Gerbert of Aurillac (c. 940–1003)

2015 ◽  
pp. 33-51
Author(s):  
Carlo Bianchini ◽  
Luca J. Senatore
Keyword(s):  
Gerbert Of Aurillac

scholarly journals GERBERT OF AURILLAC: ASTRONOMY AND GEOMETRY IN TENTH CENTURY EUROPE

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 467-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
COSTANTINO SIGISMONDI
Keyword(s):  
Rational Approximation ◽  
Equilateral Triangle ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The North ◽  
Celestial Pole ◽  
Gerbert Of Aurillac

Gerbert of Aurillac was the most prominent personality of the tenth century: astronomer, organ builder and music theoretician, mathematician, philosopher, and finally pope with the name of Silvester II (999–1003). Gerbert introduced firstly the arabic numbers in Europe, invented an abacus for speeding the calculations and found a rational approximation for the equilateral triangle area, in the letter to Adelbold here discussed. Gerbert described a semi-sphere to Constantine of Fleury with built-in sighting tubes, used for astronomical observations. The procedure to identify the star nearest to the North celestial pole is very accurate and still in use in the XII century, when Computatrix was the name of Polaris. For didactical purposes the Polaris would have been precise enough and much less time consuming, but here Gerbert was clearly aligning a precise equatorial mount for a fixed instrument for accurate daytime observations. Through the sighting tubes it was possible to detect equinoxes and solstices by observing the Sun in the corresponding days. The horalogium of Magdeburg was probably a big and fixed-mount nocturlabe, always pointing the star near the celestial pole.

Transmission, Transplantation, and Diffusion in the Latin West

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor J. Katz ◽  
Karen Hunger Parshall
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Western World ◽  
Intellectual Culture ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Royal Courts ◽  
Mathematical Sciences ◽  
Gerbert Of Aurillac ◽  
And Diffusion

This chapter follows the growth and development of the intellectual culture in the West after a period of decline roughly concurrent to that of the decline of the Roman Empire. It explores the intellectual reawakening of the Western world following the efforts of the clergyman Gerbert of Aurillac, who transmitted classical and Islamic learning and strove—through his innovative use of the abacus, celestial spheres, and armillary spheres of his own fabrication—to raise the level of learning of the mathematical sciences in the Latin West. Among his students was a generation of Catholic scholars who went on themselves to establish or to teach at cathedral schools and to influence educational reforms in royal courts throughout western Europe.

The Android of Albertus Magnus

AI Narratives ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 72-94
Author(s):  
Minsoo Kang ◽  
Ben Halliburton
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Gerbert Of Aurillac ◽  
Insight Into

In medieval and early modern writings, there is a cluster of stories concerning an artificial construct in the shape of a human body or a head that is animated for the purpose of divination, associated with such figures as Gerbert of Aurillac, Robert Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, and Roger Bacon. Among them, the Albertus legends have been retold numerous times in interesting variations that provide insight into the changing attitudes towards intellectual magic. Given the fact that the wondrous object is described as being able to converse and even reason, its nature as a kind of medieval AI has made it an object of interest in recent books on AI, robotics, and posthumanity. In this article, the major appearances of Albertus’s speaking statue/head story will be examined in detail to show that the explanation for the wonder moved from astrology to demonic agency, as well as to pure mechanics.

Heriger and the Study of Philosophy at Lobbes in the Tenth Century

Traditio ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 307-317
Author(s):  
Robert G. Babcock
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Clear Indication ◽  
First Time ◽  
Gerbert Of Aurillac ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
Peri Hermeneias

In a recent article on the study of Boethian logical works during the Middle Ages, Osmund Lewry discusses the revival of logical studies at the end of the tenth century, focusing on the period after ca. 970 when Abbo of Fleury and Gerbert of Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II) renewed the teaching and study of dialectical works, and when Notker Labeo translated some logical texts into German. To this small group of tenth-century scholars known to have been concerned with dialectic and philosophy may be added the name of Heriger, schoolmaster and abbot (990–1007) of the Belgian monastery of Lobbes. The present study begins with the identification of quotations by Heriger from dialectical and philosophical works, then discusses Heriger's use of dialectic in theological argumentation, and finally considers the influence of his philosophical teaching at Lobbes. Heriger's interest in dialectic is revealed by quotations in his Vita Remacli from Boethius' In Topica Ciceronis and Apuleius' Peri Hermeneias. These quotations are identified for the first time in the present study. The application of dialectical learning to theological questions, specifically his use of logical principles in his tract De corpore et sanguine domini (PL 139.179–88), indicates that Heriger's quotations from logical texts reflect more than bookish antiquarianism; the study of dialectic was useful to him in theological argumentation. The evidence of Heriger's philosophical pursuits provides the first clear indication that Lobbes was one of the important Lotharingian centers for philosophical studies.

Ciceronian Amicitia in the Letters of Gerbert of Aurillac

Viator ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-337
Author(s):  
Courtney DeMayo
Keyword(s):  
Gerbert Of Aurillac
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