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1. Terminology and development An autograph book is a collection of autographs conceived as a remembrance of friends and benefactors; in it are gathered textual entries, often including illustrations and less often musical compositions, documenting personal relationships and designed for cultivation of future memories (Memory). The German term ( Stammbuch) is derived from Stammenbuch (Latin liber gentilii); it recalls the tradition of the Geschlechterbuch (“genealogical handbook”) or Standesbuch (“register of births, marriages, and deaths”). The genealogical …

1. ConceptAn exemplum is an exemplary narrative, of variable content and length, intended to clarify a general (descriptive or normative) statement by recounting a specific individual instance. It was used as a short literary form in scholarly, religious, edificatory, theological, homiletic, technological, and scientific writing.The exemplum does not constitute a genre in its own right, but can only be defined in relation to its function, which it fulfills in the particular contextual setting as a technique of argumentation. Although the term (Latin exemplum: literally “that …

1. Literature A florilegium is a compilation of images, maxims, or sayings, taken from the works of one or more authors or from musical works (see below, 2.) and arranged in the manner of a dictionary for rhetorical application. The term, derived from the Greek anthología (“flower gathering”) and dating only from the 16th century, evokes the process of “gathering flowers [of words]” (Latin  flores legere, literally “to collect blooms”), while the related term “(printed) commonplace-book” current in the English-speaking world focuses more strongly on the inte…