The history and technology of a Renaissance erasable notebook (ca. 1575) in the Old World and New

Abstract

Recent studies have explored the technological innovation of erasable ‘writing tables' (or ‘tablets') in England and on the Continent. Erasable writing tablets allowed people to write with a metal stylus on gesso-coated paper or parchment leaves, which were often bound into pocket calendars or almanacs printed in England and the Low Countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. However, these studies have been based on relatively few extant examples and have disagreed on the chemical composition of the erasable writing surface and other questions. The present article is a case study of a very rare Netherlandish erasable notebook (held at Princeton University Library), which was used for more than a century in Spanish colonial Guatemala City but was probably made in Antwerp (ca. 1575). Scientific examination and historical study of the notebook's production, chemical composition, binding, provenance, and use show that it was coated with layers of Baltic amber varnish as well as gesso, and this enabled writing either with metal stylus or pen and ink. Though exceedingly rare today, such notebooks were once batch-produced in significant numbers, often with panel-stamped stationery bindings, as a type of blank book for commercial sale in book shops. The information that has been developed by the authors’ research will hopefully provide scholars and conservators with valuable insights concerning the description, historical background and material composition of erasable notebooks, which will help promote their understanding and preservation.