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German clockwork automata are mechanical marvels which, with the winding of a key, come alive to entertain as they dance in place or wheel across a table. Jessica Keating propels us through the fascinating history of these engineering masterpieces. As she lucidly explains, these are much more than luxurious toys. -Jeffrey Chipps Smith, author of The Art of the Goldsmith in Late Fifteenth-Century Germany This book, presenting the `curiosities' that we now call automata, unwinds a large network of interconnected early modern phenomena: the fraught world of religious contests, augmented by intense political rivalries; the connections between court centers of power, including connections between Germany and faraway Istanbul and Delhi; and the origins of early princely collecting in `curiosity cabinets.' Here art and nature rivaled each other yet intertwined through technology and craftsmanship, powered by intricate Augsburg watchmakers. Keating's meticulous research newly restores a nearly vanished art form to its rightful place-as the bearer of cultural values and courtly prestige at the very heart of ceremonial court performances. In the process, she arouses our own fascination, echoing those responses to privileged displays by these moving metal devices as they performed before early modern monarchs. -Larry Silver, co-author of Rembrandt's Faith

This book, presenting the 'curiosities' that we now call automata, unwinds a large network of interconnected early modern phenomena: the fraught world of religious contests, augmented by intense political rivalries; the connections between court centers of power, including connections between Germany and faraway Istanbul and Delhi; and the origins of early princely collecting in 'curiosity cabinets.' Here art and nature rivaled each other yet intertwined through technology and craftsmanship, powered by Augsburg watchmakers. Keating's meticulous research newly restores a nearly vanished art form to its rightful place--as the bearer of cultural values and courtly prestige at the very heart of ceremonial court performances. In the process, she arouses our own fascination, echoing those responses to privileged displays by these moving metal devices as they performed before early modern monarchs. --Larry Silver, co-author of Rembrandt's Faith German clockwork automata are mechanical marvels which, with the winding of a key, come alive to entertain as they dance in place or wheel across a table. Jessica Keating propels us through the fascinating history of these engineering masterpieces. As she lucidly explains, these are much more than luxurious toys. --Jeffrey Chipps Smith, author of The Art of the Goldsmith in Late Fifteenth-Century Germany

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Jessica Keating is Assistant Professor of Art History at Carleton College.

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