Hello, I'm Dr. Anadale and I teach
philosophy at Mount St. Mary's
University in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
This video is about what I found out while
chasing down the story of St. Thomas and the robot.
Research for the story took me
back a hundred and sixty years through
four books in three different languages.
I began with a 2011 blog post by
Dr. Steven Frug, a historian at the Hobart
and William Smith Colleges. The blog post
dealt with an eighteenth-century legend
that René Descartes traveled with a
life-size female robot he had built.
Frug quotes a from a book by Stephen Gaukroger,
Descartes: An Intellectual Biography,
published by Oxford in 1995.
Gaukroger writes:
So that's the quote from Gaukroger 1995.
I got hold of Lindeboom's book and
here is what it says about Aquinas:
In a footnote Lindeboom
refers to a book published in Dutch
by Johannes Vincentius de Groot,
Het Leven van den H. Thomas van Aquino,
published by Von Rossum
in Utrecht in 1907.
I got hold of the text but I don't read Dutch.
With a friend's help, here's my best sense of it:
"Albertus produced a machine
that spoke the word 'Salve.'
Now the great master had some kind of
laboratory outside his study where he
spent his whole day hammering. Many monks
were wary of the mysterious workshop
where the machine was kept. Thomas, who
wanted to know what that enigmatic work
was, demolished it once when the master was not there.
On entering he saw in wonder strange
animals, artful implements, odd gears and
glass, and behind a scarlet curtain he
perceived something wonderous that
captivated his gaze. And suddenly three
times 'Salve' it called. In his terror he
smote the inexplicable speaker and broke it.
Albertus rushed in and saw the
devastation caused by Thomas. 'Thomas!' he called,
'what did you do!? You have ruined
30 years of my labor in an instant!'
This legend fits with the historical
fact that the leader of the study house
loved all kinds of research and experimentation."
So that's De Groot 1907, in Dutch.
In a footnote, De Groot cites a book by Sighart, Chapter 11.
This is a reference to Joachim Sighart's book
Albertus Magnus, Sein Leben und Seine Wissenschaft,
published in Regensburg in 1857.
I found a copy of Sighart's book, and
here's my translation of the relevant part:
"We see in these passages that Albert really made use of
such human figures in his physical
studies and lectures. The legend that
blessed Thomas trampled such a
machine in Albert's room is by no means
completely pulled out of thin air.
It is from these hints even likely or
plausible that Albert himself made such
a figure that was capable of taking some
steps and saying the word 'salve.'
By the tightening of the curtain covering
it perhaps the whole mechanism came into motion,
so that we are able to think of
this legend almost as historical fact."
Sighart does not give any sources
for this story, and I've not combed his
book for other references, so I do not
have the provenance of the story prior to 1857.
That's as far as I've gotten.
If you know anything about this legend or
if you have research suggestions
for me please let me know in the comments.
Thanks for watching today; goodbye.