tablets -3

Artefact Alive

So, what did the writing say? The specialist found that there were three distinct texts written in a script known as Cursiva Anglicana; the letter forms suggest it is late 14th century in date — the time of Geoffrey Chaucer.

The first text is written in Middle English and is part of a poem. Not all has yet been deciphered but the poem contains a phrase interpreted as '....still she did not answer me, but she didn't say no...', which suggests that this was a love poem. The second text is some sort of list or set of accounts and the third is part of a legal document, perhaps a letter, written in Latin.

Drawing of one of the inscribed 'pages'

It would seem that we had found someone's personal notebook! Whoever it belonged to was literate in both English and Latin, was involved in commercial and legal transactions (maybe as a secretary) and was quite possibly in love! Let's hope that ultimately she said 'yes'!

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Find number 1989.28, 257. Dimensions: block of tablets & cover, height 50mm, width 30mm, thickness 15mm; each tablet 50 x 30 x 1.5mm.
Not yet fully published but see 'The Role of the Wax Tablet in Medieval Literacy: A reconsideration in light of a recent find from York' by Michelle P. Brown, Journal of the British Library Volume 20, No.1, 1994.