From Hand to Hand: Wax Tablets, Movement, and Everyday Practices in Late Medieval Franconia

Between 19 and 23 January 2026, a research mission was conducted in Franconia (Germany) within the framework of TabulaRasa project. Conceived as a second, more advanced phase following the exploratory campaign carried out in December 2025, this survey marked a clear turning point in the project’s development. The focus shifted from the identification and preliminary mapping of a corpus to the interpretation of practices, gestures, and material behaviours embedded in erasable writing devices.

Franconia proved to be an exceptionally productive terrain for such an investigation. The region preserves a dense and varied assemblage of tablets spanning the late Middle Ages and the early Modern period, encompassing objects designed for intensive everyday use, complex administrative tools combining different supports, and items that ultimately exited circulation to acquire new symbolic or ritual functions. Taken together, these materials offer a privileged observatory for studying how writing tablets circulated, were handled, maintained, combined with other media, or eventually abandoned.

The mission was carried out by Michele Cammarosano, Daniele Ferraiuolo, and Doris Oltrogge, in close cooperation with a network of German institutions: the Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach, the Universitätsbibliothek in Frankfurt, the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, the Staatsarchiv and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg, and the Museum für Franken in Würzburg.

From a methodological perspective, the Franconian mission was conceived as an autoptic and materially grounded investigation. Newly acquired photographic and measuring equipment – macro lenses, controlled LED lighting, optical magnification tools, and precision calipers – allowed for the systematic documentation of toolmarks, wax stratigraphy, surface alterations, and binding structures. 

Raking light photography, in particular, proved crucial for revealing shallow incisions, overlapping textual layers, and traces of erasure invisible under diffuse illumination.

This technical refinement supported a broader interpretative shift. Rather than treating tablets as static carriers of text, the mission approached them as “processual objects”, whose surfaces and structures record repeated cycles of writing, erasing, smoothing, re-preparing, and sometimes abandoning. Losses, damage, and incomplete states were therefore read not as failures of preservation, but as evidence of use!

From objects to practices: What do wax tablets want?

Approaching writing tablets through their material traces requires a decisive shift in perspective. Rather than asking what these objects contain, the Franconian evidence invites us to also consider what they were made to do. Tablets were not passive supports awaiting inscription, but artefacts designed for repeated handling, manipulation, and intervention. Their size, binding systems, surface preparation, and protective devices presuppose gestures: opening and closing, holding, carrying, erasing, smoothing, rewriting… moving.

In this sense, tablets belong fully to the sphere of everyday writing practices. They were used where writing needed to remain provisional, adaptable, and responsive to changing circumstances. Their material configuration allowed writing to circulate between hands, to be corrected and updated, and to accompany activities unfolding not only at fixed writing desks or within stable archival environments, but also in more mobile and informal contexts.

The tablets analysed in Offenbach and Bamberg during our mission
(Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach and Staatsbibliothek Bamberg)

Being carried, being kept close: tablets designed for movement

One of the most revealing insights emerging from the Franconian mission concerns a group of tablets whose material configuration presupposes writing practices carried out in movement. The small wax tablet  book preserved at the Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach (Inv. Nr. 4119), dated to the last quarter of the fifteenth century and examined thanks to the generous collaboration of Nora Henneck, Head of Collections Management and Digitisation, as well as Vanessa Schauer and Karina Länger, responsible for collection storage and conservation of the Museum, offers an exemplary case.

At the Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach, with Vanessa Schauer … and the wax tablet book 4119!
(Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach)

Here, reduced dimensions alone do not account for the object’s functionality. The presence of a fully preserved leather case with a flexible lid and a cord-based closure system, reveals a deliberate concern for protection, cohesion, and ease of access. The case is not an accessory but an essential component of the writing device, conceived to keep the tablets together, to allow them to be easily carried, and to ensure they remained readily usable in everyday contexts. 

Comparable solutions are known from some archaeological contexts mostly of Northern Europe, such as the assemblage from Brielle (Netherlands), where a group of wax tablets was recovered together with a leather case explicitly designed to house both the tablets and a stylus, making the association between writing surface, writing tool, and bodily movement particularly explicit.

