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Pope Sylvester II

February 09, 2023

Pope Sylvester II (c. 946 – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac,[n 1] was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere, which had been lost to Latin Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era. He is said to be the first in Europe to introduce the decimal numeral system using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. He is credited with the invention of the first mechanical clock in 996.

Pope

Sylvester II
Bishop of Rome
Sylvester, in blue, as depicted in the Gospels of Otto III
ChurchCatholic Church
Papacy began2 April 999
Papacy ended12 May 1003
PredecessorGregory V
SuccessorJohn XVII
Orders
Consecration991
Personal details
Born
Gerbertus (Gerbert)

c.  946
Belliac, France
Died(1003-05-12)12 May 1003 (aged c. 57)
Rome, Papal States
Other popes named Sylvester

Early life

Gerbert was born about 946 in the town of Belliac, near the present-day commune of Saint-Simon, Cantal, France.[2] Around 963, he entered the Monastery of St. Gerald of Aurillac. In 967, Count Borrell II of Barcelona (947–992) visited the monastery, and the abbot asked the count to take Gerbert with him so that the lad could study mathematics in Catalonia and acquire there some knowledge of Arabic learning.

Scholarly work

Gerbert studied under the direction of Bishop Atto of Vich, some 60 km north of Barcelona, and probably also at the nearby Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.[3] Like all Catalan monasteries, it contained manuscripts from Muslim Spain and especially from Cordoba, one of the intellectual centres of Europe at that time: the library of al-Hakam II, for example, had thousands of books (from science to Greek philosophy). This is where Gerbert was introduced to mathematics and astronomy.[4] Borrell II was facing major defeat from the Andalusian powers so he sent a delegation to Córdoba to request a truce. Bishop Atto was part of the delegation that met with al-Ḥakam II, who received him with honour. Gerbert was fascinated by the stories of the Mozarab Christian bishops and judges who dressed and talked like the Arabs, well-versed in mathematics and natural sciences like the great teachers of the Islamic madrasahs. This sparked Gerbert's veneration for the Arabs and his passion for mathematics and astronomy.

Abacus and numerals

 
Model of the addition 908+95 on part of Gerbert's abacus (with modern numerals, not Gerbert's ones)

Gerbert learned of Hindu–Arabic digits and applied this knowledge to the abacus, but probably without the numeral zero.[n 2] According to the 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury, Gerbert got the idea of the computing device of the abacus from a Moorish scholar[6] from University of Al-Qarawiyyin.[7] The abacus that Gerbert reintroduced into Europe had its length divided into 27 parts with 9 number symbols (this would exclude zero, which was represented by an empty column) and 1,000 characters in all, crafted out of animal horn by a shieldmaker of Rheims.[8][9][10] According to his pupil Richer, Gerbert could perform speedy calculations with his abacus that were extremely difficult for people in his day to think through using only Roman numerals.[8] Due to Gerbert's reintroduction, the abacus became widely used in Europe once again during the 11th century.[10]

Armillary sphere and sighting tube

Although lost to Europe since the terminus of the Greco-Roman era, Gerbert reintroduced the astronomical armillary sphere to Latin Europe via the Islamic civilization of Al-Andalus, which was at that time at the "cutting edge" of civilization.[11][12] The details of Gerbert's armillary sphere are revealed in letters from Gerbert to his former student and monk Remi of Trèves and to his colleague Constantine, the abbot of Micy, as well as the accounts of his former student and French nobleman Richer, who served as a monk in Rheims.[13] Richer stated that Gerbert discovered that stars coursed in an oblique direction across the night sky.[14] Richer described Gerbert's use of the armillary sphere as a visual aid for teaching mathematics and astronomy in the classroom.

Historian Oscar G. Darlington asserts that Gerbert's division by 60 degrees instead of 360 allowed the lateral lines of his sphere to equal to six degrees.[15] By this account, the polar circle on Gerbert's sphere was located at 54 degrees, several degrees off from the actual 66° 33'.[15] His positioning of the Tropic of Cancer at 24 degree was nearly exact, while his positioning of the equator was correct by definition.[15] Richer also revealed how Gerbert made the planets more easily observable in his armillary sphere:

He succeeded equally in showing the paths of the planets when they come near or withdraw from the earth. He fashioned first an armillary sphere. He joined the two circles called by the Greeks coluri and by the Latins incidentes because they fell upon each other, and at their extremities he placed the poles. He drew with great art and accuracy, across the colures, five other circles called parallels, which, from one pole to the other, divided the half of the sphere into thirty parts. He put six of these thirty parts of the half-sphere between the pole and the first circle; five between the first and the second; from the second to the third, four; from the third to the fourth, four again; five from the fourth to the fifth; and from the fifth to the pole, six. On these five circles he placed obliquely the circles that the Greeks call loxos or zoe, the Latins obliques or vitalis (the zodiac) because it contained the figures of the animals ascribed to the planets. On the inside of this oblique circle he figured with an extraordinary art the orbits traversed by the planets, whose paths and heights he demonstrated perfectly to his pupils, as well as their respective distances.[16]

