JANUS Revue inferationale delhistoire des sciences, de la médecine dela 2 pharmacie et dela techniqueTECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES ‘AND THE RENAISSANCE by wi Eamon nthe early seventeenth century, the brillant, eccentric Haan phi Iosopher Tommaso Campanella wrote this ‘Sl mal wrk oon by he yar crow the commun {ews th Actas tendon tha ew te stra one at {inva Emer Frid mere Geman made eae nd {iy thm few by imnches Foc echciogy ale ened mae vl freon bu afr ne toca rary sine The ie af ‘npons te pring pros an he te he mage were Oe eed nese ling demon oti ny see ene ‘Seth workings come cvs a ordiary people Bat phys solos Step inact rn tw ces ‘Campaneia was certainly no enemy of mage. A huge man with colossal ambitions, he i known to have performed magical rituals before Pope ‘Urban VII, apparently in a attempt to guin power over the Church part of a wild scheme to realize his utopian City of the Sun.) His Satement, therefore, marks anew appreciation of technology by dimin- ishing the aysteriovs aura that had surrounded the mechanical arts and the inventor for centuries. At the same time, there i a lingering Sentimentality in Campane’ words which betrays his conviction that the selences are after al subservient to magic. For Campanella magic vasa practical art which aimed at transforming nature by manipulating is laws, While the progress of science diminishes the mystery surround ing inventions, he iples that human ingenuity has at, and never shal, tease Lo cause wonde, forthe deeper problems ofthe seiences are rarely Tnderstood. With mich aeumen, this Remassance philosopher sum tmarized and brought toa cose Long tation in which technology was ‘eget ded a a form of magic, Simultaneously, he pointed the way toward {new definition of the relation between technology and science: inem \etton af the ft of tional cet ingury, and are mac! only inthe em ta they ete wonder the nmase beter On the fae ot Campane sttement press witha tiguing paradox. According to one conventional ew, mpl ora when the {rateman ensures gap between ined ecomploh pce aka Sis ime chica ails Magic serves to cs th pap pjcholos aly, thus naling the operator opus his work come rater {tan despair As Bron Minow ut tenon of mai to “ritual man's optimism According to thi ew, we woul arly ces 1 ind mag declning as technologie sills advance, and over ‘en long histor! pros th undoes eB dering the Inte Mile Age andthe Renaisanee, precy the opposite happened Techolopl proms, both in ter of grater sopistaton of technique and wider pplication of than, was exceedingly pid between the fourteenth and the seventeenth cena, Nor dh ths surge of tecnologia innovation go unatced by coatenprai: he outpa of ‘ing on technology was argr tan ay tine prevony ond he Deginig ofthe seventeenth century European neletalspased the ‘ew ivetons that they Belved had tate Europe ves serio to Eviguty and to oter cures ofthe world Yet dep hee Suma hanes, belt in male dil not conespondingly wane indeed. recent Setlarsip has demonstte that mas ndervent an untested ‘val inthe Rennornce” Pata inthe enh cet. mae sccoped x leo distinction n inlet ie hat woulhave brush ‘hder to any erespecng schoaste TF this station presen ef sa paradox to wt clay dd not 0 thse ving inthe Rennie Mai fom big incompatible with tecnology. war scents arto ony ave ecology eee theoreal cones, Bu lo sercd promot the technologie ‘tion of enines by constucting an ine of man 84 maps whe, through his inventions and his manpation of nature's sere, gai smstry over the worl Ina recent ei, Lyn White shows tht ideas ~ in thn cve religous ikns can be a power suo technology Rather than seit itor scholgy mein rms ofthe development of maces ni tec search as ped the way tovadintegraingtecology int the bode aterm of act) andl But if, as White args, eligon aced a simul to technology, 3010 did the more orthodox Was of mage" As shall ‘how in his page. the“enalops ren fe ae Mile Ages fd he Reaiance was largely product ofthe mapa! worl ice m “The association ofthe mechanical aris with mages asad, ifnot oder, than history sl. kn ts most primitive form, magic i fundamentally Kind of technology: the magician i one who attempts to utilize “oeult forces to accomplish some specifi im inthe phySical world. Map is nota form of ligious worship it san tte Lo enforce the human wll fon the enteral word. Magical ites always have the ultimately practical tim of altering and controling events ia nature, whether they take the form of a lee using @ charm 10 cure an illness, a cunning woman making a love piter ora smith reiing a magical spell as he pours ‘molten metal into his meld. Furthermore, magic develops within a Citra milewcch in symbolism, and its themes are enhanced by the interplay of allegory and unwriten metaphor. In sich societies, no eral is mere technique, As Mircea Eade wites,*To make" something means Knowing the magical forma which will allow ito be invented oF to ‘make t appear" spontaneaesly” Thus the igure ofthe magician and the isan merge "ie antan is a connoiseur of secrets, a magician." We fan observe this Blending of eraRsmanship