The leather case from Offenbach (photo: Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Deutsches Ledermuseum in Offenbach) and the case, with the stylus still in situ, discovered in Brielle (photo: Arnold Carmiggelt)

The Offenbach book was clearly intended for practical, short-term writing: notes meant to be modified, erased, and rewritten rather than preserved. This use is reflected in the binding system, based on parchment strips passing through lateral cuts and glued directly onto the bottom of the recesses of the first and last tablets, subsequently sealed beneath the wax layer. Such a solution ensured stability while allowing repeated opening and handling. Wax residues along the edges and frames, together with the presence of differently coloured layers – principally brown and green -, record successive cycles of levelling and rewaxing, confirming that this was a writing device designed to accompany action, remain close to its user, and adapt to changing needs.

Writing that can change: erasure, maintenance, and interrupted cycles

A second thematic axis emerging from the Franconian material concerns erasure, not as a marginal or purely technical operation, but as a constitutive element of everyday writing practices. In several cases, the writing surface itself appears as a true working space, repeatedly modified, corrected, levelled, and occasionally left in an unfinished state. The tablets from Frankfurt and Bamberg offer two particularly instructive and complementary perspectives on this phenomenon.

The medium-sized tablet preserved at the Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt (Fragm. germ. IV 31), which we were able to examine thanks to Jakob Frohmann, responsible for the collections of Manuscripts, Incunabula, and Early Printed Books, and Raschida Mansour of the Research Reading Room, is especially revealing in this respect. The surface preserves a dense concentration of writing exercises, clearly recognisable as repeated alphabetical sequences. These are not isolated trials, but the material trace of a prolonged learning process, in which writing was practised, improved, and practised again on the same support.

Erasure here is inseparable from training. Under raking light, the wax surface reveals zones of intensive reworking, where earlier letters were flattened, overwritten, or partially erased. 

Frankfurt, Universitätsbibliothek, Fragm. germ. IV 31 (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt)

Particularly significant are the linear traces attributable to the use of the spatula, visible especially in the upper part of the tablet. Their irregularity suggests that the erasure was carried out on a surface that was not ever fully soft, requiring sometimes a more forceful intervention. The Frankfurt tablet thus documents erasure as a routine pedagogical gesture, one that leaves behind a palimpsest of attempts, corrections, and adjustments rather than a clean slate. 

A different approach to the erasure emerges from the wax tablet book Msc.Var.15 kept at the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, examined thanks to the kind support of the director, Prof. Bettina Wagner, and the library’s conservator, Jessica Leitner. Here, the evidence indicates not mere correction but a preparatory process. 

In several tablets, the wax was deliberately removed to expose the wooden recess underneath. The surface was then reworked with crosshatched lines, a treatment intended to improve adhesion prior to the application of a fresh wax layer.

What makes this case particularly significant is that the process was never completed: no new wax layer was applied. As a result, the preparatory stage -normally hidden once the tablet is rewaxed – remains clearly visible. From an archaeological, and therefore stratigraphic, perspective, the surface preserves an intermediate state between erasure and reuse. Rather than recording an act of writing, the tablets document an interrupted phase of maintenance, showing that preparation for reuse began but was not completed. This interpretation is further supported by the absence of wax within the crosshatched lines and grooves, which remain unfilled and fully visible, confirming that no subsequent wax coating was applied.

At the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg: from the left, Doris Oltrogge, Michele Cammarosano, the conservator, Jessica Leitner, the director, Prof. Bettina Wagner … and the wax tablet book Msc.Var.15 (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Staatsbibliothek Bamberg)

“Hybrid needs” and administrative routines

Alongside tablets conceived for intensive handling or repeated surface reworking, the Franconian material also reveals the existence of hybrid supports, developed to respond to equally “hybrid needs”. These objects combine different materials and writing technologies within a single artefact, not as an exercise in technical experimentation, but as a deliberate strategy to manage documentary information: stable data were recorded on one support, while information requiring revision or updating was entered on another.

A particularly clear example is provided by the wax tablet book preserved at the Staatsarchiv Nürnberg (Reichsstadt Nürnberg, Salbücher 15/3), examined thanks to the courtesy of Dr Daniela Palzer. Used in the mid-fifteenth century (1445) as a “Gültbuch” (revenue book), the object integrates wax and paper within a single, carefully coordinated system. The book functioned as a working register used to monitor rents, services, and dues owed to the imperial fortress of Nürnberg by surrounding villages and estates. 

