into it, the more I realized that commonplacing—collecting useful quotes, sketches, recipes, prayers, observations, patterns, memories, and random fascinating bits of life—was not uniquely European. It shows up all over the world before 1600 under different names and formats.
In other words, the junk journal may have far older relatives than you think. And this is very on-brand for those of us who love both history and paper.
What is a commonplace book?
In Europe, a commonplace book was usually a personal manuscript where someone copied information they wanted to keep. These might include notes like:
- favorite quotations
- prayers
- poems
- recipes
- medical remedies
- business records
- songs
- letters
- sketches
- household instructions
- legal notes
- personal reflections
The practice became especially formal during the Renaissance as educated readers collected passages from books for future use in speeches, writing, and study. Renaissance readers often organized entries by subject headings like:
- friendship
- religion
- virtue
- love
- law
- medicine
- business
The Folger Shakespeare Library describes it as an active reading practice where readers extracted useful information from texts and saved it for later.
That sounds suspiciously like modern Pinterest boards, saved screenshots, and junk journals.
It is medieval Europe that gives us the most recognizable “commonplace book” examples because historians actually use that term.
Italian Zibaldone (1300s–1500s)
These are my favorite. Merchants in Renaissance Italy created books called zibaldoni—which roughly translates to “a heap of things.” You could say that’s what my Junk-Journal stash is.
These often contained:
- recipes
- bookkeeping notes
- poems
- travel information
- family records
- practical advice
- copied texts
They were often written on inexpensive paper instead of expensive parchment.
Very practical. Very messy. Very human. (Even more my JJ style.)
English merchant books
Richard Hill’s Commonplace Book is a wonderful late medieval example compiled between 1503–1536.
It includes:
- songs
- poems
- business notes
- devotional texts
- practical records
Basically: medieval “everything notebook.”
Student notebooks
Universities across Europe encouraged students to keep organized notebooks of quotations and arguments. These were often far more structured than our modern journals.Imagine if your junk journal required Latin indexing. No thank you.
Islamic world: Adab collections and notebooks
While the exact European term “commonplace book” wasn’t used, scholars in the Islamic world often created personal notebooks and compiled adab collections.
These could include:
- poetry
- proverbs
- legal excerpts
- scientific observations
- religious reflections
- letters
- medicine
Large anthologies such as Kitab al-Aghani preserved poetry, stories, songs, and cultural memory.
Scholars also kept personal excerpt notebooks while studying law, medicine, astronomy, and theology.
These functioned similarly to commonplace books—even if the terminology differed.
China: Yes…absolutely
And this is where my Chinese persona research gets interesting. Late imperial Chinese scholars frequently maintained notebooks called: biji (筆記) — “brush notes”
These could contain:
- strange stories
- poetry
- government observations
- historical commentary
- recipes
- travel notes
- philosophy
- local gossip
- unusual events
One famous example is Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo (11th century), which preserved observations on science, technology, natural phenomena, and daily life. While earlier than Ming, it demonstrates this long tradition beautifully.
Ming scholars also kept multiple types of private notebooks. They are:
riji (日記) — diaries
wenchao (文抄) — copied literary extracts
family record books
medical notebooks
This feels incredibly close to modern journaling culture.
And yes, my new Chinese persona Li Zhenyan could have maintained a practical notebook of remedies, quotations, patient observations, and copied recipes. That’s totally, historically plausible.
Japan: Pillow books and miscellanies
The Pillow Book (written around 1002) is not a traditional commonplace book—but it absolutely captures the spirit.
It includes:
- observations
- lists
- court gossip
- poetry
- personal reflections
- things she found annoying
- things she found beautiful
Honestly?
Very modern journal behavior.
Later Japanese zuihitsu (“following the brush”) writing traditions continued this loose notebook style.
Essays in Idleness is another famous example. It was written by the Japanese monk Kenkō (兼好) between 1330 and 1332.
Jewish commonplace traditions
Jewish scholars often maintained notebooks containing:
- legal commentary
- religious reflections
- family records
- medical notes
- copied teachings
These were especially common in medieval Mediterranean trade communities.
The Cairo Geniza documents show enormous amounts of practical record-keeping that often blended personal and professional life. Cairo Geniza documents reveal shopping lists, letters, business records, and personal notes preserved across centuries.
Where can you actually see digitized examples online?
This is the fun part. These are relatively easy to access:
Cambridge Digital Library – Scriptorium Project
Excellent collection of digitized manuscript miscellanies and commonplace books. It includes 1450–1720 materials, great for browsing actual pages.
Cambridge Digital Library – Elizabeth Lyttelton Commonplace Book
Later than medieval, but fully digitized and easy to explore.
Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Collections
A searchable database with many early modern commonplace books. It’s wonderful for Renaissance research.
Yale Library Online Exhibits
It has a good introductory explanation plus examples.
Internet Archive
If you search online with the following terms you will find a wonderful collection of “rabbit holes.”
- commonplace book manuscript
- zibaldone
- florilegium
- book of hours notes
- merchant notebook
National Diet Library Digital Collections (Japan)
This is great for Japanese manuscripts and notebooks.
Chinese Text Project
This is useful for Chinese notebook literature and classical texts.
Why junk journalers should care
This hobby isn’t frivolous. People have always tried to preserve fragments of meaningful life:
- a beautiful quote
- a recipe
- a sketch
- a prayer
- a shopping list
- pressed flowers
- travel notes
- favorite poems
- small memories
- tiny scraps that mattered
Our glue stick may be modern and our sticker collection may be from Temu, but the impulse is very, very old. And that makes me love junk journaling even more.
It turns out we’re all just creating our own little zibaldone. And medieval merchants would probably understand exactly what we’re doing. Especially the people hoarding paper scraps. Very relatable.
Further Reading
Folger Shakespeare Library article on commonplacing
