Memory and Material in Early Modern England

Everyday Memory > Erasable Writing Tablets

Wryting tables, with a necessarie calender fayres in Englande, the festiuall holydayes, the hie wayes from one towne to another. title page

Title Page, noting the various uses of the writing tablets

Click here for item information Wryting tables, with a necessarie calender fayres in Englande, the festiuall holydayes, the hie wayes from one towne to another. Opening with writing table on the right

An opening showing an erasable page--the tablet would have included a space to hold a stylus that could have been used for notetaking

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This writing table brings together reference information ideal for travelers, such as a calendar of fairs and holidays and descriptions of England’s highway system, with erasable blank pages for writing. Its compact size made it ideal for travelers or students. By the end of the sixteenth century the technology was ubiquitous enough to be referenced as a simile for memory by Hamlet, who promises to erase “the table of my memory.” 

 

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