MATHEMATICAL SCIEA T CES. 



as lie became a monk at the Abbey of St. Denis, where he died in 829. The 

 Order of St. Benedict had almost made a monopoly of the exact sciences, 

 which were held in high honour at the Abbeys of Mount Cassini, in Italy ; 

 of St. Martin, at Tours (France) ; of St. Arnulph, at Metz ; of St. Gall, in 

 Switzerland ; of Prum, in Bavaria ; of Canterbury, in England, &c. It was 

 there that were formed the able architects and ecclesiastical engineers who 

 erected so many magnificent edifices throughout Europe, and most of whom, 

 dedicating their lives to a work of faith and pious devotion, have, through 

 humility, condemned their names to oblivion. 



Gerbert, born at Aurillac about 930, and admitted while very young 

 into a monastery of that town, was one of those monks who devoted their 

 time to the sciences ; but he distinguished himself from amongst his con- 

 temporaries as much by the extensiveness of his learning as by the practical 

 direction which he gave to his labours by the applications that he contrived 

 to extract from them. Linguist, geometrician, astronomer, and mechanist, 

 he went to complete his mathematical studies at the schools of Cordova and 

 Toledo, and thence repaired to Germany, where the Emperor Otho III. 

 conceived a great liking for him. He held the see of Ravenna, after having 

 been Archbishop of Rheirns, and was elected Pope under the title of 

 Sylvester II. Gerbert was, beyond question, the first mathematician of his 

 day. He it was who popularised the use of numerals and the system of 

 numbering which we still employ a system very different from that of 

 which the Romans made use, but falsely attributed to the Arabs, as traces 

 of it are to be found in the works of Boethius. It was not, however, to the 

 introduction of Arab figures into Europe, but to the use which he made of 

 his universal learning, that Gerbert owed his fame. During his stay at the 

 imperial court he fabricated with his own hands, amongst other curious 

 works, a clock worked by water, and the movement of which was regulated 

 by the polar star. His inventions caused him to be looked upon as a 

 sorcerer, and of his numerous scientific works all that remain extant are 

 several treatises on Geometry and Cosmography. 



His pupil and friend, Adelbold, a native of Liege, after studying the 

 sciences there under the learned Heriger, acquired an early celebrity as the 

 brilliant rival of Fulbert of Chartres, and of Abbou, Abbot of Fleury. The 

 Emperor Henry II. attached him to his household as chancellor or secretary, 

 and was loath to lose his services by raising him to the see of Utrecht. 



