A SPECTATOR 'BOOK OF THE YEAR' 2023
The first history of the notebook, a simple invention that changed the way the
world thinks.
'For everyone who ever bought a Moleskine and then wondered how to fill it' Simon Garfield
We see notebooks everywhere we go. But where did this simple invention come from? How did they revolutionise our lives, and why are they such powerful tools for creativity? And how can using a notebook help you change the way you think?
In this wide-ranging story, Roland Allen reveals all the answers. Ranging from the bustling markets of medieval Florence to the quiet studies of our greatest thinkers, he follows a trail of dazzling ideas, revealing how the notebook became our most dependable and versatile tool for creative thinking. He tells the notebook stories of artists like Leonardo and Frida Kahlo, scientists from Isaac Newton to Marie Curie, and writers from Chaucer to Henry James. Without their notebooks, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso - and a legion of other writers, artists and scientists - would never have achieved what they did.
In The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, Roland Allen follows a trail of ideas, revealing how the notebook came to be our most durable tool for thinking. He shows how the blank book transformed life in Italy - prompting the rise of international banking and the intellectual advances of the renaissance - before becoming Europe's most versatile information technology. Artists, writers, scientists, and engineers all came to rely on theirs; but so did fishermen, sailors, cooks, and thieves. The Notebook tells their stories, celebrating the infinite variety of our notebooks and their uses. Referring to hundreds of fascinating examples, from 1300 to the present day, and drawing on the knowledge of a host of experts, Allen's stories will ensure that you look at - and use - your humble notebook in a whole new way.
Author(s): Roland Allen
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 416
Copyright Page
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Before notebooks: The Mediterranean 1000 BCE–1250 CE
Chapter 2: Red book, white book, cloth book: The invention of accounting, Provence and Florence 1299
Chapter 3: Slight strokes in a little book: The sketchbook, Florence 1300–1500
Chapter 4: Ricordi, ricordanzi, zibaldoni: Notebooks in the home, Florence 1300–1500
Chapter 5: Pepper in Alexandria: The Book of Michael of Rhodes, Venice 1434
Chapter 6: Wicked wives and and mouths stopped with wool: The notebook comes to England, 1372–1517
Chapter 7: The long life of LHD 244: Singing in harmony, Bologna c.1450–1600
Chapter 8: ‘Alas, this will never get anything done…’: Two notebook-keepers, Italy 1455–1519
Chapter 9: O the pains and labour to record what other people have said!: Common-place books, 1512–present
Chapter 10: From one mouth to the other runs East and West: The world ocean, 1519–1522
Chapter 11: King of the herring: Fishbook, The Netherlands 1570
Chapter 12: A dull Dutch fashion: Friendship books, northern Europe 1645
Chapter 13: Several gems: Industrial observations, Germany 1598
Chapter 14: Let him not stay long: Travellers and their notebooks, 1470–present
Chapter 15: The Waste Book: Mathematics, Lincolnshire 1612
Chapter 16: A tale of two notebooks: Fouquet and Colbert, Paris 1661–80
Chapter 17: But 18 pence in money; and a table-book: Table-books, England and the Netherlands 1520s–1670s
Chapter 18: Albetrosses: Logged journey, London to Amoy 1699
Chapter 19: I think: Naturalists’ notebooks, 1551–1859
Chapter 20: One way to immortality: Diaries and journals, 1600–present
Chapter 21: You’re spot on: Police notebooks, 1829–present
Chapter 22: Yes, better if dentist is dead: Authors’ notebooks, 1894–present
Chapter 23: Preserving and Coockery: Recipe books, 1639–present
Chapter 24: Express yourself: Journaling as self-care, 1968–present
Chapter 25: Blue, green, red, yellow: Electioneering, Florida 1977–2003
Chapter 26: Non-trivial: Climate logs, 1850s–present
Chapter 27: Attention deficit: Bullet journaling, Brooklyn 2010
Chapter 28: In search of lost time: Patient diaries, 1952–present
Chapter 29: Egodocuments: Notebook studies, 1883–present
Chapter 30: A different part of the brain: Observing artists, 2022
Conclusion: Otto carries a notebook: The extended mind, 1938–present
Appendix: Notes and references
Appendix: Image credits
Acknowledgements
Index