Richer wrote about another of Gerbert's last armillary spheres, which had sighting tubes fixed on the axis of the hollow sphere that could observe the constellations, the forms of which he hung on iron and copper wires.[17] This armillary sphere was also described by Gerbert in a letter to his colleague Constantine.[18] Gerbert instructed Constantine that, if doubtful of the position of the pole star, he should fix the sighting tube of the armillary sphere into position to view the star he suspected was it, and if the star did not move out of sight, it was thus the pole star.[19] Furthermore, Gerbert instructed Constantine that the north pole could be measured with the upper and lower sighting tubes, the Arctic Circle through another tube, the Tropic of Cancer through another tube, the equator through another tube, and the Tropic of Capricorn through another tube.[19]

Ecclesiastical career

In 969, Borrell II made a pilgrimage to Rome, taking Gerbert with him. There Gerbert met Pope John XIII and Emperor Otto I. The pope persuaded Otto I to employ Gerbert as a tutor for his young son, Otto II. Some years later, Otto I gave Gerbert leave to study at the cathedral school of Rheims where he was soon appointed a teacher by Archbishop Adalberon. When Otto II became sole emperor in 973, he appointed Gerbert the abbot of the monastery of Bobbio and also appointed him as count of the district, but the abbey had been ruined by previous abbots, and Gerbert soon returned to Rheims. After the death of Otto II in 983, Gerbert became involved in the politics of his time. In 985, with the support of his archbishop, he opposed King Lothair of France's attempt to take Lorraine from Emperor Otto III by supporting Hugh Capet. Hugh became king of France, ending the Carolingian line of kings in 987.

Adalberon died on 23 January 989.[20] Gerbert was a natural candidate for his succession,[8] but King Hugh appointed Arnulf, an illegitimate son of King Lothair, instead. Arnulf was deposed in 991 for alleged treason against Hugh, and Gerbert was elected his successor. There was so much opposition to Gerbert's elevation to the See of Rheims, however, that Pope John XV (985–996) sent a legate to France who temporarily suspended Gerbert from his episcopal office. Gerbert sought to show that this decree was unlawful, but a further synod in 995 declared Arnulf's deposition invalid. Gerbert then became the teacher of Otto III, and Pope Gregory V (996–999), Otto III's cousin, appointed him archbishop of Ravenna in 998.

 
Seal of Sylvester II

With imperial support, Gerbert was elected to succeed Gregory V as pope in 999. Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II, alluding to Sylvester I (314–335),[citation needed] the advisor to Emperor Constantine I (324–337). Soon after he became pope, Sylvester II confirmed the position of his former rival Arnulf as archbishop of Rheims. As pope, he took energetic measures against the widespread practices of simony and concubinage among the clergy, maintaining that only capable men of spotless lives should be allowed to become bishops. In 1001, the Roman populace revolted, forcing Otto III and Sylvester II to flee to Ravenna. Otto III led two unsuccessful expeditions to regain control of the city and died on a third expedition in 1002. Sylvester II returned to Rome soon after the emperor's death, although the rebellious nobility remained in power, and died a little later. Sylvester is buried in St. John Lateran.

Legacy

 
Statue of Pope Sylvester II in Aurillac, France

Gerbert of Aurillac was a humanist long before the Renaissance. He read Virgil, Cicero and Boethius; he studied Latin translations of Porphyry and Aristotle. He had a very accurate classification of the different disciplines of philosophy. He was the first French pope.

Gerbert was said to be one of the most noted scientists of his time. Gerbert wrote a series of works dealing with matters of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music), which he taught using the basis of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric). In Rheims, he constructed a hydraulic-powered organ with brass pipes that excelled all previously known instruments,[21] where the air had to be pumped manually. In a letter of 984, Gerbert asks Lupitus of Barcelona for a book on astrology and astronomy, two terms historian S. Jim Tester says Gerbert used synonymously.[22] Gerbert may have been the author of a description of the astrolabe that was edited by Hermannus Contractus some 50 years later. Besides these, as Sylvester II he wrote a dogmatic treatise, De corpore et sanguine Domini—On the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Legends

 
Pope Sylvester II and the Devil in an illustration of c. 1460

The legend of Gerbert grows from the work of the English monk William of Malmesbury in De Rebus Gestis Regum Anglorum and a polemical pamphlet, Gesta Romanae Ecclesiae contra Hildebrandum, by Cardinal Beno, a partisan of Emperor Henry IV who opposed Pope Gregory VII in the Investiture Controversy.[citation needed] According to the legend, Gerbert, while studying mathematics and astrology in the Muslim cities of Córdoba and Seville, was accused of having learned sorcery.[23] Gerbert was supposed to be in possession of a book of spells stolen from an Arab philosopher in Spain. Gerbert fled, pursued by the victim, who could trace the thief by the stars, but Gerbert was aware of the pursuit, and hid hanging from a wooden bridge, where, suspended between heaven and earth, he was invisible to the magician.[24]

