Medieval wax tablet

Medieval wax tablet from the Codex Manesse

• Dimensions: 18x9cm; Thickness: 8mm
• Beech wood
• Includes wooden stylus (pencil)

Wax tablets were a writing medium used for centuries, from Greco-Roman antiquity to the Middle Ages.

This piece is a medieval example of that writing system and constitutes a reconstruction based on the representations of wax tablets that appear in the Codex Manesse, one of the most important manuscripts of medieval German literature, created in Zurich between the early 14th century and approximately 1340.

The tabulae ceratae allowed writing on a wax surface using a stylus (stilus) and reusing it later by smoothing the wax again. Their use during such a broad period of history makes wax tablets an interesting example of the evolution of writing media.