THE DARK AGES 155 



Near the close of the tenth century Gerbert of Aquitaine (940- 

 1003), afterwards Pope Sylvester II, devoted his versatile genius 

 in part to mathematical science. He constructed not only abaci, 

 but terrestrial and celestial globes, and collected a valuable library. 

 To him were also attributed a clock, and an organ worked by steam. 

 He wrote works on the use of the abacus, on the division of numbers 

 and on geometry. The last named contains a solution of the rela- 

 tively difficult problem to find the sides of a right triangle whose 

 hypotenuse and area are given. Unfortunately the latter part of 

 his life was absorbed in political intrigue and his death in 1003 

 cut short his plans for attempting the recovery of the Holy Land. 



Out of the schools of Charlemagne gradually grew up that 

 subtle, minute and over-refined learning of the later Middle Ages 

 which has come to be known as Scholasticism. Based as it 

 was upon authority instead of experiment, and magnifying, as it 

 did, details more than principles, it sharpened rather than broad- 

 ened the intellect, and was indifferent if not unfavorable to science. 



REFERENCES FOR READING 



LUCRETIUS. On the Nature of Things. 



STRABO. Geography. 



PLINY. Natural History. 



FRONTINUS. The Waterworks of Rome. (Tr. by G. Herschel.) 



VITRUVIUS. On Architecture. 



KER. The Dark Ages. 



GIBBON. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 



GALEN. On the Natural Faculties. 



