Pope Sylvester II
Belliac (?), Duchy of Aquitaine, France | |
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Died | Rome, Papal States | 12 May 1003 (aged c. 57)
Other popes named Sylvester |
Pope Sylvester II (c. 946 – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac,
Early life
Gerbert was born about 946,[2] or at any rate between 945 and 950.[3] His exact birthplace is unknown, but it must have been in what was then the Duchy of Aquitaine, part of the Kingdom of France.[4] More precise proposals include the town of Belliac, near the present-day commune of Saint-Simon, Cantal,[2] or Aurillac.[5] Another speculated location is the province of Auvergne.[6] Gerbert’s parents, wanting him to have a quality education, took him to receive instruction at the nearby Benedictine Abbey.[6] Here, Gerbert became a pupil of a monk named Raimund, who admired his desire of knowledge and assisted him in his studies.[6]
Around 963, he entered the
Scholarly work
Gerbert studied under the direction of Bishop
Abacus and numerals
Gerbert learned of
Bernelinus of Paris, who was a supposed pupil of Gerbert, wrote a book called the Liber Abaci where he discussed the abacus' design.[15] In this book, he individually introduced each symbol the abacus used and related them to the more common Latin numerical nouns.[15] Bernelinus' Liber Abaci was just one of 11 manuscripts making up the full series, and comparisons between the other volumes show the evolution of the Arabic figures over the course of the 11th and 12th centuries.[16] In particular, Bernelinus' figure for 3 differs from other volumes, as he used the Tironian note resembling "ter" in place of the Arabic symbol.[17] The reasoning for this is not known, but it is speculated that Bernelinus did not want to use an "unbeliever" symbol to indicate the number that represents the Holy Trinity.[18]
Armillary sphere and sighting tube
Although lost to Europe since the terminus of the
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.[23] By this account, the polar circle on Gerbert's sphere was located at 54 degrees, several degrees off from the actual 66° 33'.[23] His positioning of the Tropic of Cancer at 24 degree was nearly exact, while his positioning of the equator was correct by definition.[23] 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.[24]
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.[25] This armillary sphere was also described by Gerbert in a letter to his colleague Constantine.[26] 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.[27] 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.[27]
Scientific library
In late 984, Gerbert sent a letter to abbot Eberhard of Tours concerning the foundation of a large scientific library.[28] He dedicated immense sums of money to establishing the library and purchasing texts from a wide variety of western European authors.[28] He wrote to many monks and abbots in Europe requesting classical literature from their monasteries.[28] Gerbert was also able to acquire some work from earlier era authors such as Cicero and Statius.[28] Two specific requests Gerbert made that documentation exists for are letters sent to Lupitis of Barcelona and Bishop Miró Bonfill of Girona, asking the former for an astrology book and the latter for an arithmetic book.[28] It can be inferred from this that the library contained many volumes of books covering a wide variety of topics, but the exact size and influence the library had is seemingly unknown.
Ecclesiastical career
In 969, Borrell II made a pilgrimage to
Adalberon died on 23 January 989.
With imperial support, Gerbert was elected to succeed Gregory V as
Legacy
Gerbert of Aurillac was a noted humanist. He read
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
Legends
The legend of Gerbert grows from the work of the English monk William of Malmesbury in
Gerbert was supposed to have built a
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.[37]
The story of the crown and
Though the testimony of William of Malmesbury did much to discredit and defame Gerbert, there were many important intellectual distinctions made from it.[40] For example, the legend of Gerbert of Aurilac's talking head helped to describe the line between prohibited and permitted knowledge. Gerbert did work in music theory, mathematics, geometry, and several other fields accepted and taught in the quadrivium.[40] All of the works he did related to these subjects were not brought into question and were accepted as well as appreciated. But works done outside of the accepted liberal arts was condemned, including things learned from bird's songs and flight patterns, as well as the necromancy he was rumored to have taken part in.[40]
Honours
Hungary issued a commemorative stamp honouring Pope Sylvester II on 1 January 1938,[41] and France honoured him in 1964 by issuing a postage stamp.[42]
Works
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.[23] His books on mathematics and astronomy were not research-oriented; his texts were primarily educational guides for his students.[23]
- Mathematical writings
- Libellus de numerorum divisione[43]
- De geometria[43]
- Regula de abaco computi[43]
- Liber abaci[43]
- Libellus de rationali et ratione uti[43]
- 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
- Gerbert D'Aurillac appears as an adversary in
- Gerbert d'Aurillac is the protagonist of Judith Tarr's 1989 novel Ars Magica.
