Tabula Cerata

The tabula cerata, Latin for “wax tablet”, was made up of two rectangular pieces of wood fastened together by tying packthread through man-made drillings in the wood. The insides of the wood were then layered in real beeswax to be written on by scratching the sharp tip of a stylus along the surface. The outsides of the wood acted as a cover for the wax messages on the inside panels of the wood “so that they opened and shut like our books; and to prevent the wax of one tablet rubbing against the wax of the other” (Smith 1891, 1091).

Wooden Writing Tablets. 500–700. Wood and wax, Overall (with mount): 10 1/2 x 11 7/8 x 5 1/2 in. (26.7 x 30.2 x 14 cm); Overall (together): 9 5/16 x 5 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (23.7 x 14.9 x 5.7 cm); Overall (each leaf): 9 5/16 x 5 7/8 x 7/16 in. (23.7 x 14.9 x 1.1 cm). Wooden Writing Tablets [14.2.4a–d]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Members of the Roman Republic used the tabula cerata to record information and send messages. During government gatherings, certain administrators and officials acted as scribes to write down the contents of the meeting. All writing on wax tablets was written horizontally to prevent the hinges holding the tablets together from getting in the way of the scribe’s hand. Though the small size of the tablets made them portable, sending messages was more complex. Message senders were adamant about letter security if a message needed to be transported. Letters written on these tablets would take weeks or even months to send and faced a high risk of reaching the wrong hands or being poached along the way. Therefore, senders would apply a seal for the messages. After writing messages, senders drilled two holes at the top of the letter’s cover, and then a string and wax through the holes to form a seal. If the seal was broken before reaching the recipient, it was a sign that the message had been opened or tampered with. The sender of the message would write their name to the “right of the seals, which were impressed in wax dropped when hot upon the binding cord” (Kelsey 1923, 188). Recipients were also able to write the original sender back using the same tablet. To write on the tablets, scribes used a “stylus of metal, bone, or wood, the ends of which were often expanded into triangular terminals which, when heated, were used to erase and smooth the wax for reuse” (Brown 1994, 4). 

As wax tablets became more common, merchants and tradesmen utilized them as well. Due to the tablet’s portability, it was easy for merchants to keep account of their transactions, tracking items they were trading. Putting information in writing made it more convenient to understand and to negotiate the asset value of specific trades. The ability to visualize the information by writing on the tabula cerata while traveling consistently made it easier to conduct business on the go. 

Students commonly used wax tablets as a tool in their educational endeavors. Education was very important to the Romans. Though only boys of rich families usually received a full formal education, many youths, rich or poor, learned how to read and write. The tabula cerata was a focal point in the education of young minds and “until quite late in the Middle Ages, virtually everyone who learned to write did so on a wax tablet” (Rouse 1990, 12). As youths progressed in their literacy, the wax tablets were convenient when they made mistakes. Being allowed to erase mistakes allowed for quicker, more efficient learning. In fact, the English phrase “a clean slate” is derived from the Latin expression “tabula rasa”. 

In conclusion, the overall versatility and portability of the tabula cerata allowed for diverse groups of people in the ancient Roman world to reap the benefits of its uses. Using a cheap, portable and re-usable writing implement further advanced Roman societal growth through imporved communication, education, and international affairs.

References

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 20, no. 1 (1994): 1–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42554375.

K. Painter. “A Roman Writing Tablet from London.” The British Museum Quarterly 31, no. 3/4 (1967): 101–10. https://doi.org/10.2307/4422971.

Kelsey, Francis W. “A Waxed Tablet of the Year 128 A.D.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 54 (1923): 187–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/282850.

Rouse, M. A., and R. H. Rouse. 1990. “The vocabulary of wax tablets”. Harvard Library Bulletin, Fall (1990): 12-19.

Smith, William. 1891. “Tabulae.” Essay. In A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiques, 1091–92. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Tabulae.html.