Hello!I'm Spanish... if you can get an inkling on what full the expression in Spanish was, I can try to search for more information, and see if any other translations are possible.
I just tried a search on the obvious term for waxed, "encerado" and got 2 hits from the 1400s, both referring to waxed cloth:
1. "deuen ser cerradas con vedrieras o con lienço encerado" (they must be closed with glass or with waxed linen).
They're talking of windows in times of contagious disease. I enclose the full text as given out by the database at the bottom of the message.
2. "& las ventanas con vidrio: o con paño encerado: porque entre la luz / & no el aire podrido." (and the windows [closed] with glass, or with waxed cloth, so that the light may enter and not the putrid air.)
Searching for "ençerado" (the expected variant spelling) gives 8 more hits, also from the 1400s. All appear to refer to waxed thread to dental surgery, except for one waxed cloth that is wrapped around some parchment.
A similar seach on CORDE for the period 1400-1650 leads to a good number of examples, but only one is mentioned in the context of a lantern. Again we have windows, surgery aids and medicines, parchments wrapped in waxed cloth, containers closed with waxed cloth...
The one about the lantern doesn't really clear much up... It's reference 3 below, which is from a sequel to Don Quixote. It seems to be talking of fantasy people, or perhaps oddly-costumed American natives. It's cites feathers and such and in the same breaths mentions "la madera que haze diáfano encerado a las linternas" (the wood that makes transparent waxed-thing for lanterns). Here I translate "encerado" as 'waxed-thing' because it's a noun. Other findings also drop the cloth/linen/whatever part and mention an encerado for a window, for example.
There's also some mentions to encerados surrounding the Christian military camp in the conquest of Granada.
I'm including (6) because it mentions "a box with its encerado". Maybe this is the kind of item they found on board this ship?
Hope that helps!!
Marianne
From http://www.corpusdelespanol.org/
1. NOTE TITLE: Tratado útil AUTHOR: Licenciado Fores DATE: [__] SOURCE: Electronic Texts and Concordances of the Madison Corpus of Early Spanish Manuscripts and Printings. Prepared by John ONeill. (Madison and New York, 1999). CD-ROM. (ISBN 1-56954-122-1). Hispanic Society of America: Textos y concordancias electrónicos del Corpus Médico Español
sana el ayre corrompido a ij pestilencial. despues destas las que son fechas fazia oriente son mejores & deuen ser cerradas con vedrieras o con lienço [ encerado. ] // // Rectificacion del ayre. / No se deuen leuantar en este tiempo mucho de man~ana antes quel sol salga sino despues a lo menos media
2. NOTE TITLE: De epidemia et peste; Tratado de la peste. AUTHOR: Pietro de Tossignano; atribuido a Vasco de Taranta. DATE: [__] SOURCE: Electronic Texts and Concordances of the Madison Corpus of Early Spanish Manuscripts and Printings. Prepared by John ONeill. (Madison and New York, 1999). CD-ROM. (ISBN 1-56954-122-1). Zaragoza Pablo Hurus 1494-08-15.
& confuerta el coraçon. No vaya por la villa: mas occupe se en algo dentro de casa conlas puertas cerradas: & las ventanas con vidrio: o con paño [ encerado: ] porque entre la luz / & no el aire podrido. Por consiguiente esquiue se qualquier fedor: & acresciente se tempradamente buenos
From CORDE (http://corpus.rae.es/cordenet.html):
3. - ¿Y qué avemos de her -dixo Sancho- nosotros con essa Cu? ¿Es alguna joya de las que avemos de lo traher de las justas?
- No -replicó don Quixote-; que aquel Cu es un plumaje de dos relevadas plumas, que suelen ponerse algunos sobre la cabeça, a vezes de oro, a vezes de plata y a vezes de la madera que haze diáfano [Anterior]encerado[Siguiente] a las linternas, * llegando unos con dichas
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plumas hasta el signo Aries, otros al de Capricornio y otros se fortifican en el castillo de San Cervantes. *
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AÑO: 1614
AUTOR: Fernández de Avellaneda, Alonso
TÍTULO: Don Quijote de la Mancha
PAÍS: ESPAÑA
TEMA: 12.Relato extenso novela y otras formas similares
PUBLICACIÓN: Martín de Riquer, Espasa-Calpe, S. A. (Madrid), 1972
4. y me los envió á Madrid en una caja guarnecida tambien con su encerado
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AÑO: c 1594
AUTOR: Garibay, Esteban de
TÍTULO: Memorias de Garibay
PAÍS: ESPAÑA
TEMA: 19.Memorias y diarios
PUBLICACIÓN: Pascual de Gayangos, Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid), 1854
[ 10-01-2007: Message edited by: Marianne ]