The activity of writing details of our lives is as old as handwriting itself. Early diaries were mostly used as a mean of keeping public records. The modern diary as we know it now has its origins in fifteenth-century (circa 1600) Italy where diaries were used for accounting. Slowly, the focus of diaries shifted from that of recording public life to reflecting on the private one. Leonardo da Vinci filled 5,000 pages of journals with ideas about inventions and clever observations.
Diary as autobiography, the modern diary, began with Samuel Pepys in England in 1660. He logged details of his life in London, containing impressive scenes from historic events like the Great Fire of 1666 and more intimate scenes such as quarrels with his wife.
The travel journal has been all over the world since the early Christian pilgrims began wandering to the Holy Land in the first century after Christ. By the late eighteenth century, explorers were crossing the earth and recording their discoveries – explorers such as Captain Cook, Lewis and Clark, and Darwin. In 1845 Henry David Thoreau began recording what would become the classic, Walden, the account of his two-year experiment of “living deliberately” at Walden Pond.
So we could conclude that Journaling is as old as writing itself, there is evidence in some caves where the cavemen depicted their lives in everyday activities, and those can be considered as the first Journaling evidence. The tradition of journaling dates back to the first intelligent humans.
But the first documented and most famous diary comes from the renowned Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote his deepest thoughts in a 12-book journal collection in 167 A.D. He titled his entries "Things to One's Self" (Greek translation), but we know them today as Meditations. His discernments, experiences, and perception have taught and inspired countless people through the ages.
