Of alle folk that gaue hem any good.”
(Chaucer.)
Tablet. (Fr. tablette.) Any flat surface for inscriptions; leaves for memoranda.
Tablets. In architecture a general term for small projecting mouldings or strings, mostly horizontal. The tablet at the top, under the battlement, is called a cornice, and that at the bottom a basement, under which is generally a thicker wall. The tablet running round doors and windows is called a dripstone, and if ornamented a canopy. (Rickman, p. 42.)
Tabletterie, Fr. Turned work in ivory or shells, &c.
Tablinum, R. One of the apartments in a Roman house; it was a recess in the Atrium, and contained the wax or ivory portraits and statues in bronze and marble of ancestors, and carved representations of their honourable achievements in the state, and the family archives. (See Domus.)
Tabor, Tabour, O. E. A very loud drum “which is bad for people’s heads, for, if stretched tight and struck hard, it may be heard at half a league’s distance.”
Tabouret. An embroidery frame.
Tabret, Heb. A small tabor.
Tabula, R. and Chr. (1) Literally, a plank, and thence used to denote a variety of objects made of wood or planks, as for instance a bench; a dice-table; a waxed writing-tablet (tabula cerata); a panel-painting; a votive-tablet; a voting-ticket. (2) Arch. Properly any solid construction adapted for superficial decoration, as the frontal of an altar. “The most remarkable example of the tabula destined for the front of the Altar, is preserved in Westminster Abbey; it is formed of wood, elaborately carved, painted and enriched with a kind of mosaic work of coloured glass, superficially inlaid, a species of decoration of Italian origin.” (Consult Parker’s Glossary s.v.) (3) In Christian archæology, tabulæ nuptiales or dotales was the name given to the parchment scrolls in the hands of persons who figure in the marriage scenes represented on tombs.