Papier à tablettes / paper tablets

Ingredients

os de pourceau (pig bones) calcinez à blanc, os de Cheval (horse bone), Os de pied de mouton (sheep's foot bone), Corne de Cerf & de daim (stag and deer horn), Coques d'oeufs (eggshells) non calcinées, eau (water)

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe for 'Papier à tablettes' (erasable paper) involves preparing a coating for paper. Ingredients include pig bones calcined until white, horse bones, sheep's foot bones, and stag or deer horn. These are mixed with uncalcined eggshells. The mixture is ground ('broyez') with water in the same manner as pigments. The resulting paste is applied to paper with a soft brush to create a surface suitable for writing that can later be erased (p. 225).

Evidence

"those handy ‘table books’ or ‘paper tablets’ for which we find a series of recipes on fols. 29ff and very notably one in red marked with Mayerne’s initial and the Latin notation fecij (made [it])"

Remarks

These paper tablets were used as 'note-taking devices' or 'table books' in the early modern period (p. 224). The recipe in MS 2052 is notable for being written entirely in red ink (p. 225).