and magic i traditional flare of our own day. West African smiths for example, are con Sidered powerful magician, and until recently occupied a high social Status Tn the West, 100, «rich mpthology surrounds the sith ‘powerful god or mapcian, he is either praised or despised, but never Feesrded wit indifference Similar themes occur in medieval legends, tree the sit lars his ar from soperaturl beings dvaets help hi, tnd he isi constant contact with the spirit worl, The tools of certain rafts ere sometimes thought to possess special magical powers. Indeed, the workshop fuel inspires awe: an old Dutch ehymesays that to touch Something in the smith, to taste something inthe chemists shop, and to read ina book of legends and ghost stories, can be dangerous." In the Middle Ages, ordinary craft procedures alo took on magical compo! tons by vrs oftheir secrecy, as practitioners turned thei professions ito closely guarded “"nystercs” and banded down trade secrets orally from master to apprentice. Thus according to a prover recorded inthe seventeenth century by John Ray, “There i 4 mystery inthe meanest trade." Such specialized knowledge must have seemed esoteric enough to laymen nt famine withthe workshop, yet the aura of secrecy and ‘rcusivenes sufrounding the crafts was reinforced by guild ordinances, Wthich restricted membership in the trades and specially prevented Inaster craftsmen Irom instructing anyone but eetied apprentices.” “The French anthropolopst Marcel Mauss makes the elementary but essential point that “tf public opinion which makes the magiciantnd ereates the power the wields." Inthe medieval popular imagination, So prone 0 love ofthe marvelous, the image ofthe magician occupied commanding place. Countless legends and folk tales recounted. his Sectaculat powers, to the ereor and amusement of medieval audiences, In folkiore, the magician wed this power in many ways and for various ‘ends, but one characteristic display of magic was the making of ingenious mechanical device which ssemed 1 have if of thei own. Astomata ‘ppear in many popular tales ofthe medieval Wet, including the twelfth century Peerage de Charlemagne, the Tristan poem, and in some Versions of the Ramon d-Aleande. Inthe thistenthexntury Parfesvans two mechanical men, “er par art de ngromance," stand puard over the {entrance 10a caste Inthe Middle High German poem Dia Crone (a 120), black igure with 2 horn — again the work ofa necromancst — inves « warning whenever a strange knight approaches the cate." ‘Since the magicians decribed in these legends were necessarily men of profound, esoteric leering, i not surprising that ocasionaly the tls Imphicated real persons who were already known for thet scientific leaming. Thus Roger Bacon's notriovs reputation as a sorcerer was based largely on the legend that he had built, with the id ofa devil an anf speaking head." The same story was told of Gerber de Aura, renowned both for his knowledge of science and mathematics and fr his ‘mechanical sis; and of Alberus Magnus, who according to legend ‘made a speaking statue that was destzoyed by frightened pupil.” The ‘ost fabulous of these legendary magicia-meshanis, However, was the Latin post Virgil, who inventions included «bronze Hore, a marvelous candalabrum which when ighted ould not be extinguished, a speaking head, and a bronze fy whic drove away all the Pes from the ety of Naples. The transformation of Viel the poct into Vig the necromancer has been unraveled by Compareti and by Sparzo, who show thatthe legend was not restricted to the steels but wat repeated, with pave seriousness, in many scholarly work ofthe late Miele Ages The motif ‘was extremely common in medieval fiction, and while some examples probably referred merely to enchanted objets, others were unmistake bly references to mechanical devies, In shmost every instance they were regarded as works of magi, of were connectd in some way with 3 ‘magician Although these legends are thought 10 have originate in oriental folkiore, iti quite possible that they had some Bais infact a well “Medicra travel accounts, for example, describe numerous automata in Byzantium, Islam, and lands frtber east. The most elebrated ofthese 1s was the famous Throne of Solomon athe cour of Constantinople, but bythe emperor Theophilus (629442) Livdprand of Cremona, who was ‘in Constantinople in 48 and agin in 966 as ambassador of Berengarius 1, described the stomata sto aii Sebo ine onc resect speach he {hrs irr made shes othe cero wth ts ae ape the ands hed 1 1254, Wiliam of Rubruck saw an elaborate silver fountain shaped ike tee atthe Mongol court at Karakorum stop i stood a mechanical ange! which oma signal, blew a trumpet and poured ou diferent iquors to the guests atthe court” CConirvancs such a these were undoubtedly inspired bythe reatses fon automata of Philo of Byzantium (second century B.C) and Hero of Alexandria (ist century A.D), which were well known ouside of vvestern Burope in the Middle Ages Quit bin Luga translated the Mechanic of Hera into Arabic around 86; Philo’ Pamarcs was slo availble in Arabic, although we have no