The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria

A Chats in the Stacks Book Talk

Wednesday, February 21

4:30pm - 5:30pm

107 Olin Library, light refreshments will be served.

To attend virtually, please register here.

Hero of Alexandria, the Greek mathematician and engineer, was a figure not only of enormous importance for ancient technology, but also for the later traditions that drew on his work, according to Courtney Ann Roby, associate professor in Classics, Medieval Studies, and Science and Technology Studies. 

Join a Chats in the Stacks  book talk with Roby and learn about her new book, The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria (Cambridge University Press, 2023) which presents Hero's key strategies for developing, solving, and contextualizing technical problems, as well as charting his influence on the later tradition of technical problem-solving which incorporates textual transformations like interpolation and translation, as well as transformation from text to artifact.