Tabby, O. E. A silk watered or figured.
Tabella, Gen. (dimin. of tabula). A small board, or tablet, of any kind, esp. (1) a wax-tablet; (2) a voting-tablet (tessera); (3) a letter sent by a messenger (tabellarius); (4) tabella absolutoria, a receipt for a debt; (5) tabella damnatoria, a judicial record of a verdict and sentence; (6) tabella liminis, the leaf of a door, &c.
Fig. 643. Taberna.
Taberna, R. (1) A retail shop; Fig. [643] shows a shop at Pompeii, restored. (2) Taberna deversoria, taberna meritoria, or simply taberna, a wine-shop or tavern. (Fig. [643].)
Tabernacle Work, Arch. The ornamented open work over the stalls (of a cathedral church, &c.), and, in general, any minute ornamental open work is called tabernacle work.
Tabernaculum, Tabernacle, R. and Chr. (Lit. a tent). (1) A booth of planks, or a wooden hut covered with hides. (2) In Christian archæology, the tabernacle is a small shrine placed on the altar for the consecrated wafer. It succeeded the pyx, which was anciently deposited in one of two chambers arranged on each side of the altar. Originally of goldsmith’s work, in the 15th and 16th centuries they became stone shrines decorated with sculpture, approached by steps, rising into lanterns and pinnacles to the roof of the church. A cast of a beautiful tabernacle of late 15th century, marble with a gilt metal door, is in the South Kensington Museum. Tabernacles of ivory were common in the 16th century. (3) Ornamental niches in a hall. (4) Accurately applied the term signifies a canopy, (of stone, wood, or other material) such as was placed over a Niche, a stall, &c.
Tabernula. Dimin. of Taberna (q.v.).
Tabinet. (See Tabbinet.)
Tabl shamee, Egyp. The Syrian drum, used by the modern Egyptians; a kind of kettle-drum of tinned copper, with a parchment face.