knowledge ofthe date or author ‘of this ransltion These ueatises described numerous automata, magic fountains and tick vesels which stimulated great intrest among Arab engineer. About 850, three sons ofa certain Musa bin Shakir, who are Keon a6 the Banu (Sons of) Musa, composed a work on “ingenioes mechanical devices" (hal) This work: deseribes one hundred mi Chines, including fountains, slrimming lamps, and tick veel for Alspensing diferent liquids. Most of them were elaborations of basic ideas contained in Philo or Heto, and some appear 19 have been constructed in almost identical ways. In 1206al-Tazai an engineer inthe cour of the Arg family, composed a similar, more richly iene treatise, His work, Kitab fi ma "far a-hiyala-handasya, describes ater clocks, fountains, and drinking vessels of extraordinary mechanical flegance:” One of a-lzas's clocks has three mechanical men siting tops copper and bras clephant-a scribe mark the depress ofeach hou6 With a pen, ad a very lf hour a bird whistles, another man kes the lephant on the head witha hammer, while a mechanical falcon and Serpent sclease balls marking the passage of the hours (ig. There then, considerable evidence fo suggest thatthe Alxandtian mechanical ration lourshed in Ilan and Byzantium. Although we do fot know a gieat deal abovt the extent of westen contacts with this tradition, devices very much like these are mentioned in medieval romances, Lamproci's dsonder Song, for example, describes a mage rifle gold stag with thousand horns. Oncachstooda mechanical bed, td below the mechani there were twenty pairs of bellows cach worked ty twelve men. When the men Blew, air pased throvgh the openings above, the bids sang, a man seated onthe sag blew his ora, his dow brked, and the mouth of the stag emitted rwoet scent (6.2) The ‘vows thing aboot these examples is that eventhough the mechanisms fre mentioned and somtimes illrete, the automata ave nevertheless lucated as magical dees Several observations should be made about these legendary accounts, in which Both mpc and technical expertise played central roles. The fist, is that they reflect a genie fascination with mechanical marvels in medieval Europe Inded, automata and other mechanial devices were soutes of great amusemeat inthe houses of wealthy lords in Esope mo Tes than Ilan, When 0807 the great Haroun al-Rashid sen an mbessy {o Charlemagne, among the presents he brought tothe western emperor teas a "brass clock made with wonderful mechanical skill driven bY rte in which the twelve hours were sounded by an appropriate number Of small bronze balls, which tthe completion of each hour dropped down and in falling rang bells, At noon twelve horsemen came out of twelve windows, whish clored Behind then." Eiahard, who recorded this information, went on fo describe the astonishment and admieation that this example of Arab craftsmanship aroused atthe Frankish cour. In te late thirteenth century the Count of Artois bul at his palace at Hesdin an elaborate “fun house” equipped with automata, mechanical practical jokes, distorting rors 4 room which simulted rin, thunder Sn lightning, and a gallery with “eight pipes for weting ladies from teow and thie pipes By which, when people stop in ront of them, they are whitened and covered with flou.”® This “Disneyland” took neatly ‘half-century to Build, a enormous cos. twas sillso famous at the end ofthe seventeenth century that Bishop Het of Avranches testified that, Some people, “passing all bounds of nonsense." placed the cathy paradise at Hesdin, "urging the resemblance to Eden.” Such spectacles m7ve arbie Auli de gellt leer” =e ord quad wn Alexandr, afin tute Avi duleefor A Nwerlat enur fy TH vores. 179 ‘were not confined strictly othe upper lasses, Feom the feet centry ‘ome the first reports of traveling mechanical peepshows, One ofthese twos # mechanical representation of the Nativity scene, with "Ml to foller their its to Chis servants and soles, and a God the Father tho seemed fo raise and lower his eyes, orcs justin and animals Feeding. sounds of organ and angels anda thousand stupendous things.” “The eraltsmen who uit this model ave reported to have made alot of money by charging admission to sce the show, which they took to Florence, Rome, Naples and elsewhere in aly. By te fitesnth century the common fl of nearly every major European city could delight in such marvels, of in public clocks of reat mechanical elegance which ‘made cocks crow, angels trumpet, an prophets march and countermarch ‘vith the sounding of the hours” Furthermore, cannot he said that people the medieval West were ‘ignorant of or wninerested inthe mechanical principles wndetyng these contrivances, Gerard Bret, in a study of the Byzantine “Throne of Solomon" makes the very signcant observation that no Byzantine ‘miter described how the mechanism inthe throne worked: "the question i only recognized after the knowledge of the automata had passed ‘outside the Byzantine worl” Even the complex workings of the mechs fanical clock had become so familiar by the fourteenth century that Froasart could make an elaborate comparison