2020 Essays

Wax for Seals in Ms. Fr. 640

Olson, Nancy

Wax is a frequently used material in Ms. Fr. 640. Two entries on fols. 42r and 133r use wax for making “seals,” although the types of seals the author-practitioner had in mind are unclear. This essay explores wax seals for documents in early modern Europe. The reconstructions seek to evaluate the efficacy of the author-practitioner’s techniques for producing superior seals. The first reconstruction demonstrates that his methods for preparing and pressing wax for imprinting can yield a large seal that was as well formed as one made using an alternative technique involving pouring molten wax. The second reconstruction, which explores additives that give a greater hardness to wax, produced less conclusive results, in part because of uncertainty about how much lead white and how much pigment were to be added to a given quantity of wax.