{"product_id":"medieval-robots-9780812223576","title":"Medieval Robots","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMedieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, or silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed surveillance or discipline. Medieval Robots explores the forgotten history of real and imagined machines that captivated Europe from the ninth through the fourteenth centuries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eMedieval Robots\u003c\/i\u003e is not only a remarkably evocative book, but it also breaks new ground by virtue of being the first survey of its kind in the English-speaking academic world, relocating our discussion of the legacy of ancient automata to novel chronological coordinates. It is reasonable to hope that Truitt's book will lead to a reconsideration of 'Abbasid patronage of science, magical hermetism, and the nexus of technology and ethnography, among many other themes, not to mention to our understanding of the Middle Ages itself.\" * \u003ci\u003eReviews in History\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Engagingly written and thoughtfully researched, \u003ci\u003eMedieval Robots\u003c\/i\u003e will be of value to specialists in the intellectual and literary history of the Middle Ages, as well as to more general readers. . . . Truitt's suggestive and nuanced account both firmly establishes the importance of medieval automata in the wider development of Western thought about the relationship of science, technology, and the imagination and opens the door to further research.\" * \u003ci\u003eAmerican Historical Review\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"The first comprehensive work of scholarship on European automata of the Middle Ages, \u003ci\u003eMedieval Robots\u003c\/i\u003e systematically and chronologically works through themes such as the transition from the magical to the mechanical and the liminal status of robots between art and nature, familiar and foreign. Well researched and well written, the book does an excellent job of showing the wider cultural significance of automata within medieval history and the history of science.\" * Pamela O. Long, author of \u003ci\u003eOpenness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Abbreviations\u003cbr\u003e Introduction. The Persistence of Robots: An Archaeology of Automata\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Rare Devices: Geography and Technology\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Between Art and Nature: \u003ci\u003eNatura artifex\u003c\/i\u003e, Neoplatonism, and Literary Automata\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Talking Heads: Astral Science, Divination, and Legends of Medieval Philosophers\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. The Quick and the Dead: Automata, Memorial Statues, and Corpses\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. From Texts to Technology: Mechanical Marvels in Courtly and Public Pageantry\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. The Clockwork Universe: Keeping Sacred and Secular Time\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405704012119,"sku":"9780812223576","price":22.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780812223576.jpg?v=1730493337","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/medieval-robots-9780812223576","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}