Gerbert d' Aurillac (Auvergne, towards 938 - Rome, May 12th 1003), Pope under the name of Sylvestre II (of 999 with 1003), Philosopher and Mathematician. He is the scientific and political actor major of the Renaissance ottono-clunisienne.
The monk
Gerbert d' Aurillac would have been born towards 938 in Belliac, a hamlet located today in the commune of Saint-Simon, in Auvergne. Monks of the Abbaye of Aurillac notice this young shepherd who observes the sky using a hollow branch of elder tree. It is thus allowed with the monastery Benedictine founded by Saint Géraud, and studies there the disciplines of the trivium (Grammaire and the Rhétorique) in the new spirit of Cluny.
Noticed in 963 by the count Borel II of Barcelona which went to Rome by making stage to Aurillac, it takes along with him the boy which, of return to Barcelona, continues its instruction in the Catalan abbeys of Vich and of Ripoll. in 967, where it will be dealt with by the scientist bishop Atton.
The county of Barcelona corresponded to the area of Catalogne that Charlemagne had preserved under the dependence of the dukes of Aquitaine, and its counts were a branch. It is there that Gerbert looks further into its knowledge of sciences (Quadrivium). Indeed, Catalonia had remained an important intellectual hearth which was also in contact with the other areas of the Spain conquered by the Moslems, in particular the kingdom of Cordoue.
One even says that he would have disguised himself as a Moslem to visit the library of Cordoue, which would have contained between 400.000 and 600.000 volumes, consulted as well by the Christian scientists Jewish. (references?)
It looks further into its knowledge of the ancient culture through Virgile, Porphyre of Tyr, Aristote, Cicéron and especially Boèce. It is by Apices of Boèce that it is initiated with the arithmetic one. It does not preserve the signs of Boèce, but borrows those of the Arab merchants who are numerous in Barcelona, Libéré from the heaviness of the Roman numerals, it can thus approach practical calculations, imagines a table to be counted - the abacus of Gerbert - which systematizes the principle of the numeration of position and the process of matrix Algebra of our four operations and our spreadsheves.
After three years of study, in 970, it accompanies the count by Barcelona to Rome which presents it to the pope Jean XIII and to the emperor Othon Ier. This one entrusts to him the education of his/her son Othon II which becomes his/her friend. He is noticed by Garamnus, Archidiacre of Rheims and dialectician of reputation, which convinces Gerbert to follow it to perfect its knowledge of Logic.
The écolâtre
Adalbéron, bishop of Rheims, the fact of coming in its episcopal college and entrusts to him into 972 the direction of its school. There, it teaches and made there teach many matters as well profane as religious.
It is characterized by its scholarship in particular in the scientific discipline, in particular the Quadrivium which had been forgotten after the periods of the invasions Viking, Hungarian woman and sarrasine. Thus he imagines and builds all kinds of objects with cultural vocation like abacuses, a Globe, a Orgue and Horloge S, which was worth some sulfurous suspicions to him. He also reintroduces the dialectical one, one of three sciences of trivium.
Among its prestigious pupils, are reproduced Robert the Piles, wire of the mayor of the Palate Hugues Capet, Fulbert of Chartres, Richer, the historian, Bernelin of Paris, a mathematician author of a treaty on the abacus (Liber abaci), Guy d' Arezzo (v.990-1050), the monk Benedictine of the Abbaye of Pomposa (close to Ferrare), large theorist of the music known for his Micrologus of musica , which is at the base of the notation of the Western music, with the invention of the range extended to five lines, the name of notes, perhaps also Dudon of Saint-Quentin, grammairien, poet, and like Adalbéron, rhetor and dialectician.
The reputation of Gerbert and the friendship which Othon II carries to him are worth him to receive the direction of the Abbaye of Bobbio, in Italy, into 982. It then directs the richest library of Occident. It is filled but it continues to teach in Rheims.
