Brain Pickings really is bloody brilliant!
Thomas of Ireland authored the most famous florilegium of all time. Florilegia were compilations of excerpts from other writings, mashing up selected passages and connecting dots from existing texts to better illustrate a specific topic, doctrine or idea. The word comes from the Latin for “flower” and “gather.” The florilegium is one of the earliest recorded examples of remix culture — a Medieval textual Tumblr.
I spoke about the florligeium as a metaphor for networked knowledge and combinatorial creativity in my recent Creative Mornings talk on the subject.
Thanks for this.
My wife may now see my gathering obsession in a more forgiving light.
Although she’ll also probably point out that she has yet to see any actual functional florilegium emerge from my gathering.