Face A of each tablet is coated with black wax, within two wax recesses divided vertically by a central wooden strip, while the opposite face is covered with paper sheets bearing ink inscriptions. The wax surfaces were used primarily for provisional and operational writing: temporary calculations, checks of payments, annotations related to sums still outstanding, and other forms of short-term administrative control. The several erasures and the clear traces of rewriting and adjustment unmistakably point to the repeated, strictly functional use of the wax layer. The paper sheets inserted into the facing recesses, by contrast, were used to organise and stabilise fixed information serving as reference. They contain lists of localities and contributors, schematic representations of territorial units, and ink-written records (in red and black) that structure the fiscal data spatially and conceptually.

Nürnberg, Staatsarchiv, Reichsstadt Nürnberg, Salbücher 15/3 (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Staatsarchiv Nürnberg)

It is interesting, in this sense, the standardised graphic system to record different types of rents (Gülten). As Gustav Voit noted in 1967, each entry is organised along a horizontal line and combines a central symbol identifying the type of due (such as eggs, grain, onions, or fish) with additional marks indicating quantity.

The careful alignment of ruling lines across both the paper and the wax surfaces reveals a precise graphic coordination between the two supports. In some tablets, each line on the paper corresponds to a line on the wax, creating a visual and functional grid that allows immediate comparison between what was considered stable and what was still in flux. In this sense, movement does not involve the object travelling through space, but information circulating within it. Writing passes between hands, between supports, and between different temporal spans of validity. Wax plays a crucial role precisely because it keeps writing adjustable and responsive, while paper provides a relatively stable framework within which this ongoing process could unfold.

Nürnberg, Staatsarchiv, Reichsstadt Nürnberg, Salbücher 15/3, detail (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Staatsarchiv Nürnberg)

Further perspectives on this “logic” emerged from discussions at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM) in Nürnberg, in particular with Dr Matthias Nuding, Head of the museum’s Historisches Archiv, and Jens Wagner, conservator at the Institut für Kunsttechnik und Konservierung. Here two objects are kept that push the notion of “hybrid” far beyond the simple combination of supports. 

At the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg: from the left, Doris Oltrogge, Dr Matthias Nuding, Jens Wagner and Michele Cammarosano; Daniele Ferraiuolo and Michele Cammarosano beyond the lens of the magnifying glass!
(Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Germanisches Nationalmuseum)

The ivory sundial WI 355, in particular, embodies a genuinely double-purpose design: it is at once an erasable writing surface and a scientific instrument. One face originally carried a wax field intended for notes that could be changed at will; the other is engraved as a horizontal sundial, completed by a compass recess in the projecting upper part. This was not a decorative juxtaposition of functions: the instrument could only work if the user constantly relied on reference points. 

Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, WI 355 (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Germanisches Nationalmuseum)

Time reading requires correct orientation (hence the compass), and it presupposes a specific calibration – indeed, the dial is tuned to the latitude of Nürnberg, while the folding metal gnomon provides the fixed geometrical reference that turns sunlight into readable hours. In other words, the object guides its own use through built-in features: it functions as a writing tablet, but also as a device whose measuring function is activated only under external conditions such as sunlight and orientation.

A different, but equally revealing, temporal depth emerges from the large (404 × 195 × 7 mm) wax tablet WK-VAR 0206, whose text is currently being analysed by Dr Matthias Nuding. The wood species (Fagus) was established through the autoptic analysis carried out by Ilona Steiner at the GNM during our visit. 

Here the hybridity is not between writing and measuring, but within the wax itself. The recesses preserve two superimposed layers of green wax in sharply contrasting states of preservation. The upper layer, having been exposed for a long time, has darkened dramatically, almost turning black. By contrast, the lower layer, which was protected underneath, remains a much lighter and more vivid green, probably close to the wax’s original colour before ageing and oxidation. This contrast offers a rare opportunity: instead of reconstructing “original colour” hypothetically, the object preserves it materially, layered in time.

Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, WK-VAR 0206 (Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Germanisches Nationalmuseum)

Even more intriguing is the behaviour of the lower layer. It does not appear as a perfectly level coating, but as if it had been lightly poured or laid down unevenly: small wax droplets remain visible on the bottom of the recess, which itself is worked with intersecting preparation lines. 

When circulation ends: fixation, deposition, and new meanings

There are cases in which a writing support originally conceived for handling, reuse, and circulation ultimately finds a permanent physical placement, bringing its everyday life to an abrupt end. In such instances, tablets do not simply stop being used: they change status. They pass from the sphere of practice to that of fixation, from tools of writing to objects of deposition. 

