Medieval Thinkers Used Clocks to Argue the Universe Needs Constant Repair
Clockwork Mechanics, Maintenance, and Metaphors in the Late Middle Ages
Late-medieval writers like Nicole Oresme, Philippe de Mézières, and Jean Froissart compared the cosmos and the state to mechanical clocks—but not as self-running machines. Early clocks drifted and broke, needing a skilled horologist to keep them going. These metaphors imagined a world sustained by divine providence and human governance, not autonomous mechanism, and they served to legitimize courtly political order.
The machinery is unable to ensure stable movement by itself, for the clock cannot run unless there is someone "to watch over and care for it … diligently managing and regulating it."