
Miracles and Machines
A Sixteenth-Century Automaton and Its Legend
Getty Publications (Publisher)
Published on 15. August 2023
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-60606-839-7 (ISBN)
Description
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 Alcala, 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.
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.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Los Angeles
United States
Publishing group
Getty Trust Publications
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
74 colour and 67 b/w illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 261 mm
Width: 205 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
1310 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-60606-839-7 (9781606068397)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

King Elizabeth King | David Todd W. David Todd
Miracles and Machines
A Sixteenth-Century Automaton and Its Legend
E-Book
08/2023
J Paul Getty Trust The
€55.49
Available for download
Persons
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.
W. David Todd is emeritus conservator of timekeeping at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.