The archbishop and the cardinal
It entered the court of large by the door of the knowledge. During the designation of Hugues Capet as king of France, he plays a part of advising important near Adalbéron. He succeeds to him on the throne archiépiscopal of Rheims into 991 after the death of Aldabéron and the ousting of his substitute, Arnoul, which had been the wrong to betray Hugues Capet by delivering to the archbishop's palace to his/her uncle Charles of Lorraine the Carolingian applicant to the crown. This nomination acquired on decision of king Hugues Capet and against the will of the pope Jean XV. The Pope supporting Arnoul, Gerbert with other French bishops gives an opinion with the council of Holy-Basle, for the independence of the Churches with respect to Rome which is controlled by the Germanic emperors.In order to avoid an excommunication of the bishops having sat to the council of Holy-Basle, and thus a schism, Gerbert prefers to release taken. It gives up the archbishop's palace and goes to Italy. It binds of a great friendship to Adélaïde of Burgundy. This one married very young person with the king d' Italie Lothaire, is found well quickly widowed, her husband having been poisoned into 950 by Bérenger II, marquis d' Ivrée, who takes his place, keeping captive the Adélaïde queen. But this one calls with its help the king of German (future emperor of the Romans) Otton Ier, which marries it into 951 and détrône Bérenger. Crowned empress with her husband in February 962, it becomes widowed in May 973. Its grandson Otton III being minor, it ensures the regency of the empire from 991 to 995. The young Emperor (14 years), asks him into 997 to become his tutor. The écolâtre of Magdeburg having defied it in philosophy (one taught in this time logic and rhetoric), Gerbert answered him in January 98, in Ravenne, in front of the emperor Othon III. He triumphs in this challenge and the emperor entrusts the archbishop's palace of Ravenne to him.
The pope: Sylvestre II
At the 10th century, the Carolingian empire finished dissolving and Europe is divided into multiple autonomous principalities in fact even if they elect and recognize a sovereign whose influence remains limited. At that time the bishops often laic and are named by the counts. The role of Rome east thus weakened considerably. However the monarchs and papacy have convergent interests. Thus when Ottoniens will put an end by their military power to the Hungarian invasions, the pope Jean XII puts himself under their protection in the exchange of the imperial sacring. Masters of Italy of North, and having established their court in Rome with an aim of recreating an Empire Romain, Ottoniens have the capacity to influence the election of sovereign pontiff, his nomination being submitted for their approval. Gerbert is close to the emperors Othon I {{er}} and Othon II, he was the tutor of Othon III. With died of Gregoire V, the February 18th 999, it is elected Pape and is devoted the April 2nd. It chooses the name of Sylvestre II in reference to Sylvestre I {{er}} which was pope under the emperor Constantin I {{er}} which recognized Christianity like religion of the Roman Empire.
From a political point of view it helps with the introduction of strong states in Europe, obtaining in exchange that those are pressed on the Church. This contributes to reinforce the role of Papacy in medieval Europe. For example Robert II of France had been put in conflict with the pope Gregoire V by repudiating the queen for Berthe of Burgundy (what posed a problem of consanguinity). This marriage posed especially a political problem: Berthe brings in dowry the ducher and the county of Burgundy including one most of the territory belongs to the Saint Worsens. However the pope is the cousin of the emperor Otton III. The king was under the threat of a Excommunication and the kingdom of interdict. But Hugues Capet had entrusted the training of Robert to Gerbert. This last, having affection for this last, commutes the sorrow to a seven years penitence. It thus reinforces the base of the capétiens on the throne and contributes to the establishment of a strong dynasty in France. During its pontificate, it allots the title of king to the Christian sovereigns of Poland and Hungary. But Otton III dies in 1002 carrying with him the dream of an empire joining together Byzance in Western Europe. Sylvestre II dies in Rome the May 12th 1003 after four years of pontificate. He is buried with Saint-Jean-of-Lateran, where the pope Serge IV registers an epitaph engraved against a pillar of the basilica, evoking his exceptional at the same time intellectual and religious course.
With the Rebirth, the Church forgets that it had held its lasting capacity of the century of the control of the knowledge and it is shown being wary with respect to the scholars. Thus the memory of Sylvestre II is dirtied. One calculates that its knowledge and its election with the saint seat came from an agreement with the devil. It is told whereas before dying he confessed to have known the demon “Diane”.
Humanistic the, philosophical one and mathematician
Gerbert d' Aurillac is humanistic complete, before the letter. It gives to the honor the ancient culture, with especially Latin authors (Virgile, Cicéron and Boèce), Porphyre of Tyr, but also Aristote. Thus it is the first to introduce Aristote in Occident, already very known in the Islamic Civilization, well before the translations of the 12th century (Plato was already known in Occident). Gerbert d' Aurillac had a very precise design of the classification of the disciplines of philosophy.
