Medieval Wax Tablet

Cover of a Wax Writing Tablet Ca. 1325-50, Paris, Ivory, 9.3x5.9x.8 cm, The Met Ivory Cloisters, 2003.131.3a, b https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/475489

What the inside of the wax tablet would have looked like (replica) http://historicconnections.webs.com/writingcollectibles.htm):

Background
The top image is a real cover to a French writing tablet. The bottom image is a replica of what the wax tablet on the inside would have looked like, complete with a wedge writing stylus. The wax tablet, although used beginning in ancient Rome, was an important piece of technology for medieval literacy and writing practices. As originally a piece of Roman technology, it also marks the transfusion into and admiration of Roman thought in medieval life. Wax tablets were often used in literacy education during the Middle Ages, as they could easily be melted and erased. Wax tablets were often used for note taking and government documents, usually equated with texts that demand vernacular reading and writing. Although the owner of the wax tablet above is unknown, the religious decoration of the tablet may suggest that it belonged to a member of the clergy. The fact that it is made of ivory also suggests that this tablet belonged to a wealthy person. In general, the wealthy and highly educated would be the ones to most likely own a wax writing tablet. Therefore, the technology is also a symbol of upper education in the Middle Ages. 

More Information: The Connection between Wax Tablets, Literacy, and Memory

Writing tablets became important instruments of literacy education during the High Middle Ages. Students would learn grammar, spelling, Latin, and other languages using wax tablets; they presented a more cost-effective and reusable alternative to parchment. The downside to wax tablets being such an integral part of medieval education, especially primary education, is that we do not have records of what was written down (as they were easily melted and erased.) Wax tablets were akin to the small whiteboards used for literacy and writing education in schools today.

This is not to say that writing tablets were only used by schoolchildren. They were also tools that were utilized by the well-educated. The wax tablets of the well to-do, like the one featured above, could be made out of many different materials. This particular artifact was made of ivory; however, tablets could be made of wood, animal bone, clay, or metal as well. The artifact above probably lasted longer because of the material it was made of; ivory is much more durable than wood, which disintegrates quickly. The wax part of the tablets would be made of a mixture of beeswax and resin, with black being the most common wax color (as evidenced by the replica above.) However, green, red, yellow, and clear wax tablets have also been found by archeologists.

Wax tablets helped to support many writing practices beyond literacy education. As aforementioned, their uses could be clerical or administrative. Furthermore, many medieval authors, like Dante and Chaucer, used wax tablets to write drafts of their works. Authors would write a draft, memorize the draft, and completely erase it to keep working. Therefore, the erasable nature of wax tablets also became an exercise in medieval memory; in order to keep writing, authors needed to memorize and erase their drafts to make space. Like with previous artifacts, therefore, we can see how medieval literacy was tied to intense memorization. 
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Bibliography

Baldzuhn, Michael. "Schoolbooks." In Transforming the Medieval World: Uses of Pragmatic Literacy in the Middle Ages, edited by Franz Arlinghaus, Marcus Ostermann, Oliver Plessow, and Gudrun Tscherpel, 259-287. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2006.

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 Journal20, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 1-16. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42554375.

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