Brazen Head
Encyclopedia
A Brazen Head was a prophetic device attributed to many medieval scholars who were believed to be wizards, or who were reputed to be able to answer any question. It was always in the form of a man's head, and it could correctly answer any question asked of it. However, depending on the story, it could be cast in brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

 or bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

, it could be mechanical or magical, and it could answer freely or it could be restricted to "yes" or "no" answers.

Alleged owners

Among the people reputed to have a brazen head were:
  • Roger Bacon
    Roger Bacon
    Roger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...

     (possibly tonsure
    Tonsure
    Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...

    d, like a monk's)
  • Pope Sylvester II
  • Albertus Magnus
    Albertus Magnus
    Albertus Magnus, O.P. , also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a bishop, who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. Those such as James A. Weisheipl...

  • Virgil
    Virgil
    Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

  • Robert Grosseteste
    Robert Grosseteste
    Robert Grosseteste or Grossetete was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian and Bishop of Lincoln. He was born of humble parents at Stradbroke in Suffolk. A.C...

  • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
    Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius
    Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after...

  • Faust
    Johann Georg Faust
    Dr. Johann Georg Faust , also known in English as John Faustus , was an itinerant alchemist, astrologer, and magician of the German Renaissance...

  • Enrique de Villena
    Enrique de Villena
    Enrique de Aragón , Marquess of Villena, was a medieval Spanish writer, theologian and poet. He was also the last legitimate descendant of the royal house of Aragón and the counts of Barcelona. When political power was denied to him, he turned to writing and was reputed to be a great...

  • Arnaldus de Villa Nova
    Arnaldus de Villa Nova
    Arnaldus de Villa Nova was an alchemist, astrologer and physician....



Butler notes “[t]hese brass heads were so common that people began to believe that there was nothing supernatural about them” (p. 157).

Cultural references

Bacon's Brazen Head appears in Robert Greene
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...

's play Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Robert Greene. Widely regarded as Greene's best and most significant play, it has received more critical attention than any other of Greene's dramas.-Date:The date of authorship of Friar...

(c. 1589), John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys
-Biography:Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of the Reverend Charles Francis Powys , who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset for thirty-two years, and Mary Cowper Johnson, a descendent of the poet William Cowper. He came from a family of eleven children, many of whom were also...

' novel The Brazen Head (1956) and John Bellairs
John Bellairs
John Anthony Bellairs was an American author, best known for his well-respected fantasy novel The Face in the Frost as well as many gothic mystery novels for young adults featuring Lewis Barnavelt, Anthony Monday, and Johnny Dixon.-Biography:After earning degrees at University of Notre Dame and...

' The Face in the Frost
The Face in the Frost
The Face in the Frost is a short 1969 fantasy novel by author John Bellairs. Unlike most of his later works, this book is meant for adult readers. It centers on two accomplished wizards, Prospero and Roger Bacon, tracking down the source of a great magical evil. The subject matter prompted Ursula K...

. Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...

's "The Birth-Mark
The Birth-Mark
"The Birth-Mark" is a romantic short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that examines obsession with human perfection. It was first published in the March, 1843 edition of The Pioneer...

" mentions “the famous friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head”, implicitly Bacon. However, in his short story The Artist and the Beautiful from Mosses from an Old Manse
Mosses from an Old Manse
Mosses from an Old Manse was a short story collection by Nathaniel Hawthorne, first published in 1846.-Background and publication history:...

, Hawthorne connects the Brazen Head or "Man of Brass" with both Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus
Albertus Magnus, O.P. , also known as Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, is a Catholic saint. He was a German Dominican friar and a bishop, who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. Those such as James A. Weisheipl...

 and Friar Bacon.

In Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...

's A Journal of the Plague Year
A Journal of the Plague Year
A Journal of the Plague Year is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722.The novel is a fictionalised account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague struck the city of London...

, it is stated that Friar Bacon's brazen-head was the usual sign of a fortune teller's dwellings.

In Don Quixote, Don Antonio Moreno has a brazen head, created for him by an unnamed Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 “pupil of the famous Escotillo of whom such marvellous stories are told” (chapter 62). It is later revealed to be fake. Note that the end notes for the Schevill and Bonilla edition of Don Quixote state that Escotillo is Michael Scot
Michael Scot
Michael Scot was a medieval mathematician and scholar.- Early life and education :He was born in Scotland, and studied first at the cathedral school of Durham and then at Oxford and Paris, devoting himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astrology...

. The “Brazen Head” entry in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, sometimes referred to simply as Brewer's, is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions and figures, whether historical or mythical.-History:...

 describes Escotillo as Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, however.

A "bronze head" appears in The Box of Delights
The Box of Delights
The Box of Delights is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to The Midnight Folk, and was first published in 1935.-Plot summary :...

.

A brazen head plays an important role at the end of Robertson Davies
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...

' novel Fifth Business
Fifth Business
Fifth Business is a 1970 novel by Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor Robertson Davies. It is the first installment of the Deptford Trilogy and is a story of the life of the narrator, Dunstan Ramsay...

.

The main character in Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...

's 1967 novel The Zap Gun
The Zap Gun
The Zap Gun is a 1967 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The novel was expanded from his novella Project Plowshare, which was first published as a serial in the November 1965 and January 1966 issues of Worlds Of Tomorrow magazine....

 has a talking bronze head, which gives advice so cluttered with allusions to classical Greek and Latin authorities that it is of limited practical value.

In the ending of the 1984 science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...

by William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...

, it appears as a form of computer terminal, a richly decorated head made out of platinum and gems. Gibson states its voice is generated by "a beautiful arrangement of gears and miniature organ pipes... a perverse thing, because synth-voice chips cost next to nothing...".

In Gregory Frost
Gregory Frost
Gregory Frost is an American author of science fiction and fantasy, and directs a fiction writing workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa...

's Shadowbridge novels, the main character follows the guidance of a brazen head in the form of a brass pendant with the face of a lion.

In Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...

's fantasy novel The Phoenix and the Mirror, Vergil's house is known as The House of the Brazen Head from the talking head set in the wall next to the front door that guards the house, welcomes visitors, and announces them to the Magus.

Establishments

The Brazen Head, in Dublin, established in 1198 is, at just over 800 years old, the oldest pub in Ireland. There is also a Brazen Head in Limerick.

There are bars called The Brazen Head in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada and pubs in Marylebone
Marylebone
Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Glasgow and Napier
Napier
-People:* Napier * John Napier -Australia:* Electoral district of Napier, a state electoral district in South Australia* Mount Napier, a dormant volcano in Victoria...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

External links

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