What is a zibaldone?
Lately, I’ve been focussing on the history and use of the zibaldone. Often compared to a commonplace book, there is a major difference. Both are tools for intellectual exploration. But unlike the structured commonplace books used for organizing knowledge, the zibaldone thrives in its chaotic, free-form nature. A commonplace book in turn can be described as a register of continuous learning.
Zibaldone means a heap of things or miscellany in Italian. They date back to antiquity and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas …
The Zibaldone di pensieri by Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) is the most eminent. His heap of things offers a glimpse into the workings of a restless mind, blending the literary, the philosophical, and the visual into a singular creative space. On this literary blog, Tredynas Days, you can find more in depth information.
A selection from my own zibaldone. Click to enlarge.
While typically regarded as a tool for writers, the zibaldone is more than a repository of thoughts; it is a playground for ideas, a bridge between inspiration and creation. In exploring this tradition, you find echoes in the practices of historical figures who blurred the boundaries between literature and other disciplines, leaving us with enduring examples of its creative potential. Most famously, the sketch- and notebooks by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Free-form
I discovered them because I felt restricted by the other kind of notebooks I was keeping. The problem lay in the combination of two disciplines in one word. Because finally there was always too much of one or the other. Art journal: depending on the feeling of the moment, there was too much art and not enough journal. Or vice versa. Sketchnote: too much note and too little sketch.
If we talk about freedom of putting down our thoughts on paper this shouldn’t be things to consider. You shouldn’t push your subject/material in one direction trying to fit it in. If you want to make art? Please do so. If you want to write and illustrate the text from time to time? Go ahead. People have been doing it for centuries apparently!. And if all that fits into a journal? For the better. It’s your choice.
Jotting down ideas for a webpage.
The enduring legacy of the Zibaldone
The zibaldone is more than a notebook; it is a space for intellectual and creative freedom. Its greatest strength lies in its flexibility—a tool for capturing the fleeting, the unfinished, and the interconnected. Whether used by polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci, poets like Paul Valéry, or modern innovators like Anne Carson, the zibaldone serves as a timeless reminder of the beauty of thought in motion.
For anyone seeking to document their intellectual journey, the zibaldone offers an invitation: to write, to sketch, to think—and to let the pages take you wherever your curiosity leads.
Final thoughts
Perhaps the reason of existence of so many concepts is that we are used to omnipresent adapted material. We can buy a racing bike, mountain bike, city bike, gravel bike, and a beacher depending on the character of our trip. There are almost as many ways of sketching and taking notes as there are bicycles. All with their own application and manual. Maybe I’m too frugal, but I feel better on a bike that I might as well take out into the city, put it on a sprint with or go on a rough ride. A bicycle that stays with me as a loyal friend, rather than having a garage full of one-trick pony’s.
In the same way, I want to take along a single notebook in which I make my lists and sketches, write ideas and quotes. The concept of a zibaldone comes pretty close, continuous learning in no specific format or concept …
Am I being too idiosyncratic about it? What’s your idea?
Leave a Reply