- Bembine Tablet
The Bembine Tablet, the Bembine Table of Isis or the "Mensa Isiaca" (Isiac Tablet) was an elaborate tablet of bronze with enamel and silver inlay of probable Roman origin and mimicking Egyptian style. It was used by the 17th century hermeticist
Athanasius Kircher as the primary source for developing his translations of Egyptianhieroglyph ics; the hieroglyphics on the "Tablet" are now known to be nonsense, and Kircher's translations spurious. [http://www.museoegizio.org/pages/Most_important_pieces.jsp# Museum of Antiquities, Turin] . Retrieved13 December 2006 ] cite book |last=Hall |first=Manly Palmer |authorlink=Manly Palmer Hall |year=1928 |title=The Secret Teachings of All Ages |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta13.htm] It was also celebrated by later occultists includingEliphas Levi ,William Wynn Westcott andManly P. Hall as a key to interpreting the "Book of Thoth " orTarot , and Thomas Taylor even claimed that this tablet formed the altar before whichPlato stood as he received initiation within a subterranean hall in theGreat Pyramid of Giza . The Tablet was named afterCardinal Bembo , a celebrated antiquarian who acquired it after the 1527 sack of Rome.Origins
The "Tablet" has been dated to some time in the first century, probably originating in
Rome . Nothing is known of it until after the sack of Rome. Cardinal Bembo acquired it at an exorbitant price from a certain locksmith or ironworker into whose hands it had fallen. After Bembo's death in 1547 the "Tablet" was acquired by theHouse of Mantua , remaining in their museum until the capture ofMantua in 1630 by Ferdinand II's troops. The "Tablet" eventually came into the hands ofCardinal Pava , who presented it to theDuke of Savoy , who in turn presented it to the King ofSardinia . With the French conquest of Italy in 1797 the "Tablet" came toParis , andAlexandre Lenoir wrote in 1809 that it was on exhibition in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It was later returned toItaly after peace was established.Karl Baedeker in his "Guide to Northern Italy" mentions that the tablet was a central exhibit in Gallery 2 in the Museum of Antiquities atTurin , where it is today. [William Bates, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/oddnotes/bembo.html The Brazen Table of Bembo & Hieroglyphics] ]Construction
Kircher describes the "Tablet" as "five palms long and four wide", while Westcott measures it at 50×30 inches. It was made of bronze with enamel and silver inlay, the figures cut very shallow and the contours of most of them delineated with thin silver wire. The bases on which the figures sat were covered with silver, which had been torn away, and these sections are left blank in the engraved reproduction. [Fosbroke, "Encyclopædia of Antiquities"]
The "Tablet" is an important example of ancient
metallurgy , its surface being decorated with a variety of metals including silver, gold, copper-gold alloy and various base metals. One of the metals employed is black, made by alloying copper and tin with small amounts of gold and silver, and then 'pickling' it in organicacid . This black metal is possibly a variety of the "Corinthian bronze " described by Pliny andPlutarch .Depicted scene
Although the scenes are Egyptianising, they do not depict Egyptian rites. Figures are shown with non-customary attributes, making it unclear which are divinities and which kings or queens. Egyptian motifs are used without rhyme or reason. However the central figure is recognisable as Isis, suggesting that the "Tablet" originates in some centre of her worship, possibly even the
Iseum Campensis .Notes
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