Primary Material: Scholarly Reaction to the Printed Commonplace Book

Roger Ascham, in his The Scholemaster, raises concerns about students becoming too dependent on commonplace books:

Epitome, is good privatelie for himeselfe that doth worke it, but ill commonlie for all other that use other mens labor therein: a silie poore kinde of studie, not unlike to the doing of those poor folke, which neyther till, nor sowe, nor reape themselves, but gleane by stelth, upon other mens growndes. Soch, have emptie barnes, for deare yeares. . . . In deede bookes of common places be verie necessarie, to induce a man, into a orderlie generall knowledge, how to referre orderlie to all he readeth . . . and not wander in studie. . . . But to dwell in Epitomies and bookes of common places, and not to binde himselfe dailie by orderlie studie, to reade with all diligence, principallie the holyest scripture and withall, the best Doctors, and so to learne to make trewe difference betwixt, the authoritie of one, and the Counsell of the other, maketh many seeming, and sonburnt ministers as we have. (259, also quoted here)

Perhaps the very ease of the commonplace book puts Ascham on his guard. Instead of forcing one to read deeply, the printed commonplace book allows one to skim the work of others, reading superficially.

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