A drive for an XY-table includes a stationary, ferromagnetic and U-shaped yoke including a first limb and a second limb which are located together in one plane, and having a movable ferromagnetic bar, the yoke and the bar carrying a magnetic circuit with a flux that takes a path across air gaps between the limbs and the bar, and causes vertical reluctance forces there which counteract the gravitational force of the bar. Bar is parallel to and below the plane defined by the limbs.