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The international conference “Medieval Wax Tablets on the Move: The Archaeology of Portable Artefacts” forms part of the scientific initiatives of the Fondazione San Bonaventura’s permanent project SCRIPTVRA, which is devoted to the study of the materiality of writing, writing devices, and the relationships between graphic practices, supports, and spaces of use (https://fondazionesanbonaventura.it/scriptvra/). The initiative is promoted together with the ERC project “TabulaRasa. Clay, wax, and the impact of erasable writing technologies on manuscript cultures” (PI Michele Cammarosano), which investigates erasable writing
technologies and their impact on manuscript cultures within a broad chronological and interdisciplinary framework (https://tabularasa.hypotheses.org/).

The conference is coordinated by Daniele Ferraiuolo, researcher at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and member of the TabulaRasa team, where he is responsible for the study of Medieval and Early Modern wax tablets. The iniziative aims to place at the centre of scholarly discussion a topic that has so far been addressed only partially: the relationship between Medieval wax tablets, their archaeological contexts of discovery, and the dynamics of mobility.
Its purpose is to bring together archaeologists, art historians, historians of written culture, and specialists in the materiality of artefacts in order to analyse wax tablets not merely as writing supports, but as genuinely mobile devices, designed to be carried, stored, reused, and eventually discarded, lost, or deposited in specific contexts.

Throughout the Middle Ages, wax tablets were used in a wide range of settings: from schooling, including monastic and ecclesiastical environments, to administrative, documentary, and commercial practices. Alongside textual and iconographic evidence, the material record makes it possible to observe the development of forms, technical solutions, and accessories connected with portability: single tablets, small-format wax tablet books, styli, cases, bags, and containers designed both to protect these objects and to facilitate their transport. From this perspective, “portability” should not be understood simply as a functional quality, but as an interpretative key for understanding practices of use, social and
professional contexts, modes of circulation, and the material life of these writing instruments.
Particular attention will be paid to archaeological contexts of discovery, especially in northern Europe, where specific environmental conditions have favoured the preservation of wooden and other organic artefacts. The analysis of findspots – including latrines, urban deposits, school environments, monastic spaces, domestic contexts, and productive areas – allows us to investigate not only the phases of use of wax tablets, but also the end of their life cycle: loss, discard, reuse, decommissioning, or deposition. The comparison of archaeological data, technical features, traces of use, assembly systems, and modes of preservation will make it possible to reconstruct more precisely the diffusion of specific types of mobile writing devices and their role in everyday practices of Medieval writing.

The event will be held in English and will host scholars from different areas of Europe, with the aim of consolidating an international research network devoted to the archaeological and material study of wax tablets.
The scientific results of the conference will be brought together in a collective volume in the SCRIPTVRA series, published by Brepols (https://www.brepols.net/series/scri).