Automata: Tartaruga Meccanica

The grand Tartaruga Meccanica is shown here at its prime. The large telescope acts as a moveable camera obscura, allowing viewers to perceive heavenly bodies in its glass belly.

Daytime viewings, as shown here, attracted many curious citizens and were open to all.

The truly spectacular night viewings, however, were restricted to members of the upper echelons of society and the scientific community.

Pioneered in 1486 as a joint venture between the Medici Bank and the inventor Giorgio Bartori, the original Arte Degli Automi was only able to produce one tortoise.

Despite the popularity of the world's first moveable observatory, profits were too low to save the Medici Bank from its eventual dissolution, and management of the guild turned to League of Venice in 1495.

Viewing the guild as a potential path to securing the economic dominance of the region and cultural superiority to France, the league began a sponsored program to encourage young polymaths to push the boundaries of the burgeoning discipline forward.

Thus the Arte Degli Automi changed the course of history and ushered in the Era of Automata.

The league continued the operation of the Tartaruga Meccanica as a cultural attraction until 1562 when it was officially retired to the Museo Degli Automi in Florence.

Excerpt from chapter 2 of Gibbon's History of Automata: Volume 1, The Last Major Guild by Bartholomew Gibbon.

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Made in collaboration with the fantasic hintoflime. We used our very own Venetian palette.