http://wp.me/pzoQb-sN shows how to draw to MAX7219 8x8 matrix displays, this gist shows the maybe "traditional" way of rotating characters

rotate-8x8-matrix-char_traditional.lua

local numberToTable = function(number, base, minLen)
  local t = {}
  repeat
    local remainder = number % base
    table.insert(t, 1, remainder)
    number = (number - remainder) / base
  until number == 0
  if #t < minLen then
    -- "pad" table with 0s
    for i = 1, minLen - #t do table.insert(t, 1, 0) end
  end
  return t
end

local rotate = function(matrix, rotateLeft)
  local newMatrix = {}
  for i = 1, #matrix do
    for j = 1, #matrix[1] do
      local newRowIndex, newColumnIndex
      if rotateLeft then
        newRowIndex = #matrix[1] - j + 1
        newColumnIndex = i
      else
        newRowIndex = j
        newColumnIndex = #matrix - i + 1
      end
      if newMatrix[newRowIndex] == nil then
        newMatrix[newRowIndex] = {}
      end
      newMatrix[newRowIndex][newColumnIndex] = matrix[i][j]
    end
  end
  return newMatrix
end

-- char '1' in CP437
local char = { 0x40, 0x42, 0x7F, 0x7F, 0x40, 0x40, 0x00, 0x00 }

-- transformation.rotate is nil, 'left' or 'right'
if transformation.rotate ~= nil then
  local t = {}
  -- create an 8x8 matrix with each cell being 0|1
  for _, v in ipairs(char) do table.insert(t, number2table(v, 2, 8)) end
  -- regular matrix rotation
  local tt = rotate(t, transformation.rotate == "left")
  char = {}
  -- take each matrix row, concat the 0s and 1s to a binary string, then convert it to a number
  for _, v in ipairs(tt) do table.insert(char, tonumber(table.concat(v), 2)) end
end