Gerbert was supposed to have built a brazen head. This "robotic" head would answer his questions with "yes" or "no". He was also reputed to have had a pact with a female demon called Meridiana, who had appeared after he had been rejected by his earthly love, and with whose help he managed to ascend to the papal throne (another legend tells that he won the papacy playing dice with the Devil).[25]

According to the legend, Meridiana (or the bronze head) told Gerbert that if he should ever read a Mass in Jerusalem, the Devil would come for him. Gerbert then cancelled a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but when he read Mass in the church Santa Croce in Gerusalemme ("Holy Cross of Jerusalem") in Rome, he became sick soon afterwards and, dying, he asked his cardinals to cut up his body and scatter it across the city. In another version, he was even attacked by the Devil while he was reading the Mass, and the Devil mutilated him and gave his gouged-out eyes to demons to play with in the Church. Repenting, Sylvester II then cut off his hand and his tongue.

The inscription on Gerbert's tomb reads in part Iste locus Silvestris membra sepulti venturo Domino conferet ad sonitum ("This place will yield to the sound [of the last trumpet] the limbs of buried Sylvester II, at the advent of the Lord", mis-read as "will make a sound") and has given rise to the curious legend that his bones will rattle in that tomb just before the death of a pope.[26]

The story of the crown and papal legate authority allegedly given to Stephen I of Hungary by Sylvester in the year 1000 (hence the title 'apostolic king') is noted by the 19th-century historian Lewis L. Kropf as a possible forgery of the 17th century.[27] Likewise, the 20th-century historian Zoltan J. Kosztolnyik states that "it seems more than unlikely that Rome would have acted in fulfilling Stephen's request for a crown without the support and approval of the emperor."[28]

Honours

Hungary issued a commemorative stamp honouring Pope Sylvester II on 1 January 1938,[29] and France honoured him in 1964 by issuing a postage stamp.[30]

Works

 
12th century copy of De geometria

Gerbert's writings were printed in volume 139 of the Patrologia Latina. Darlington notes that Gerbert's preservation of his letters might have been an effort of his to compile them into a textbook for his pupils that would illustrate proper letter writing.[15] His books on mathematics and astronomy were not research-oriented; his texts were primarily educational guides for his students.[15]

Mathematical writings
  • Libellus de numerorum divisione[31]
  • De geometria[31]
  • Regula de abaco computi[31]
  • Liber abaci[31]
  • Libellus de rationali et ratione uti[31]
Ecclesiastical writings
  • Sermo de informatione episcoporum
  • De corpore et sanguine Domini
  • Selecta e concil. Basol., Remens., Masom., etc.
Letters
  • Epistolae ante summum pontificatum scriptae (218 letters, including letters to the emperor, the pope, and various bishops)
  • Epistolae et decreta pontificia (15 letters to various abbots and bishops, including Arnulf)
    • a dubious letter to Otto III
    • five short poems
Other writings
  • Acta concilii Remensis ad S. Basolum
  • Leonis legati epistola ad Hugonem et Robertum reges
  • Celebacy for the guarantee of our future

In popular culture

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Other names include Gerbert of Reims or Ravenna or Auvergne and Gibert.[1]
  2. ^ Charles Seife: "He probably learned about the numerals during a visit to Spain and brought them back with him when he returned to Italy. But the version he learned did not have a zero."[5]

