I recently came across a mention of notebooks used by Beethoven:
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is recognized the world over as a composer of musical masterpieces exhibiting heroic strength, particularly in the face of his increasing deafness from ca. 1798. By 1818, the Viennese composer had begun carrying blank booklets with him, for his acquaintances to jot their sides of conversations, while he answered aloud. Often, he himself used the pocket-sized booklets to make shopping lists and other reminders, including occasional early sketches for his compositions. Today, 139 of these booklets survive, covering the years 1818 up to the composer’s death in 1827 and including such topics as music, history, politics, art, literature, theatre, religion, and education as perceived on a day-to-day basis in post-Napoleonic Europe.Â
–From the book description for Beethoven’s Conversation Books, translated by Theodore Albrecht
Some photos of the conversation books appear in a review of a book called Ludwig van Beethoven, A study in text and pictures by Hans Conrad Fischer at Edwardian Piano: Musings on Art, Literature, Lyric and Music
