Tab"la*ture (?), n. [Cf. F. tablature ancient mode of musical notation. See Table.]

1. (Paint.)

A painting on a wall or ceiling; a single piece comprehended in one view, and formed according to one design; hence, a picture in general. Shaftesbury.

2. (Mus.)

An ancient mode of indicating musical sounds by letters and other signs instead of by notes.

The chimes of bells are so rarely managed that I went up to that of Sir Nicholas, where I found who played all sorts of compositions from the tablature before him as if he had fingered an organ.
Evelyn.

3. (Anat.)

Division into plates or tables with intervening spaces; as, the tablature of the cranial bones.

 

© Webster 1913