My friend Jorge Buescu, a professor at the University of Lisbon and former President of the Portuguese Society of Mathematics, writes monthly on mathematics in the Journal of the Order of Engineers of Portugal.
His articles are collected in books, copies of which he kindly sends me. The most recent one I just received, Love, Mathematics and Other Portents, introduces me to a fascinating figure: Gerbert d’Aurillac, the mathematician Pope Sylvester II who ruled Christendom at the turn of the first millennium, between 2 April 999 and May 12, 1003.
We do not know exactly where or when he was born, but it is believed to have been around 945 in the Auvergne region of France, certainly of humble origin. At the age of 18 he was admitted to the Benedictine monastery of Saint Géraud d’Aurillac under the protection of Abbot Raymond de Lavaur. The “Trivium” began, the basic cycle of medieval studies, made up of grammar, rhetoric and logic. But the advanced studies of the “quadrivium,” consisting of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music, were beyond the monastery’s offering.
In 967, the abbot took advantage of the visit of Borrel II, Count of Catalonia, and asked him if there were any good mathematicians in his domain. When the Count said yes, Raymond de Lavaur asked him to take Gerbert to continue his studies.
Catalonia was then on the border between the Christian kingdoms of the north of the Iberian peninsula, imbued with an irresistible urge to expand, and the highly developed culture of the Islamic kingdom of AlAndalus, the most advanced at the time. The three years he stayed there allowed Gerbert to reach his full potential as a student. It is even believed that he spent some time in Cordoba, the capital of AlAndalus.
In 970 Borrel II undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and took Gerbert with him. The Pope John XIII. Introduced to the Roman Emperor Otto I, Gerbert must have made a strong impression, for the Pope recommended him as tutor to the imperial heir, who later became Otto II. Two years later he became a teacher at the Reims Cathedral School.
In this era, before the founding of universities the first being established in Bologna as late as 1088 cathedral schools were the most advanced educational establishments, and Reims, where the kings of France were crowned, was one of the most prestigious in Europe. There Gerbert reached the peak of his academic fame.
Before the vicissitudes of his career took him into international politics and to the forefront of the Christian Church, Gerbert made important contributions to the development of mathematics in Europe. It will be next week’s topic.
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