TY - BOOK AU - Truitt,E.R. TI - Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art T2 - The Middle Ages Series SN - 9780812246971 AV - TJ211 .T74 2015 U1 - 629.8 23 PY - 2015///] CY - Philadelphia : PB - University of Pennsylvania Press, KW - Automata KW - History KW - To 1500 KW - Civilization, Medieval KW - Imagination KW - Machine theory KW - Magic KW - Mechanical engineering KW - Mechanical toys KW - Nature and civilization KW - Robots KW - Medieval and Renaissance Studies KW - HISTORY / Medieval KW - bisacsh N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Abbreviations --; Introduction. The Persistence of Robots: An Archaeology of Automata --; Chapter 1. Rare Devices: Geography and Technology --; Chapter 2. Between Art and Nature: Natura artifex, Neoplatonism, and Literary Automata --; Chapter 3. Talking Heads: Astral Science, Divination, and Legends of Medieval Philosophers --; Chapter 4. The Quick and the Dead: Corpses, Memorial Statues, and Automata --; Chapter 5. From Texts to Technology: Mechanical Marvels in Courtly and Public Pageantry --; Chapter 6. The Clockwork Universe: Keeping Sacred and Secular Time --; Notes --; Bibliography --; Index --; Acknowledgments; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - A thousand years before Isaac Asimov set down his Three Laws of Robotics, real and imagined automata appeared in European courts, liturgies, and literary texts. Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, and silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed disciplinary or surveillance functions. Variously ascribed to artisanal genius, inexplicable cosmic forces, or demonic powers, these marvelous fabrications raised fundamental questions about knowledge, nature, and divine purpose in the Middle Ages.Medieval Robots recovers the forgotten history of fantastical, aspirational, and terrifying machines that captivated Europe in imagination and reality between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. E. R. Truitt traces the different forms of self-moving or self-sustaining manufactured objects from their earliest appearances in the Latin West through centuries of mechanical and literary invention. Chronicled in romances and song as well as histories and encyclopedias, medieval automata were powerful cultural objects that probed the limits of natural philosophy, illuminated and challenged definitions of life and death, and epitomized the transformative and threatening potential of foreign knowledge and culture. This original and wide-ranging study reveals the convergence of science, technology, and imagination in medieval culture and demonstrates the striking similarities between medieval and modern robotic and cybernetic visions UR - https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812291407 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812291407 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780812291407.jpg ER -