- Gerbert d'Aurillac is referred to in the first chapter of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita.
- Legends about Gerbert D'Aurillac as Pope Sylvester II inspired the short story “The Demon Pope” by Richard Garnett, first published in the original, 1888 edition of The Twilight of the Gods and Other Tales.
- In Anatole France's The Revolt of the Angels, Nectaire (a fallen angel) speaks of this Gerbert: "We taught them letters and sciences. A mouthpiece of their god, one Gerbert, took lessons in physics, arithmetic, and music with us, and it was said that he had sold us his soul." Then "The successors of the studious Gerbert, not content with the possession of souls (the profits one gains thereby are lighter than air), wished to possess bodies also."
See also
Notes
- ^ 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."[9]
References
Citations
- ^ "Silvester <Papa, II.>," CERL Thesaurus.
- ^ a b Darlington (1947, p. 456, footnote 2)
- ^ Riché (1987, p. 18)
- ^ Riché (1987, p. 19)
- ^ Kitchin, William P.H. (1992). A Pope-Philosopher of the Tenth Century: Sylvester II (Gerbert of Aurillac) (Volume 8 No. 1 ed.). The Catholic Historical Review. p. 46.
- ^ ISSN 0008-8080– via JSTOR.
- ^ 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.
- 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.
- ^ a b Freudenhammer, Thomas (2021). "Gerbert of Aurillac and the Transmission of Arabic Numerals to Europe". Sudhoffs Archiv. 105 (1): 5 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Freudenhammer, Thomas (2021). "Gerbert of Aurillac and the Transmission of Arabic Numerals to Europe". Sudhoffs Archiv. 105 (1): 6 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Freudenhammer, Thomas (2021). "Gerbert of Aurillac and the Transmission of Arabic Numerals to Europe". Sudhoffs Archiv. 105 (1): 6–7 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Freudenhammer, Thomas (2021). "Gerbert of Aurillac and the Transmission of Arabic Numerals to Europe". Sudhoffs Archiv. 105 (1): 8 – via JSTOR.
- ^ 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).
- ^ ISSN 0039-4564– via JSTOR.
- ISSN 0039-4564.
- ^ Darlington (1947, p. 471).
- ^ Darlington (1947, p. 473).
- ^ Tester (1987), p. 132.
- ^ Becker, Barbara J. "Lecture 6. Measuring Time." University of California, Irvine. Accessed 6 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d of Malmesbury, William (December 2015). William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England ([eBook #50778] ed.). J. A. Giles. p. 173.
- 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.
- ^ a b c Truitt, E.R. (April 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): 1–22 – via JSTOR.
- ^ "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
- 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". 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. S2CID 154633530.
- Kropf, Lewis L. (1898). "Pope Sylvester II and Stephen I of Hungary". JSTOR 547228.
- ISBN 978-2-213-01958-1..
- Seife, Charles (2000). ISBN 978-0-670-88457-5.
- Tester, S. Jim (1987). A History of Western Astrology. Rochester: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85115-446-6.
- Freudenhammer, Thomas (2021). “Gerbert of Aurillac and the Transmission of Arabic Numerals to Europe - Gerbert von Aurillac Und Die Übermittlung Der Arabischen Ziffern Nach Europa.” Sudhoffs Archiv, vol. 105, no. 1, 2021, pp. 3–19. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48636817.
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 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.
- 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". S2CID 170116054.
External links
- 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.