“Medieval Robots: Automa Since the First Millennium”

Anyone who thought robots were dreamed up for the film Metropolis or an Isaac Asimov novel is in for a surprise. Our mechanical friends have appeared in literature, art, courtly ceremony and liturgical ritual since the Middle Ages. Elly R. Truitt, who teaches medieval history at Bryn Mawr College, presents an enlightening illustrated lecture on how robots created by artisans and even sorcerers during the 5th to 15th centuries were thought to have strange powers, such as the ability to predict the date of your death.