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Silvester <Papa, II.>," CERL Thesaurus.
  2. ^ Darlington (1947, p. 456, footnote 2)
  3. ^ Mayfield, Betty (August 2010). "Gerbert d'Aurillac and the March of Spain: A Convergence of Cultures". Mathematical Association of America.
  4. ^ Gerbert biography
  5. ^ Seife (2000), p. 77.
  6. ^ Truitt, E. R. (2015). Medieval robots : mechanism, magic, nature, and art. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780812291407. OCLC 907964739.
  7. ^ herodote.net 1 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b c Darlington (1947, p. 472).
  9. ^ Tester (1987), pp. 131–132.
  10. ^ a b Buddhue (1941), p. 266.
  11. ^ Tester (1987), pp. 130–131.
  12. ^ Darlington (1947, pp. 467–472).
  13. ^ Darlington (1947, pp. 464, 467–472).
  14. ^ Darlington (1947, p. 467).
  15. ^ a b c d e Darlington (1947, p. 468).
  16. ^ Darlington (1947), pp. 468–469.
  17. ^ Darlington (1947, p. 469).
  18. ^ Darlington (1947, pp. 469–470).
  19. ^ a b Darlington (1947, p. 470).
  20. ^ Darlington (1947, p. 471).
  21. ^ Darlington (1947, p. 473).
  22. ^ Tester (1987), p. 132.
  23. ^ Brian A. Catlos, Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 2014), 83.
  24. ^ Shmarakov, Roman (2019). Книжица наших забав (in Russian). ОГИ. ISBN 978-5-94282-868-4.
  25. ^ Butler, E. M. (1948). The Myth of the Magus. Cambridge University Press. p. 157.
  26. ^ Lanciani, Rodolfo (1892). "Papal Tombs". Pagan and Christian Rome. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin.
  27. ^ Kropf (1898), p. 290.
  28. ^ Kosztolnyik (1977), p. 35.
  29. ^ "Hungary : Stamps [Year: 1938] [1/5]".
  30. ^ "France : Stamps [Year: 1964] [4/6]".
  31. ^ a b c d e Darlington (1947, p. 468, footnote 43)
  32. ^ "A Discovery of Witches (cast section)". IMDb. 7 April 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2021.

Bibliography

  • Buddhue, John Davis (1941). "The Origin of Our Numbers". The Scientific Monthly. 52 (3): 265–267. Bibcode:1941SciMo..52..265D.
  • Darlington, Oscar G. (1947). "Gerbert, the Teacher". American Historical Review. 52 (3): 456–476. doi:10.2307/1859882. JSTOR 1859882.
  • Kosztolnyik, Zoltan J. (1977). "The Relations of Four Eleventh-Century Hungarian Kings with Rome in the Light of Papal Letters". Church History. 46 (1): 33–47. doi:10.2307/3165157. JSTOR 3165157. S2CID 154633530.
  • Kropf, Lewis L. (1898). "Pope Sylvester II and Stephen I of Hungary". English Historical Review. 13 (50): 290–295. doi:10.1093/ehr/XIII.L.290. JSTOR 547228.
  • Seife, Charles (2000). Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea. New York: Penguin Books. Bibcode:2000zbdi.book.....S. ISBN 978-0-670-88457-5.
  • Tester, S. Jim (1987). A History of Western Astrology. Rochester: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85115-446-6.

Further reading

  • Brown, Nancy Marie. The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages (Basic Books; 2010) 310 pages, ISBN 9780465009503
  • Carrara, Bellino (1908). L'opera sicentifica di Gerberto o Papa Silvestro II novellamente discussa ed illustrata (in Italian). Rome: Tipografia pontificia dell' Istituto Pio IX.
  • Pladevall i Font, Antoni (1998). Silvestre II (Gerbert d'Orlhac) (in French). Barcelona: Columna. ISBN 978-84-8300-514-9.
  • A translation of the letters of Gerbert (982–987) with introduction and notes, Harriet Pratt Lattin, tr., Columbus, OH, H. L. Hedrick, 1932.
  • Letters of Gerbert, with His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II, Translated with an introduction by Harriet Pratt Lattin, Columbia University Press (1961), ISBN 0-231-02201-8 ISBN 9780231022019
  • The Peasant Boy who Became Pope: Story of Gerbert, Harriet Pratt Lattin, Henry Schuman, 1951.
  • The Policy of Gerbert in the Election of Hugh Capet, 987: Based on a Study of His Letters, Harriet Pratt Lattin, Ohio State University, 1926.
  • Montecchio, Luca (2011). Gerberto d'Aurillac. Silvestro II (in Italian). Graphe.it Edizioni. ISBN 978-88-97010-05-0.
  • Lindgren, Uta (1976). Gerbert von Aurillac und das Quadrivium: Unters. zur Bildung im Zeitalter d. Ottonen (in German). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-02449-5.
  • Olleris, Alexandre (1867). Oeuvres de Gerbert pape sous le nom de Sylvestre II...: collationnées sur les manuscrits (in French and Latin). Paris: Dumoulin.
  • Schärlig, Alain (2012). Un portrait de Gerbert d'Aurillac: inventeur d'un abaque, utilisateur précoce des chiffres arabes, et pape de l'an mil (in French). Lausanne: PPUR Presses polytechniques. ISBN 978-2-88074-944-6.
  • Truitt, E. R. (2012). "Celestial Divination and Arabic Science in Twelfth-Century England: The History of Gerbert of Aurillac's Talking Head". Journal of the History of Ideas. 73 (2): 201–222. doi:10.1353/jhi.2012.0016. S2CID 170116054.