In 967, there go in Spain, near the count of Barcelona, and remain three years with the monastery of Vich, in Catalogne. The Catalan monasteries have many manuscripts of the Moslem Spain, they are there that it initiates with the Moslem science, studying the Mathématiques and the Astronomie. It brings back to the same time the Astrolabe, of Greek origin . Thanks to the astrolabe and its spheres of wood, he explains well before Galileo the operation of the solar system.
Gerbert d' Aurillac is undoubtedly more known today in the scientific world to have brought back in Europe the system of decimal notation and the Zero which were used there since Al-Khuwarizmi had brought them back India and makes diffuse in the Empire. It should indeed be known that towards the An Millet practice of division (without use of the zero!) asked for the equivalent of what we would name today a unit of value in a university, because the use of the Roman numerals made very complex calculations. It the USA of its papal position to make it adopt by the Western clerks.
He is the author of at least two treaties on the arithmetic operations. The first on the division ( Libellus of numerorum divisione, Regulae of divisionibus ), where Gerbert invents a method of Euclidean division which will be reported by Bernelin of Paris (Bernelinus, + v. 1020), one of its pupils. The other treaty relates to the multiplications ( Libellus multiplicationum ), addressed to Constantin de Fleury, that Gerbert calls “its Theophilus”, and who prescribes the antique multiplication by the fingers (digital calculation).
It is also at the origin of a abacus: abacus of Gerbert where the multiple tokens are replaced by a bearing token single like labels a Arab numeral (for example: the 7 tokens of the column unit are replaced by a token carrying number 7, the 3 tokens of the column Dizaine by a token carrying figure 3, etc).
The use of the Comput in the administrative documents could develop towards the An Millet thanks to these important discoveries.
The third branch of Mathematics was then the geometry, for which it composed a treaty of geometry ( Isagoge Geometriae, Liber geometriae artis ) remarkable, says one, a long time stray with the library of Salzburg and found by Bernard Petz, erudite Benedictine of the 18th century. The treaty of Gerbert establishes in a modern way the axioms, the theorems of the point, the straight line, the angles and the triangles, whose technical terms are explained by Gerbert: base, height, side perpendicular to the base, hypotenuse. On this subject, Gerbert corresponds ( Epistola AD Adelbodum ) with Adelbold (Adelboldus, Adelbodus, Adeobaldo) raises of Lobbes and Liege, bishop of Utrecht (970-1026), on the surface of the equilateral triangle, the volume of the sphere, an arithmetic passage of the philosophical Consolation ( Of consolatione philosophiae ) of Boèce.
One would owe him, moreover, the invention of the Balancier very important projection for the development of the clock industry.
Gerbert calculates the surface of the regular figures: ring, hexagonal, registered octagone and conscript… as well as the volume of the sphere, the prism, the cylinder, the cone, the pyramid and uses also an measuring instrument of its invention and which preserved its name, the stick of Gerbert, to find the height of a tree, a tower, of a column, by the shade that these objects project, or uses another technique, like that of their image reflected in water or a mirror.
The music was then included/understood like the second branch of Mathematics and Gerbert was interested closely in it. It empirically acts by dividing the sounds of a monocorde, instrument made up of a cord of metal or bowel tended on a rule between two fixed rests. It thus measured the variety and the proportion of the sounds produced by establishing divisions which we know let us tons, semitones, flat and sharps, formant of the musical modes. Applying these principles, according to the testimony of Guillaume de Malmesbury, it built a hydraulic organ in the church of Rheims, whose sounds were produced by the effect of the steam bubbling in its cavities.
In the Morning of the Magicians , Pauwels and Bergier report that the Pope Sylvestre II would have, after its voyage to the Indies, drawn knowledge which astounded its entourage. It had in its palate, a head of bronze which answered by yes or not the questions that it posed to him on the policy and the general situation of Christendom. According to Sylvestre II (volume CXXXIX of the Latin Patrology of Migne) this process was extremely simple and corresponded to calculation with two digits. It would be about an automat similar to our modern binary machines. This " head magique" was destroyed with its death, and the knowledge brought back by him carefully dissimulated. This speaking head would have been worked " under a certain conjunction of the stars which is placed exactly at the time when all the planets are beginning to them course". It would have a bond with the Company of the Last nine Unknown ones.
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