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Reading Strategies for Coping With Information Overload ca.1550-1700

2003; University of Pennsylvania Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/jhi.2003.0014

1086-3222

Ann Blair,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

This article surveys some of the ways in which early modern scholars responded to what they perceived as an overabundance of books. In addition to owning more books and applying selective judgment as well as renewed diligence to their reading and note-taking, scholars devised shortcuts, sometimes based on medieval antecedents. These shortcuts included the use of the alphabetical index, whether printed or handmade, to read a book in parts, and the use of reference books, amanuenses, abbreviations, or the cutting and pasting from printed or manuscript sources to save time and effort in note-taking.