#Notebook how to

During the Enlightenment, British schoolchildren were commonly taught how to make their own notebooks out of loose sheets of paper, a process that involved folding, piercing, gathering, sewing and/or binding the sheets. Ordinary paper notebooks became the norm. īy the early 19th century, there was far less demand for erasable notebooks, due to the mass-production of fountain pens and the development of cheaper methods for manufacturing paper. The practice of making notes during sermons was a common subject of ridicule, and led to table-books becoming increasingly associated with Puritanism during the 17th century. Their use in some contexts was seen as pretentious Joseph Hall, writing in 1608, describes 'the hypocrite' as one who, 'in the midst of the sermon pulls out his tables in haste, as if he feared to lose that note'. Matzagente: I scorn to retort the obtuse jest of a fool.īalurdo: Retort and obtuse, good words, very good words. For example, Antonio's Revenge by John Marston (c. The use of table-books for trivial purposes was often satirized on the English stage. Tables were also used for collecting pieces of poetry, noteworthy epigrams, and new words recording sermons, legal proceedings, or parliamentary debates jotting down conversations, recipes, cures, and jokes keeping financial records recalling addresses and meetings and collecting notes on foreign customs while traveling. Surviving copies suggest that at least some owners (and/or their children) used table-books as suitable places in which to learn how to write. Table-books were owned by all classes of people, from merchants to nobles, and were employed for a variety of purposes: The leaves of a table-book could be written upon with a stylus, which added to their convenience, as it meant that impromptu notes could be taken without the need for an inkwell (graphite pencils were not in common use until the late 17th century). Other types of notebook may also have been in circulation during this time 17th-century writer Samuel Hartlib describes a table-book made of slate, which did 'not need such tedious wiping out by spunges or cloutes'.

The coating was made from a mixture of glue and gesso, and modern-day experiments have shown that ink, graphite and silverpoint writing can be easily erased from the treated pages with the application of a wet sponge or fingertip.

#Notebook skin

At this time, however, it appears that the concept of an erasable notebook was still something of a novelty to the British public, as the printed instructions included with some books were headed: 'To make clean your Tables when they be written on, which to some as yet is unknown.' The leaves of some table-books were made of donkey skin others had leaves of ivory or simple pasteboard. By the end of this decade, table-books were being imported into England, and they were being printed in London from the 1570s. The earliest extant edition, bound together with a printed almanac, was made in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1527. These were commonly known as table-books, and are frequently referenced in Renaissance literature, most famously in Shakespeare's Hamlet: 'My tables,-meet it is I set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.' ĭespite the apparent ubiquity of such table-books in Shakespeare's time, very few examples have survived, and little is known about their exact nature, use, or history of production. While paper was cheaper than wax, its cost was sufficiently high to ensure the popularity of erasable notebooks, made of specially-treated paper that could be wiped clean and used again. As paper became more readily available in European countries from the 11th century onwards, wax tablets gradually fell out of use, although they remained relatively common in England, which did not possess a commercially successful paper mill until the late 16th century.

#Notebook portable

The earliest form of notebook was the wax tablet, which was used as a reusable and portable writing surface in classical antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. For other uses, see Notepad (disambiguation).Ī notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking.Ī selection of notebooks History

#Notebook windows

For the Microsoft program, see Windows Notepad.