External links

 
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  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Gerbert of Aurillac (ca. 955–1003), lecture by Lynn H. Nelson.
  • , includes four of his letters to Adelaide of Italy.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Archbishop of Reims
991–996 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Ravenna
998–999 		Succeeded by
Leo II
Preceded by Pope
999–1003 		Succeeded by

February 09, 2023
pope, sylvester, 1003, originally, known, gerbert, aurillac, french, born, scholar, teacher, served, bishop, rome, ruled, papal, states, from, death, endorsed, promoted, study, arab, greco, roman, arithmetic, mathematics, astronomy, reintroducing, europe, abac. Pope Sylvester II c 946 12 May 1003 originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac n 1 was a French born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Greco Roman arithmetic mathematics and astronomy reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Latin Europe since the end of the Greco Roman era He is said to be the first in Europe to introduce the decimal numeral system using the Hindu Arabic numeral system He is credited with the invention of the first mechanical clock in 996 PopeSylvester IIBishop of RomeSylvester in blue as depicted in the Gospels of Otto IIIChurchCatholic ChurchPapacy began2 April 999Papacy ended12 May 1003PredecessorGregory VSuccessorJohn XVIIOrdersConsecration991Personal detailsBornGerbertus Gerbert c 946 Belliac FranceDied 1003 05 12 12 May 1003 aged c 57 Rome Papal StatesOther popes named Sylvester Contents 1 Early life 2 Scholarly work 2 1 Abacus and numerals 2 2 Armillary sphere and sighting tube 3 Ecclesiastical career 4 Legacy 4 1 Legends 4 2 Honours 5 Works 6 In popular culture 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Citations 9 2 Bibliography 10 Further reading 11 External linksEarly life EditGerbert was born about 946 in the town of Belliac near the present day commune of Saint Simon Cantal France 2 Around 963 he entered the Monastery of St Gerald of Aurillac In 967 Count Borrell II of Barcelona 947 992 visited the monastery and the abbot asked the count to take Gerbert with him so that the lad could study mathematics in Catalonia and acquire there some knowledge of Arabic learning Scholarly work EditGerbert studied under the direction of Bishop Atto of Vich some 60 km north of Barcelona and probably also at the nearby Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll 3 Like all Catalan monasteries it contained manuscripts from Muslim Spain and especially from Cordoba one of the intellectual centres of Europe at that time the library of al Hakam II for example had thousands of books from science to Greek philosophy This is where Gerbert was introduced to mathematics and astronomy 4 Borrell II was facing major defeat from the Andalusian powers so he sent a delegation to Cordoba to request a truce Bishop Atto was part of the delegation that met with al Ḥakam II who received him with honour Gerbert was fascinated by the stories of the Mozarab Christian bishops and judges who dressed and talked like the Arabs well versed in mathematics and natural sciences like the great teachers of the Islamic madrasahs This sparked Gerbert s veneration for the Arabs and his passion for mathematics and astronomy Abacus and numerals Edit Model of the addition 908 95 on part of Gerbert s abacus with modern numerals not Gerbert s ones Gerbert learned of Hindu Arabic digits and applied this knowledge to the abacus but probably without the numeral zero n 2 According to the 12th century historian William of Malmesbury Gerbert got the idea of the computing device of the abacus from a Moorish scholar 6 from University of Al Qarawiyyin 7 The abacus that Gerbert reintroduced into Europe had its length divided into 27 parts with 9 number symbols this would exclude zero which was represented by an empty column and 1 000 characters in all crafted out of animal horn by a shieldmaker of Rheims 8 9 10 According to his pupil Richer Gerbert could perform speedy calculations with his abacus that were extremely difficult for people in his day to think through using only Roman numerals 8 Due to Gerbert s reintroduction the abacus became widely used in Europe once again during the 11th century 10 Armillary sphere and sighting tube Edit Although lost to Europe since the terminus of the Greco Roman era Gerbert reintroduced the astronomical armillary sphere to Latin Europe via the Islamic civilization of Al Andalus which was at that time at the cutting edge of civilization 11 12 The details of Gerbert s armillary sphere are revealed in letters from Gerbert to his former student and monk Remi of Treves and to his colleague Constantine the abbot of Micy as well as the accounts of his former student and French nobleman Richer who served as a monk in Rheims 13 Richer stated that Gerbert discovered that stars coursed in an oblique direction across the night sky 14 Richer described Gerbert s use of the armillary sphere as a visual aid for teaching mathematics and astronomy in the classroom An armillary sphere in a painting by Sandro Botticelli c 1480 Historian Oscar G Darlington asserts that Gerbert s