Credited to Archimedes (ca. 287–212/211 BCE); likely the work of a Muslim craftsman from the late second century AH (late eighth century CE)
“A Monumental Water Clock,” included in a collection of four treatises on Automata
Manuscript, copied 5 Rabi‘ I 1030 AH (29 January 1621 CE) in India, illustrated and overpainted in the early 13th century AH (early 19th century CE)
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer Collection
“A Monumental Water Clock,” included in a collection of four treatises on Automata
As early as the 9th to 13th centuries, Islamic scholars developed the technology of automata (hiyal, literally “moving mechanical devices”) by drawing on knowledge from Alexandria, Rome, and Byzantium. This manuscript, created in 17th-century Mughal India, testifies to this enduring scientific tradition. The volume of four treatises is incomplete and includes sections from “al-Harakat” (“Movements”) and “Hiyal” by the Banu Musa brothers, and from Ismael al-Jazari’s Kitab fi ma‘rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyyah (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices).
This painting, like all of the book’s illustrations, was likely an early-19th-century addition. It illustrates the first of the four treatises, which discusses the mechanism of a water clock. In this device, a mask’s eyes change color every hour as the mechanism is pulled down by gears and the weight of the bucket below.
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Spencer …
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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