Miracles and Machines

A Sixteenth-Century Automaton and Its Legend

Elizabeth King, W. David Todd, Rosamond Purcell

$82.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Getty Publications
28 September 2023

Art & Architecture; Conservation, restoration & care of artworks; Renaissance art; Technology: general issues

This volume tells the singular story of an uncanny object at the cusp of art and science: a 450-year-old automaton known as “the monk.” The walking, gesticulating figure of a friar, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, is among the earliest extant ancestors of the self-propelled robot. According to lore from the court of Philip II of Spain, the monk represents a portrait of Diego de Alcalá, a humble Franciscan lay brother whose holy corpse was said to be agent to the miraculous cure of Spain’s crown prince as he lay dying in 1562.

In tracking the origins of the monk and its legend, the authors visited archives, libraries, and museums across the United States and Europe, probing the paradox of a mechanical object performing an apparently spiritual act. They identified seven kindred automata from the same period, which, they argue, form a paradigmatic class of walking “prime movers,” unprecedented in their combination of visual and functional realism. While most of the literature on automata focuses on the Enlightenment, this enthralling narrative journeys back to the late Renaissance, when clockwork machinery was entirely new, foretelling the evolution of artificial life to come.

By: Elizabeth King, W. David Todd
Photographs by: Rosamond Purcell
Imprint: Getty Publications
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 203mm,
ISBN: 9781606068397
ISBN 10: 1606068393
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 28 September 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Elizabeth King, a sculptor and writer, is professor emerita of sculpture and extended media at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Richmond. W. David Todd is emeritus conservator of timekeeping at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Reviews for Miracles and Machines: A Sixteenth-Century Automaton and Its Legend

"""Now that I have read this book, I understand far more completely the significance of these magical artificial beings, today more than four and a half centuries old.""--Bob Frishman ""Maine Antique Digest"" (9/1/2023 12:00:00 AM) ""As demonstrated by this marvellous book, the monk automaton is testament to human ingenuity, craftsmanship and our enduring capacity for wonder.""--Jacqueline Riding ""Country Life"" (8/16/2023 12:00:00 AM)"