division by 60 degrees instead of 360 allowed the lateral lines of his sphere to equal to six degrees 15 By this account the polar circle on Gerbert s sphere was located at 54 degrees several degrees off from the actual 66 33 15 His positioning of the Tropic of Cancer at 24 degree was nearly exact while his positioning of the equator was correct by definition 15 Richer also revealed how Gerbert made the planets more easily observable in his armillary sphere He succeeded equally in showing the paths of the planets when they come near or withdraw from the earth He fashioned first an armillary sphere He joined the two circles called by the Greeks coluri and by the Latins incidentes because they fell upon each other and at their extremities he placed the poles He drew with great art and accuracy across the colures five other circles called parallels which from one pole to the other divided the half of the sphere into thirty parts He put six of these thirty parts of the half sphere between the pole and the first circle five between the first and the second from the second to the third four from the third to the fourth four again five from the fourth to the fifth and from the fifth to the pole six On these five circles he placed obliquely the circles that the Greeks call loxos or zoe the Latins obliques or vitalis the zodiac because it contained the figures of the animals ascribed to the planets On the inside of this oblique circle he figured with an extraordinary art the orbits traversed by the planets whose paths and heights he demonstrated perfectly to his pupils as well as their respective distances 16 Richer wrote about another of Gerbert s last armillary spheres which had sighting tubes fixed on the axis of the hollow sphere that could observe the constellations the forms of which he hung on iron and copper wires 17 This armillary sphere was also described by Gerbert in a letter to his colleague Constantine 18 Gerbert instructed Constantine that if doubtful of the position of the pole star he should fix the sighting tube of the armillary sphere into position to view the star he suspected was it and if the star did not move out of sight it was thus the pole star 19 Furthermore Gerbert instructed Constantine that the north pole could be measured with the upper and lower sighting tubes the Arctic Circle through another tube the Tropic of Cancer through another tube the equator through another tube and the Tropic of Capricorn through another tube 19 Ecclesiastical career EditIn 969 Borrell II made a pilgrimage to Rome taking Gerbert with him There Gerbert met Pope John XIII and Emperor Otto I The pope persuaded Otto I to employ Gerbert as a tutor for his young son Otto II Some years later Otto I gave Gerbert leave to study at the cathedral school of Rheims where he was soon appointed a teacher by Archbishop Adalberon When Otto II became sole emperor in 973 he appointed Gerbert the abbot of the monastery of Bobbio and also appointed him as count of the district but the abbey had been ruined by previous abbots and Gerbert soon returned to Rheims After the death of Otto II in 983 Gerbert became involved in the politics of his time In 985 with the support of his archbishop he opposed King Lothair of France s attempt to take Lorraine from Emperor Otto III by supporting Hugh Capet Hugh became king of France ending the Carolingian line of kings in 987 Adalberon died on 23 January 989 20 Gerbert was a natural candidate for his succession 8 but King Hugh appointed Arnulf an illegitimate son of King Lothair instead Arnulf was deposed in 991 for alleged treason against Hugh and Gerbert was elected his successor There was so much opposition to Gerbert s elevation to the See of Rheims however that Pope John XV 985 996 sent a legate to France who temporarily suspended Gerbert from his episcopal office Gerbert sought to show that this decree was unlawful but a further synod in 995 declared Arnulf s deposition invalid Gerbert then became the teacher of Otto III and Pope Gregory V 996 999 Otto III s cousin appointed him archbishop of Ravenna in 998 Seal of Sylvester II With imperial support Gerbert was elected to succeed Gregory V as pope in 999 Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II alluding to Sylvester I 314 335 citation needed the advisor to Emperor Constantine I 324 337 Soon after he became pope Sylvester II confirmed the position of his former rival Arnulf as archbishop of Rheims As pope he took energetic measures against the widespread practices of simony and concubinage among the clergy maintaining that only capable men of spotless lives should be allowed to become bishops In 1001 the Roman populace revolted forcing Otto III and Sylvester II to flee to Ravenna Otto III led two unsuccessful expeditions to regain control of the city and died on a third expedition in 1002 Sylvester II returned to Rome soon after the emperor s death although the rebellious nobility remained in power and died a little later Sylvester is buried in St John Lateran Legacy Edit Statue of Pope Sylvester II in Aurillac France Gerbert of Aurillac was a humanist long before the Renaissance He read Virgil Cicero and Boethius he studied Latin translations of Porphyry and Aristotle He