Medieval Robots Medieval Robots
The Middle Ages Series

Medieval Robots

Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art

    • $30.99
    • $30.99

Publisher Description

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.

GENRE
History
RELEASED
2015
April 22
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
296
Pages
PUBLISHER
University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
SELLER
Perseus Books, LLC
SIZE
6.8
MB
The Long Life of Magical Objects The Long Life of Magical Objects
2020
Animating Empire Animating Empire
2018
Inventiones Inventiones
2000
The Absent Image The Absent Image
2021
Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art Theophilus and the Theory and Practice of Medieval Art
2017
Material Remains Material Remains
2021
A Medieval Life A Medieval Life
2020
Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages
2011
Poems of the Elder Edda Poems of the Elder Edda
2014
A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry
2013
The Corrupter of Boys The Corrupter of Boys
2020
Black Metaphors Black Metaphors
2019