ISIAC TABLE, one of the most considerable monuments of antiquity, being a plate of copper or brass, discovered at Rome, in 1525, and supposed, by the various figures in has relief upon it, to represent the feasts of Isis, and other Egyi thin deities.
With regard to the history of this monument, we may observe, that the copper or brass ground was overlaid with a black enamel, artificially intermixed with small plates of silver. When, in the year 1525, the constable of Bourbon took the city of Rome, a locksmith bought it of a soldier, and then sold it to Cardinal aerobe, after whose death it came into the hands of the Duke of Mantua, and was kept in that family till it was lost at the taking of that city by the Imperialists, in the year 1630, nor has it been ever heard of since. By good fortune it had been engraved in its full proportion, and with all possible exactness, by .Leas Vico of Parma. This tablet was divided into three horizontal compartments. in each of which were different scenes, eon. mining different actions. These compartments are, as it were, different cartonehes, distinguished sometimes by single strokes only, but oftener by a very large fascia, which is full of hierogIN ',hies, that is, of that mysterious writing, conse crated by the ancient Egyptians to the mysteries of religion.
The four sides of the table were em-lo sell with a border filled up, like the ground, with several figures I if the Egyp.
tian gods, and with a great number of the hieroglyphics. There have been various opinions as to the antiquity of this monument : sonic have supposed that it was engraved long before the time when the Egyptians worshipped the figures of men mid women. Champollion judged it to be the work of' an uninitiated artist, little acquainted with the true wor ship or the g.ddess Isis, and probably of the age of Iladrian. Others, among whom is Bishop Warburton, apprehend, that it was made at I ;owe, by persons attached to the worship of Isis. Dr. \Val Lorton considers it as one of the most modern the Egyptian monuments, on account of the great mixture of hieroglyphic characters which it bears.