On Automata, or Self-Moving Machines

to other hands, their sleep was destined to become
death, had I not—at the instance of Count Giulio
Tieni, a gentleman of most honored qualities and
a student of matters of genius—awakened
them and shaken off the dust. It seemed to me
just, therefore, that having been roused and in a certain way revived
by him, they should, as if just and grateful, be
employed in his service; I had intended to
gift them to him. But while the work was about to be
revealed, the said Lord, to the great regret of
good men, was called to a better life A polite euphemism for death.; the work having thus
remained in need of a protector, I judged that I could
not better support it than by the person of Your
Most Illustrious Lordship original: "V. S. Illustrissima", as one who, beyond nobility of
blood, shines with all those lights that are
wont to be seen, with great wonder, so rarely
gathered in a single subject. To you, therefore—partly for the ab-
solute knowledge you hold of these studies, partly for
the friendship you held with the said Lord—I dedicate
this labor of mine, desiring that you deign to
give it a place among the other works of genius with which
your most noble study In this context, "studio" refers to a private library or a collection of intellectual works. is seen so copiously adorned. The figures Refers to the illustrations or diagrams within the manuscript., which due to their antiquity and
the ignorance of copyists had become altogether bar-
*barized Meaning the original quality or accuracy had been corrupted over time by unskilled scribes., as is known to you and can be to all those