The Monster in the Machine

“[A]n insightful lesson in Early Modern ‘thinking with monsters’. . . . The Monster in the Machine stands out as an exceptionally readable and enjoyable essay on seicento (mostly) Italian intellectual history, guiding its readers through a great number of colorful places.” - Georg Modestin, H-Net Reviews

“[Hanafi’s] tour of the horizon, making comments and connections, is of significance not only forward to our so-called postmodern thinking but backward to The Renaissance.” - Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

“[T]hought-provoking, like a good conversation, . . . Hanafi’s work will be of interest to historians and literary scholars of monstrosity in the early modern period, as well as students and admirers of the culture of baroque Italy.” - William E. Burns , Sixteenth Century Journal

“By explicating obscure and fascinating texts from such disciplines as medicine and poetics, she invites the reader to the piazzas and pulpits of 17th-century Naples, where poets, courtiers, and Jesuit preachers used grotesque figures of speech to captivate audiences with their monstrous wit.” - Tech Directions

“Throughout the volume an extremely broad range of sources is brought to life, and this will certainly help scholars of the seventeenth-century widen the geographical reach of their research and cross some still-too-rigid disciplinary boundaries.” - Silvia De Renzi , Bulletin of the History of Medicine

“Wonderfully dense and highly connective, The Monster in the Machine is a complex, provocative, and masterfully written piece of scholarship that rewards careful attention.” - Andrea Jones , Comitatus

"[A]n original and fascinating study of monstrosity that blends nicely with other historical works both on early modern Italian history of science and on studies devoted to the wondrous. . . . [A]n exciting entrée into the changing nature of monsters and, by association, of humanity." - Michael R. Lynn , Journal of the History of Medicine

"[I]nteresting and important . . . ."

- Sophie Page , Isis

"[M]eticulous and informed—sometimes even inspired. . . . Wide-ranging in its coverage and application, the book is excellent, especially in its early chapters, and represents a revealing study—penetrating enough for the specialist, general enough for the novice. . . . Hanafi’s contribution in this book lies not solely in her fine analysis of individual early modern texts, but also in the general approaches to the monstrous that she provides. . . . Hanafi has certainly succeeded in providing an accessible, compelling, deftly executed study of the early modern monster that, while perhaps of greatest interest to the scholar of Italian teratology, should resonate with scholars across the humanities." - Andrew Tumminia , Configurations

"For the general audience, the book is written in lucid, highly engaging prose to narrate the story of how the 'monster' (which we demarcate ourselves against) in effect becomes the machine (which we construct)." - Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart , Review of Communication

“A well-researched, engagingly written, rich, and enlightening study.” - Deanna Shemek, author of Ladies Errant: Wayward Women and Social Order in Early Modern Italy

“This is a superlative and highly inventive piece of scholarship.” - Giuseppe F. Mazzotta, author of The New Map of the World: The Poetic Philosophy of Giambattista Vico