A set of tablets preserved at the Museum für Franken (H. 7819) provides a particularly compelling example of this transformation examined. The tablets were examined thanks to the support of Teresa Novy, Curator and Head of the Medieval and Early Modern Collection, and the restorer Susanne Wortmann. This particular survey was also attended by Laura Noviello, our project manager, and it proved to be an excellent opportunity to broaden our scope for discussion!

Museum für Franken – Staatliches Museum für Kunst-und Kulturgeschichte in Würzburg: from the left, Laura Noviello, Daniele Ferraiuolo, Doris Oltrogge, Susanne Wortmann, Teresa Novy, Michele Cammarosano and… tablets H. 7819
(Daniele Ferraiuolo, courtesy of Museum für Franken)

According to nineteenth-century accounts, the four small tablets were discovered in 1889 inside the main altar of the parish church of Hammelburg (Bavaria), during restoration works. Their placement is generally associated with the construction of the choir in 1389, suggesting a deliberate act of deposition rather than casual loss. In this context, the tablets may have functioned as authenticae, linked to relics or to the consecration of the altar itself. On one of the tablets, a text is still preserved; we are currently in the process of analysing it – also through microscopic examination of the inscriptions – which should allow us to say much more about its original function. 

Whatever their precise role, their insertion into the altar marks a decisive break with the conditions under which they were originally produced and used!

Material analysis offers important clues about this earlier phase. The tablets show forceful incisions, in several cases cutting through the wax layer and exposing the wooden recess beneath. Such deep grooves point to deliberate, emphatic acts of inscription rather than tentative or purely provisional notes. 

Once inserted into the altar, however, the tablets ceased to circulate, to be handled, to be erased or rewritten. Their capacity for adjustment and reuse – one of their defining characteristics – was effectively neutralised. Through deposition, objects originally embedded in dynamic cycles of writing were transformed into fixed elements within a sacred structure, acquiring a new and enduring meaning rooted in stability, permanence, and protection.

This passage from handling to fixation is crucial for understanding the biographies of erasable writing devices. It reminds us that tablets could move not only between hands, places, and supports, but also between social and symbolic regimes. From everyday writing tools to sacred deposits, their trajectories were neither linear nor predictable, and this is particularly evident for the medieval period. Tracing these shifts allows us to grasp how material objects of writing could be recontextualised, reinterpreted, and ultimately removed from the very practices for which they had been designed.

Conclusions: the changing lives of writing objects

What emerges from the Franconian evidence is neither a linear evolution of writing supports nor a simple opposition between “erasable” and “permanent” media. Rather, the material points to distinct regimes of use, within which the status of writing changes over time.

Tablets may pass from one user to another, but their relationship to users varies according to their material configuration and degree of mobility. Highly portable tablets – small, lightweight, and designed to be carried on the body or kept within immediate reach – often establish a close and sustained relationship with a specific user. Their repeated opening, handling, erasing, and rewriting suggest prolonged individual use, with all the implications this entails in terms of gesture, habit, and personal control over writing.

By contrast, larger or structurally more complex sets, though still transportable, do not necessarily imply such an intimate connection. In these cases, tablets may function within shared, administrative, or institutional contexts, circulating between different hands or serving collective purposes. Their mobility enables movement across spaces, but not always individual appropriation.

This distinction is materially visible in the objects themselves. Microscopic traces of erasure, successive layers of wax applied and removed, writing surfaces carefully prepared but never reused, bindings intentionally made to endure repeated opening and closing, or, conversely, tablets deliberately sealed and no longer manipulated – all these elements correspond to specific moments in the life of the object. They document decisions about duration, reuse, transfer, or closure. What are often treated as technical details thus become concrete indicators of how writing was managed in time and in relation to specific users or groups.

This approach makes it possible to interpret tablets not as objects to be classified solely on the basis of form or typology, but as tools whose material condition allows us to reconstruct how writing was actually used. Wear, traces of rewriting, or, conversely, the interruption of use indicate whether a text was meant to be modified repeatedly, to circulate across different contexts, or to be definitively fixed. In this way, tablets make visible practical choices concerning the duration and function of writing that are not always explicitly stated in the texts themselves.

* The materials presented in this post are currently being studied within the framework of the TabulaRasa project and will be the subject of forthcoming scientific publications.

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