Anna Aslanyan

Always carry a little book with you, and preserve it with great care, said Leonardo da Vinci

Despite the digitisation of everything, many of us still choose to jot down thoughts and sketches on paper, and would be bereft without a notebook to hand

Sketch of the shoulder and arm muscles and the bones of the foot, from Leonardo da Vinci’s s notebooks, 1510-11. [Getty Images]

In 1299, Amatino Manucci, a Florentine helping to run a merchant’s business in Provence, kept at least seven ledgers and notebooks, each serving a specific purpose. One covered the firm’s trade in wool and cloth, another in wheat, barley and other victuals, and so on. It wasn’t just figures Manucci worked with.

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