Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art.
- Author/Editor
- Truitt, E. R.
- Title
- Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art.
- Published
- Truitt, E. R. Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. Pp. 89-91.
- Review
- Truitt's study is of "medieval robots both actual and fictional," investigating "the complex history of medieval automata . . . to understand the interdependence of science, technology, and the imagination in medieval culture and between medieval culture and modernity" (1). In his third chapter, "'Talking Heads': Astral Science, Divination, and Legends of Medieval Philosophers," he discusses Gower's brief tale of Robert Grosseteste and the brass head he creates to foretell the future (CA IV.234-49), presented as an exemplum of one of the branches of Sloth (lachesse). Truitt points to an earlier brass head created by "Gerbert" [of Aurillac, the later Pope Sylvester II], citing William of Malmsbury's narrative as a source for the Grosseteste story (90), and alludes further to connections between the seven years Grosseteste labors and "the seven planets and their influence on the seven metals," as well as "the metaphor of 'Natura Artifex' employed by the Neoplatonist philosophers in the twelfth century" (90), without offering evidence or deeper explanation. He suggests that "Gower was familiar with Grosseteste, whose work (especially his 'Constitutions,' a treatise on clerical reform, and 'Le Chasteau d'Amor,' an Anglo-Norman romance) were influential in Ricardian England" (91); his source for these latter claims is George G. Fox (1931). [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2015
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis