The Abacus and the Cross: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages
The pontiff in question is Sylvester II, pope from 999 to 1003. From the fragmentary evidence about Gerbert of Aurillac, Sylvester’s name before his elevation, Brown resourcefully recounts his remarkable career and boldly asserts that the history of mathematics must be revised in light of Gerbert’s life. Born to a humble station around 950, Gerbert’s precocity impressed bishops and counts, and his friendship-forming personality, visible in surviving letters, showed up in places from Barcelona to Reims to Rome. Brown speculates that he also may have studied in Cordoba, then a center of Islamic erudition, where he may have learned about Arabic numerals, the abacus, and the astrolabe. In any event, she recounts that Gerbert served as a conduit of Arab science into Christian Europe as schoolmaster at Reims. His medieval scholarly renown subsequently attracted the attention of emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. As readably knowledgeable about Gerbert’s political fortunes as about his intellectual influence, Brown is a lively narrator and interesting interpreter of Gerbert’s life and world. This portrait gives both the science and the history audiences something to talk about. --Gilbert Taylor--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.