The Bibliothèque de Genève’s Ms. lat. 55 is an exceptional
document because it consists of six wax tablets listing the
expenditures for the royal household of the French King Philip IV
the Fair for the years 1306-1309. Over time, the wax turned black
and hard, which makes it harder to read. But the images of the
tablets are accompanied by a transcription and by a facsimile
prepared in 1720-1742 by the Genevan Gabriel Cramer. Preserved as
„Ms. lat. 55 bis,“ this handwritten facsimile makes it possible
to access the content of the tablets and to compare the current
state with that of 1720-1742 and thus to recognize the loss of
pieces of the wax.
