The use of portable notebooks in Renaissance England is widely documented. Reference to "table books" and "writing tables" or "writing tablets" can be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet and other Renaissance plays. In their "Hamlet's Tables and the Technologies of Writing in Renaissance England", Peter Stallybrass, Roger Chartier et al, explore these 17th-century writing implements, their features and uses.

Writing Technology

Any change in writing instruments has an impact on the way writers make sense of the written text. For example, the wide use of the computer and of word processing has changed the way writers plan their writing, write and understand their text. Portable notebooks have expanded the notion of the workplace. Moving from ink dip pens to fountain pens and then to disposable ballpoints also made a difference to the process of writing.

Writing was done with quill and ink in the Renaissance period. Wax tablets, made from single or double wax-covered boards, were also in use from antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. However, their use declined during the Renaissance with the production of paper from the 11th century onwards.