The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper.

Description: Explores the history and utilities of various forms of notebook, emphasizing their commercial roots and widespread uses, claiming in a brief section that Chaucer, on his 1372/73 trip to Florence, "must have seen" there "how plentiful, and cheap, personal notebooks were," especially varieties of "zibaldoni, ricordanzi, and libri di famiglia" (all introduced and defined in a preceding section). Further claims that Chaucer's "book" in HF, 657, is his own notebook, that Jankyn's "book of wikked wyves" (WBP, 685) is a "zabaldone," and that Chaucer's personal use of notebooks must have influenced his writing.

Chaucer Subjects: Background and General Criticism
Chaucer's Life
House of Fame
Wife of Bath and Her Tale