A Scholarly Edition of a Seventeenth-Century Anonymous Commonplace Book in the British Library: How people received and responded to the books they read

Catherine Armstrong, A Scholarly Edition of a SeventeenthCentury Anonymous Commonplace Book in the British Library: How people received and responded to the books they read, Lewsiton and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2014; vii, 178 pp., ISBN 978-0-7734-0084-9

This volume offers scholars access to a modern transcription of a previously unpublished commonplace book held in the British library. Described in the catalogue as, 'collections relating the West Indies, the Affairs of Europe & severall historical occurrences in England', the transcribed book covers a range of subjects, from the discovery of new species in the Americas, the Continental Reformation and Catholic ritual, and key events relating to the English Crown and the geography of London. With the publication of this modern edition readers no longer have to battle with an unfamiliar script, and the modernized spelling eliminates the challenge of the numerous contractions. However, this is only one part of this volume. It is through the comprehensive footnotes and analysis that Catherine Armstrong offers scholars an invaluable resource for research concerning reading practices and commonplacing in early modern England. An extensively annotated transcription, it provides a wealth of insight for scholars interested in how readers related to the works they consumed during the seventeenth century. In a demonstration of virtuoso detective work, Armstrong reconstructs the reading habits of the un-named reader/ compiler, making use of modern research tools such as Early English Books Online (EEBO) to establish from which book, and indeed from which edition, different paragraphs were copied.

In her introduction, Armstrong outlines the nature and thought process behind the early modern commonplace book, contextualizing the transcription within the historical scholarship to which it will contribute. Commonplacing was a varied practice, which involved a compiler drawing together material from manuscripts, books, even sermons or conversations, and recording it into a single volume for future reference. More informal examples of this practice are interspersed with shopping lists and assorted notes, whilst formal commonplace books could be carefully indexed and contain a range of information and witty quotations to be used to enhance the compiler's own writing or conversation. Broadly speaking they were a...