between the part of the clock and the allegory of courtly love.” In view of this we must atk finaly, whether such mechanical marvels were, except by some Kind of Titeraty form, reacded as genuine works of apc. Sach an interpret tion & templing given the highly conventional character of medieval feton, But even thre mechanical marvel were atibted to masta merely by convention, dd tat necesaily make them any less magia ‘Recording to mecieval commentators, the marvels produced by real ‘magic wore themselves not neesaniy the result of demonic oF super hatural forces. Like artical phenome, the “marvelous” might be purely pial in both cause an effet, thowgh hr caves are unknown land the phenomena themselves contrary to the normal modes of atu. Tn one of the eats medieval definitions of a miracle, Isidore of Seville verote that they are not "coatrary to nature, because they are eeated by the divin wil andthe wil ofthe Creator isthe nature ofeach created thing.» A mace, therefore, does not happen contrary to nature, but ontary to nature ae knows." This implies that any particle phe fomenon can lose ts mapicl character merely by being widely enough own,180 “The mchanial arts were understood in vr the same terms. Thus Martin of Laon, 2 ninth century Irish monk, derived mechanius from ‘movchas, an adler, because hs inventions (ike those ofthe magician) ‘ecvve the Beholder: “From “moechos* we cll mechanical ar? some- thing clever and most delicate and which ints makingor operation isso invisible that tslst sels the vision of Beolders when it ingnuiy is ot easily penetrated We should be cautious about accepting the ‘dain tat the Tegonary accounts of magicians were ot believed or acted pom just because they were conventional bei, for similar literary Conventions became the basis for the crit persecutions of accused witches and heretics in the Inte Middle Ages.” “The power to dective by mechanical ingenuity seems to have been regarded ith particular suspicion when was dtected at the making of utomata, Thor Wiliam of Malmesbury, in his Me of Gerber of ‘Auli, bas the fre pope make a pact with the devil to obtain a ‘coveted bok on magic, and with the Knowlede gained from ithe builds fn arial speaking head that ukimately causes his downfall The ory was ley intended as a warning to Christians o avoid the unholy ant. In associating the building of automata with necromancy, Wiliam ‘wa following an established formola agreed upos by all chutch fathers ‘ince Augustine. In De citar de, Avgustine wrote thit noting was “more wretched than mankind tyranaized ovr by the work of his own hands." He was referring i this passage tothe animated statues of Egypt mentioned by Hermes Trismegistus, which were objects of religious trorship — indeed, Hermes had offered them as prof that humanity can imitate God and “fashion its own gods acording to the likeness of ts ‘wn countenance.” Augustine not only condemned these specifi ids, but also warned against doaty ofthe mechanics ars in general: "Man, by worshipping the works of his own hands, may more easily ccase tobe rman, than the works of his hands can, through his worship of them, become gods." The legends about Gerber, Vigil, and other supposed necromancers took shape during a.age when thesacedandtheprofaneweveinextsicably ‘mixed, Supernatural forces were seen everywhere, even in the most commonplace, everyday oourrences Gregory of Tours reported that ‘shen ly tried to Ian inthe eup of priest of Pitou the priest poured {he wie on the ground, declaring it to be the work of the devi Gregory als credited an amulet containing the rele of an unknown int with sparing bim from being rained on Medieval chronicles of int Hives are fled with accounts of "miaculows” cares of ilineses 18 that in many instances were either tivil (to moderns) oF would have sappered in the normal couse of events (e, headache, common ‘ol, iftmmations)* Inded, the miraculous and the ordinary were on the same plane of experince as Augustine wrote, “Even inthe nature of things known 10 all are occurences equally marvelous, and they would be a great wonder to all who consider them if men marveled at any marvels exept the uncommon.” Under such conditions iti hardly Surprising that almost any event, and certainly any new invention, might take place on implications of the tlipious ‘The transformation of European society and culture, whose signs ‘become visible not langafter the death of Gerber in 1003, affested neary very branch of medieval thought and actvty** One result of this mutation was the entrance ina the realm ofteracy of individuals who ttee less concerned thin tradtonal edited classe had been with upholding orthodox opinions. The pressure exerted on the academic establishment by this new “underworld of learning.” the majority of ‘whom were seculirs, tended to break down traditional educational brates A. general “opening up” to new idea took place. Simul tancouly, Eutope was inundated with Graeco-Arabie scenic works hich were eagerly sought by western scholars sch asthe young monk Gerbert, who, according tothe Tegend, fled his monastery in Aurilae