Instrumentality: On Technical Objects and Orientations in the Later Middle Ages (eng)

Mitchell, J. Allan

ISBN 10: 1517917395 / ISBN 13: 9781517917395

Published by University of Minnesota Press, 2024

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Instrumentality: On Technical Objects and Orientations in the Later Middle Ages (eng)
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1517917395
• ISBN 13: 9781517917395
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: new
• Weight: 0.23 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

From medieval to modern, exploring instrumental attitudes toward physical gadgets, diagrams, concepts, methods, and disciplines

Opening up the instrumental condition of the human for critical reflection and renewal, Instrumentality illuminates key moments in the intellectual history of the European Middle Ages. J. Allan Mitchell reveals how, in the predigital past, we can recognize many of the operative technics, analytics, and metaphorics that continue to shape human sense and cognition today.

Exploring the diverse modalities of medieval instruments, Mitchell’s case studies encompass techniques as seemingly distinct as time-keeping mechanisms, mathematical diagrams, logical syllogisms, and the literary devices of Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower. A cultural and intellectual history, Mitchell’s work leads readers from three-dimensional objects (physical mechanisms) to two-dimensional inscriptions (maps and diagrams) and onward to overarching disciplinary norms in the early liberal and mechanical arts. Prying loose the subtle, adaptable, and generative concept of technical objects from limiting contemporary frameworks, he shows how these instruments are indispensable to the past—and the future—of the arts and culture at large.

About the Author

J. Allan Mitchell is professor of English and director of medieval studies at the University of Victoria. He is author of several books, including Becoming Human: The Matter of the Medieval Child (Minnesota, 2014).