The wax tablet is a writing instrument consisting of wax and typically, boxwood, and is used by carving onto its hardened wax surface. The earliest record of its use dates back to the 7th century B.C.E. in Italy, with the earliest specimens coming from Nimrud in Assyria. Wax tablets were widely used among the Greeks, who had an abundance of beeswax at their disposal, and subsequently gained popularity amongst the ancient Egyptians. During Greco-Roman Antiquity (8th century B.C.E. – 6th century C.E.), the tablets entered into common use as they were cheap and reusable compared to the other writing surfaces available. They continued to be used sporadically up till the nineteenth century.
To construct a wax tablet, a flat, rectangular block would be hollowed out and filled with a mixture of beeswax tempered with resin, turpentine or linseed oil, and coloured with the same agents used in the embellishments of illuminated manuscripts. Black was the most common colour, followed by green, whereas red and yellow were rarely seen. Darker colours were favoured so that the text carved on the wax could be seen. These wooden blocks were then bound together with leather, parchment or linen thongs. Though wood was usually the preferred choice, wax tablets were also occasionally made of bone, ivory and metalwork.
A stylus of metal, bone, or wood would be used like a pencil with an eraser end, the sharp end for writing onto the wax, and the wide, flattened end working like an eraser. A metal stylus could be heated and its blunt end used to smooth the wax for reuse or to erase mistakes. To erase an entire tablet of characters, however, the wax would need to be held close to a flame till it melted. The tablet would be turned over and a stylus used to gently smooth over the surface, or the tablet rocked, to even out the melted wax. When not in use, the stylus could sometimes be embedded in the wax or placed in the owner’s pen case, which in some cases were incorporated within the tablet.
Wax tablets served as learning aids in the classroom (especially throughout Antiquity), as a means for drafting texts, and for compiling things such as library inventories. They were also used for keeping administrative records–especially financial transactions (from royal accounts to gaming tallies), but stopped being used for legal records during the Middle Ages. They were even used as decorative objects or love tokens, and used in religious contexts. The Etruscans of ancient Italy, for example, used them as amulets. Tablets took on different forms– as a single block, as diptychs (consisting of two blocks of wood), polyptychs (more than three blocks), the occasional concertina (which could open or close in multiple folds) and, during Antiquity, larger notice-boards or posters. Small sets of wax tablets were used as notebooks, and were dubbed ‘girdle books’ when suspended from the belt. Larger versions of the girdle book formed a portable writing desk and were held in the same manner as our modern day laptops. Artists would also use similar forms of the notebooks for sketches.
The practical character of the wax tablet and the organic materials of which it was made mean that very few examples from the past still exist today.
Open wax tablet
Closed wax tablet triptych with iron stylus. Collection of NTU Library Collection
Bibliography
Brown, Michelle P. “THE ROLE OF THE WAX TABLET IN MEDIEVAL LITERACY: A RECONSIDERATION IN LIGHT OF A RECENT FIND FROM YORK.” The British Library Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, 1994, pp. 1–16.
“Greek Handwriting.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/calligraphy/Greek-handwriting#ref512888.
Toth, Peter, and Alan E. Cole. “Keep Taking the (Wax) Tablets.” Medieval Manuscripts Blog, British Library, 8 May 2019, blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/05/keep-taking-the-wax-tablets.html#:~:text=The%20earliest%20documented%20use%20of,of%20beeswax%20at%20their%20disposal.
Urry, William G.. “Paleography”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Aug. 2013,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/paleography. Accessed 21 March 2021.
Prepared by Sophia Ng Sok Huei