had a very accurate classification of the different disciplines of philosophy He was the first French pope Gerbert was said to be one of the most noted scientists of his time Gerbert wrote a series of works dealing with matters of the quadrivium arithmetic geometry astronomy music which he taught using the basis of the trivium grammar logic and rhetoric In Rheims he constructed a hydraulic powered organ with brass pipes that excelled all previously known instruments 21 where the air had to be pumped manually In a letter of 984 Gerbert asks Lupitus of Barcelona for a book on astrology and astronomy two terms historian S Jim Tester says Gerbert used synonymously 22 Gerbert may have been the author of a description of the astrolabe that was edited by Hermannus Contractus some 50 years later Besides these as Sylvester II he wrote a dogmatic treatise De corpore et sanguine Domini On the Body and Blood of the Lord Legends Edit Pope Sylvester II and the Devil in an illustration of c 1460 The legend of Gerbert grows from the work of the English monk William of Malmesbury in De Rebus Gestis Regum Anglorum and a polemical pamphlet Gesta Romanae Ecclesiae contra Hildebrandum by Cardinal Beno a partisan of Emperor Henry IV who opposed Pope Gregory VII in the Investiture Controversy citation needed According to the legend Gerbert while studying mathematics and astrology in the Muslim cities of Cordoba and Seville was accused of having learned sorcery 23 Gerbert was supposed to be in possession of a book of spells stolen from an Arab philosopher in Spain Gerbert fled pursued by the victim who could trace the thief by the stars but Gerbert was aware of the pursuit and hid hanging from a wooden bridge where suspended between heaven and earth he was invisible to the magician 24 Gerbert was supposed to have built a brazen head This robotic head would answer his questions with yes or no He was also reputed to have had a pact with a female demon called Meridiana who had appeared after he had been rejected by his earthly love and with whose help he managed to ascend to the papal throne another legend tells that he won the papacy playing dice with the Devil 25 According to the legend Meridiana or the bronze head told Gerbert that if he should ever read a Mass in Jerusalem the Devil would come for him Gerbert then cancelled a pilgrimage to Jerusalem but when he read Mass in the church Santa Croce in Gerusalemme Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome he became sick soon afterwards and dying he asked his cardinals to cut up his body and scatter it across the city In another version he was even attacked by the Devil while he was reading the Mass and the Devil mutilated him and gave his gouged out eyes to demons to play with in the Church Repenting Sylvester II then cut off his hand and his tongue The inscription on Gerbert s tomb reads in part Iste locus Silvestris membra sepulti venturo Domino conferet ad sonitum This place will yield to the sound of the last trumpet the limbs of buried Sylvester II at the advent of the Lord mis read as will make a sound and has given rise to the curious legend that his bones will rattle in that tomb just before the death of a pope 26 The story of the crown and papal legate authority allegedly given to Stephen I of Hungary by Sylvester in the year 1000 hence the title apostolic king is noted by the 19th century historian Lewis L Kropf as a possible forgery of the 17th century 27 Likewise the 20th century historian Zoltan J Kosztolnyik states that it seems more than unlikely that Rome would have acted in fulfilling Stephen s request for a crown without the support and approval of the emperor 28 Honours Edit Hungary issued a commemorative stamp honouring Pope Sylvester II on 1 January 1938 29 and France honoured him in 1964 by issuing a postage stamp 30 Works Edit 12th century copy of De geometria Gerbert s writings were printed in volume 139 of the Patrologia Latina Darlington notes that Gerbert s preservation of his letters might have been an effort of his to compile them into a textbook for his pupils that would illustrate proper letter writing 15 His books on mathematics and astronomy were not research oriented his texts were primarily educational guides for his students 15 Mathematical writingsLibellus de numerorum divisione 31 De geometria 31 Regula de abaco computi 31 Liber abaci 31 Libellus de rationali et ratione uti 31 Ecclesiastical writingsSermo de informatione episcoporum De corpore et sanguine Domini Selecta e concil Basol Remens Masom etc LettersEpistolae ante summum pontificatum scriptae 218 letters including letters to the emperor the pope and various bishops Epistolae et decreta pontificia 15 letters to various abbots and bishops including Arnulf a dubious letter to Otto III five short poemsOther writingsActa concilii Remensis ad S Basolum Leonis legati epistola ad Hugonem et Robertum reges Celebacy for the guarantee of our futureIn popular culture EditGerbert D Aurillac appears as an adversary in Deborah Harkness novel series called the All Souls Trilogy He is portrayed by Trevor Eve in the trilogy s television adaptation 32 Gerbert d Aurillac is the protagonist of Judith Tarr s 1989 novel Ars Magica See also