Wiktionary
n. (context historical Rome English) An anteroom in a house of ancient Rome, opening out of the atrium opposite the main entry and often containing the family statues and archives.
Wikipedia
In Roman architecture, a tablinum (or tabulinum, from tabula, board, picture) was a room generally situated on one side of the atrium and opposite to the entrance; it opened in the rear on to the peristyle, with either a large window or only an anteroom or curtain. The walls were richly decorated with fresco pictures, and busts of the family were arranged on pedestals on the two sides of the room.
The tablinum was the office in a Roman house, the father's centre for business, where he would receive his clients. It was originally the master bedroom, but later became the main office and reception room for the house master.
Usage examples of "tablinum".
On the centre of the side facing the vestibule was the tablinum, the apartment of Caius Muro himself.
In winter wooden frames, with heavy hangings, were erected across these openings and that of the tablinum, for the Romans soon found the necessity for modifying the arrangements which, although well suited for an Italian climate, were wholly unfit for that of Britain.
Passing straight through the atrium, where he was respectfully greeted by the servants and slaves, Pollio passed into the tablinum, where his uncle was sitting writing.
Across the atrium, beyond the tablinum, the surface of the pool was rocking from the impact of the dive.
He stepped into the tablinum and walked toward the pool, past the funeral masks of the Popidii clan.
You now enter the tablinum, across which, at either end, hung rich draperies of Tyrian purple, half withdrawn.
As he entered the tablinum, he heard a voice from the porticoes of the peristyle beyond, which, musical as it was, sounded displeasingly on his ear--it was the voice of the young and beautiful Glaucus, and for the first time an involuntary thrill of jealousy shot through the breast of the Egyptian.
He stepped into the tablinum and walked towards the pool, past the funeral masks of the Popidii clan.
On the centre of the side facing the vestibule was the tablinum, the apartment of Caius Muro himself.
As he entered the tablinum, he heard a voice from the porticoes of the peristyle beyond, which, musical as it was, sounded displeasingly on his ear—it was the voice of the young and beautiful Glaucus, and for the first time an involuntary thrill of jealousy shot through the breast of the Egyptian.