Andrew Gudgel's Writing Homepage -- A Digital Renaissance Man Bibliography

A Digital Renaissance Man Bibliography

Advancement of Learning, by Sir Francis Bacon. See Book V, Chapter 5 for a discussion of commonplace books; and Book VI, Chapter 2 on the use of Aphorisms.
Of Studies, in Essays Civil and Moral by Sir Francis Bacon. Bacon's recommendations on how and what to study.
Francis Bacon's Advice to Fulke Greville on Research Techniques, by Vernon F. Snow, The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 4, (August 1960). Bacon discusses digests ("epitomes") of books, commonplacing, and the use of research assistants.
A New Method of A Commonplace Book, by John Locke. Locke reveals his personal method for indexing his commonplace book, as well as how he cites the sources of his quotations.
Reading Strategies for Coping with Information Overload ca. 1550-1700, by Ann Blair, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 64 No. 1 (January 2003). Blair describes the multiple strategies used in the Early Modern peroid to extract and organize information.
De Utraque Verborum ac Rerum Copia (often called simply "De Copia"), Desiderius Erasmus. See Book II, The Eleventh Method, for Erasmus' suggestions for setting up and using a commonplace book.
The Scholemaster, by Roger Ascham. Ascham offers his method for speedily learning Latin (which could be applied to other languages) and talks about the merits and faults of both commonplace books and epitomes.

Advancement of Learning, by Sir Francis Bacon. See Book I for a discussion of the two styles.
A Senecan Ramble, by George Williamson, Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1951. Williamson traces the appearance and rise of the Senecan style in English prose and links it to various writers, including Bacon.
Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose, by Brian Vickers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1968. A fascinating analysis of Bacon's writing style.
On Style, by Demetrius. A discussion of Greek writing styles, which were adopted and adapted by the Romans and later, English writers.

Poetry by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. "Q's" opinion on poets and poetry.
A Defence of Poesy and Poems by Sir Philip Sidney. This is Sidney's treatise on the purpose of poetry--to educate while it enterains.
Observations on the Art of English Poesie by Thomas Campion. Campion advocates unrhymed, metered poetry in imitation of Greek and Latin styles.

Luminarium A rich source of material on Elizabethan (and other English) writers.
Project Gutenberg A great general source of online texts.
The Online Library of Liberty Copies of Bacon's and Locke's works can be found at this site.
The Internet Archive Their texts section has a large number of texts by and about the Elizabethans, on writing, and on other subjects of interest to the digital Renaissance Man.

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