EditList of Roman Catholic scientist clerics Barcelona astrolabeNotes Edit Other names include Gerbert of Reims or Ravenna or Auvergne and Gibert 1 Charles Seife He probably learned about the numerals during a visit to Spain and brought them back with him when he returned to Italy But the version he learned did not have a zero 5 References EditCitations Edit Silvester lt Papa II gt CERL Thesaurus Darlington 1947 p 456 footnote 2 Mayfield Betty August 2010 Gerbert d Aurillac and the March of Spain A Convergence of Cultures Mathematical Association of America Gerbert biography Seife 2000 p 77 Truitt E R 2015 Medieval robots mechanism magic nature and art Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press p 77 ISBN 9780812291407 OCLC 907964739 herodote net Archived 1 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine a b c Darlington 1947 p 472 Tester 1987 pp 131 132 a b Buddhue 1941 p 266 Tester 1987 pp 130 131 Darlington 1947 pp 467 472 Darlington 1947 pp 464 467 472 Darlington 1947 p 467 a b c d e Darlington 1947 p 468 Darlington 1947 pp 468 469 Darlington 1947 p 469 Darlington 1947 pp 469 470 a b Darlington 1947 p 470 Darlington 1947 p 471 Darlington 1947 p 473 Tester 1987 p 132 Brian A Catlos Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors New York NY Farrar Straus And Giroux 2014 83 Shmarakov Roman 2019 Knizhica nashih zabav in Russian OGI ISBN 978 5 94282 868 4 Butler E M 1948 The Myth of the Magus Cambridge University Press p 157 Lanciani Rodolfo 1892 Papal Tombs Pagan and Christian Rome Boston Houghton Mifflin Kropf 1898 p 290 Kosztolnyik 1977 p 35 Hungary Stamps Year 1938 1 5 France Stamps Year 1964 4 6 a b c d e Darlington 1947 p 468 footnote 43 A Discovery of Witches cast section IMDb 7 April 2019 Retrieved 11 May 2021 Bibliography Edit Buddhue John Davis 1941 The Origin of Our Numbers The Scientific Monthly 52 3 265 267 Bibcode 1941SciMo 52 265D Darlington Oscar G 1947 Gerbert the Teacher American Historical Review 52 3 456 476 doi 10 2307 1859882 JSTOR 1859882 Kosztolnyik Zoltan J 1977 The Relations of Four Eleventh Century Hungarian Kings with Rome in the Light of Papal Letters Church History 46 1 33 47 doi 10 2307 3165157 JSTOR 3165157 S2CID 154633530 Kropf Lewis L 1898 Pope Sylvester II and Stephen I of Hungary English Historical Review 13 50 290 295 doi 10 1093 ehr XIII L 290 JSTOR 547228 Seife Charles 2000 Zero The Biography of a Dangerous Idea New York Penguin Books Bibcode 2000zbdi book S ISBN 978 0 670 88457 5 Tester S Jim 1987 A History of Western Astrology Rochester Boydell amp Brewer ISBN 978 0 85115 446 6 Further reading EditBrown Nancy Marie The Abacus and the Cross The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages Basic Books 2010 310 pages ISBN 9780465009503 Carrara Bellino 1908 L opera sicentifica di Gerberto o Papa Silvestro II novellamente discussa ed illustrata in Italian Rome Tipografia pontificia dell Istituto Pio IX Pladevall i Font Antoni 1998 Silvestre II Gerbert d Orlhac in French Barcelona Columna ISBN 978 84 8300 514 9 A translation of the letters of Gerbert 982 987 with introduction and notes Harriet Pratt Lattin tr Columbus OH H L Hedrick 1932 Letters of Gerbert with His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II Translated with an introduction by Harriet Pratt Lattin Columbia University Press 1961 ISBN 0 231 02201 8 ISBN 9780231022019 The Peasant Boy who Became Pope Story of Gerbert Harriet Pratt Lattin Henry Schuman 1951 The Policy of Gerbert in the Election of Hugh Capet 987 Based on a Study of His Letters Harriet Pratt Lattin Ohio State University 1926 Montecchio Luca 2011 Gerberto d Aurillac Silvestro II in Italian Graphe it Edizioni ISBN 978 88 97010 05 0 Lindgren Uta 1976 Gerbert von Aurillac und das Quadrivium Unters zur Bildung im Zeitalter d Ottonen in German Wiesbaden Franz Steiner Verlag ISBN 978 3 515 02449 5 Olleris Alexandre 1867 Oeuvres de Gerbert pape sous le nom de Sylvestre II collationnees sur les manuscrits in French and Latin Paris Dumoulin Scharlig Alain 2012 Un portrait de Gerbert d Aurillac inventeur d un abaque utilisateur precoce des chiffres arabes et pape de l an mil in French Lausanne PPUR Presses polytechniques ISBN 978 2 88074 944 6 Truitt E R 2012 Celestial Divination and Arabic Science in Twelfth Century England The History of Gerbert of Aurillac s Talking Head Journal of the History of Ideas 73 2 201 222 doi 10 1353 jhi 2012 0016 S2CID 170116054 External links Edit Wikisource has original works by or about Sylvester II Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sylvester II Catholic Encyclopedia Betty Mayfield Gerbert d Aurillac and the March of Spain A Convergence of Cultures Gerbert of Aurillac ca 955 1003 lecture by Lynn H Nelson Women s Biography Adelaide of Burgundy Ottonian empress includes four of his letters to Adelaide of Italy Catholic Church titlesPreceded byArnulf Archbishop of Reims991 996 Succeeded byArnulfPreceded byJohn X Archbishop of Ravenna998 999 Succeeded byLeo IIPreceded byGregory V Pope999 1003 Succeeded byJohn XVII Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pope Sylvester II amp oldid 1135536436, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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