Miracles and machines A sixteenth-century automaton and its legend

Published in an age of artificial intelligence and robots, this is a timely book. The story that forms the centerpiece of this beautifully written and illustrated book is that of an automaton depicting a 16th-century Spanish Franciscan monk Diego de Alcala. The automaton is currently exhibited at the Smithsonian Institutions Museum of American History, and the book's two authors, King and Todd, are, respectively, a sculptor and a clockmaker. They unearth the mystery of the monk and the automaton in five parts. The book is a narrative of the origins of the monk and the legend surrounding him, which is that he was sainted following the miraculous cure of Spain's crown prince from a serious brain injury when the prince, on his death bed, was exposed to the corpse of the monk. The authors mention seven similar automata in European collections. Given their complexity, automata required the skills of sculptors, wood carvers, painters, tailors, and clockmakers, who made them mobile and animated them using springs, gears, ratchets, pawls, and pinions. Weaving together art, religion, science, medicine, technology, history, and folklore in a compelling manner, this book is a treasure. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers --Nanjundiah Sadanand, Central Connecticut State University