The Monster in the Machine : Magic, Medicine, and the Marvelous in the Time of the Scientific Revolution

by Zakiya Hanafi

The Monster in the Machine tracks the ways in which human beings were defined in contrast to supernatural and demonic creatures during the time of the Scientific Revolution. Zakiya Hanafi recreates scenes of Italian life and culture from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries to show how monsters were conceptualized at this particular locale and historical juncture—a period when the sacred was being supplanted by a secular, decidedly nonmagical way of looking at the world.
Noting that the word “monster” is derived from the Latin for “omen” or “warning,” Hanafi explores the monster’s early identity as a portent or messenger from God. Although monsters have always been considered “whatever we are not,” they gradually were tranformed into mechanical devices when new discoveries in science and medicine revealed the mechanical nature of the human body. In analyzing the historical literature of monstrosity, magic, and museum collections, Hanafi uses contemporary theory and the philosophy of technology to illuminate the timeless significance of the monster theme. She elaborates the association between women and the monstrous in medical literature and sheds new light on the work of Vico—particularly his notion of the conatus —by relating it to Vico’s own health. By explicating obscure and fascinating texts from such disciplines as medicine and poetics, she invites the reader to the piazzas and pulpits of seventeenth-century Naples, where poets, courtiers, and Jesuit preachers used grotesque figures of speech to captivate audiences with their monstrous wit.
Drawing from a variety of texts from medicine, moral philosophy, and poetics, Hanafi’s guided tour through this baroque museum of ideas will interest readers in comparative literature, Italian literature, history of ideas, history of science, art history, poetics, women’s studies, and philosophy.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Monster in the Machine: Magic, Medicine and the Marvellous in the Time of the Scientific Revolution by Zakiy Hanafi I got this book to read on my trip to Florence and it was perfect for that. It was a scholarly book about an area I know little and a time I know even less but for the most part I still found it to be interesting and easy to follow. The author translated a lot of primary sources and focused on those instead of secondary literature to make her arguments. The first part of the book was by far the most interesting to me. She looked at how people viewed monsters and how their views towards monsters changed during the renaissance. One of the most descriptive parts that will stay with me was the description of a dissection in an elite Florentine garden of a monstrous corpse of stillborn twin girls who were attached at birth. From looking at monsters as reflections of ourselves she went on to look at the nature of what humanity was. I have to say I found this part to be not as interesting, monsters are more interesting than people, and I was unfamiliar with the people she was discussing. But the last chapter talking about the monstrous attractions and the competition for people’s attention between the entertainers and the church was very interesting again. In the end she was even able to explain a link to daleks! (Without of course mentioning daleks or aliens by name). Definitely one I’d recommend to people interested in the period and/or the history of monsters.