Although known today for his devotional verse, Massachusetts minister Edward Taylor (1642–1729) read surprisingly widely across disciplines. Because he pursued his worldly interests primarily through note-taking, they have been neglected, but recent research into the history of scholarship, material texts, and the art of commonplacing can help reopen Taylor's home-made notebooks. These collations of extracts and notes from imported books demonstrate how transatlantic reading practices and study methods were adapted to the needs of an intellectual, rusticated to the colonial frontier. Especially illuminating is Taylor's commonplace book of rarities and wonders, which he compiled from textbooks of global history and geography (including works by Peter Heylyn, Patrick Gordon, and Walter Raleigh) and interspersed with local curiosities, providences, and anecdotes about natural history. Besides containing undiscovered sources for certain poems, this manuscript Wunderkammer reveals Taylor's study habits to have exerted a vital influence on his poetic style.