Hello, I'm Dr. Anadale from Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
In a previous video I described my efforts to research and chase down the origin of a
legend that Albert the Great built a robot or automaton and Thomas Aquinas smashed it.
That search took me as far as a mid-nineteenth century work in German.
I've recently made a breakthrough in this search and I'd like to update you on what I've found.
I owe this breakthrough to Mary Moritz and a post that she put on Facebook,
in the Thomism Discussion Group.
She posted a link to a blog post she had written for the Science Meet Faith blog, titled "Albertus
Magnus as Scientist."
In this post, which is linked in the description below, Moritz cites two sources which I had
not seen before.
The first is a book titled St. Thomas Aquinas and Medieval Philosophy, by the Dominican
D.J. Kennedy. It was published in 1919.
Here's what Kennedy writes.
Another legend relates to an automaton that he labored thirty year[s] to produce, which
he succeeded in making to speak.
St. Thomas, the legend says, came unawares upon it in the workshop of Albert, and was
so startled that he seized a stick, and shrieking Salve!
Salve! smashed the fearful monster to pieces, thinking it to be some cruel savage who was
about to attempt his life.
The truth is this: Albert could manufacture automata, which were made to move by means
of mercury, after the manner of Chinese mannikins and tumbling-toys; and it is possible that
he may have constructed small mechanical figures capable of emitting sounds, for he speaks
of these inventions as things then known.
"The Barbiton," he says, "is a figure with a long beard, from the mouth of which comes
a tube, with a bellows attached to one side.
It is set in motion by the introduction of air into the tube, so that the bearded mannikin
appears to play the flute."
Albert probably manufactured an automaton of this kind, capable of moving and uttering
the word Salve, so that the legend about St. Thomas's vigorous application of the stick
is founded upon a historical fact.
Now, Kennedy does not give a source for this story, but for other stories in the same section
he cites Sighart, who was my 19th century German source.
I think that's probably where he got this from, including some details.
The other source that Moritz mentions is a book by Ephriam Chambers, who died in 1740,
titled "A Supplement to Mr. Chambers' Cyclopedia or Universal Dictionary."
It contains an entry on "Androides." Here's what it says.
Androides. Authors sometimes speak of brazen heads made under certain constellations, capable not
only of speaking, but of prophesying, and rendering oracles.
Henry de Villeine, Virgil, pope Silvester, Robert of Lincoln, and Roger Bacon, are said
to have had such figures.
Albertus Magnus, it is pretended, went further.
He made a compleat man, or Androides, after this manner; in a course of thirty years continual
operation, by taking the benefit of an infinite number of different constellations, and aspects,
which presented themselves in that time: for instance, the eyes were made, when the sun
was in a sign of the zodiac, which bore an analogy to that part; and the like of the rest.
It is generally said to have been composed of a mixture of diverse metals; though some
will have it to have been made of flesh and bones.
It was burnt by Thomas Aquinas.
This Androides, it seems, solved all problems, and cleared up all difficulties for its author.
We are even to suppose, that a great part of the twenty-nine volumes in folio, which
this author produced, are composed of the dictates, or inspired by the Androides.
Chambers cites a couple of sources, and one of his sources is Pierre Bayle's Historical
and Critical Dictionary.
Bayle died in 1706; the Dictionary was first published in 1697.
Here's what Bayle has to say, in his entry on Albert.
It was said... that he was a notorious Magician, and that he made a Machine like a Man which
serv'd him for an Oracle, and explain'd all the Difficulties that he propos'd to it.
I could easily believe that as he understood the Mathematicks, he had made a Head, the
Springs of whereof might form some articulate Sounds, but what a folly to ground an Accusation
of Magick upon this.
Bayle includes a footnote, which I do not currently have a legible copy of.
Bayle also cites another author.
I have the a copy of the other author, Naude, in both French and English translation, but
I haven't had a chance to work with it yet.
I'll report on those in a later video, but that's as far back as I've gotten.
Pierre Bayle in his Historical Critical Dictionary does have some mention of this legend of Albert
the Great's robot or automaton.
That's all for today. Thanks for watching; goodbye.