The Monster in the Machine

To chart the range of forms and meanings with which monsters were endowed at the time of major changes in natural investigations is Zakiya Hanafi's fascinating project. She argues that the "organic" monsters (p. 80) filling up late Renaissance books and cabinets were replaced in the seventeenth century by increasingly popular automata. As anatomical dissections became mainstream, the source of sacred terror, traditionally stirred by two-headed babies or other similar signs of God, was transferred to the mixture of pure matter and human qualities shown in automata. Since then the self-moving ability of machines has represented the quintessential feature of monstrosity

Alchemy · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Literature · MAGIC (telescope) · Mainstream · Monster · Natural Philosophy · Physics · Scientific revolution · The Renaissance · Theology · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy