04619nam 2200805 450 991078812530332120210427014051.00-8122-2357-810.9783/9780812291407(CKB)2670000000610518(EBL)3442519(SSID)ssj0001502599(PQKBManifestationID)11842343(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001502599(PQKBWorkID)11455381(PQKB)10726936(OCoLC)907964739(MdBmJHUP)muse42184(DE-B1597)451285(DE-B1597)9780812291407(Au-PeEL)EBL3442519(CaPaEBR)ebr11045929(CaONFJC)MIL772125(MiAaPQ)EBC3442519(EXLCZ)99267000000061051820150427h20152015 uy 0engur|nu---|u||utxtccrMedieval robots mechanism, magic, nature, and art /E. R. TruittPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania :University of Pennsylvania Press,2015.©20151 online resource (296 p.)Middle Ages SeriesDescription based upon print version of record.0-8122-9140-9 0-8122-4697-7 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --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 --AcknowledgmentsA 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.Middle Ages series.Machine theoryHistoryTo 1500Mechanical toysHistoryTo 1500Mechanical engineeringHistoryTo 1500Civilization, MedievalNature and civilizationHistoryTo 1500MagicHistoryTo 1500ImaginationHistoryTo 1500RobotsHistoryTo 1500History.Medieval and Renaissance Studies.Machine theoryHistoryMechanical toysHistoryMechanical engineeringHistoryCivilization, Medieval.Nature and civilizationHistoryMagicHistoryImaginationHistoryRobotsHistory629.8Truitt Elly Rachel1479813MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910788125303321Medieval robots3696113UNINA