New Years Eve II.

Silvester II (previously Gerbert von Aurillac , also Gerbert von Reims ; * around 950 in Aquitaine ; † May 12, 1003 in Rome ) was a mathematician , Abbot of Bobbio , Archbishop of Reims and Ravenna and finally Pope from April 2, 999 to on his death in 1003. What is unusual about his career is his descent from simple and poor backgrounds - bishops and popes of his time were usually only people who came from the nobility . It was not until the 13th century that Pietro di Morrone was re-elected Pope who came from a social class comparable to that of Silvester II.

He owed his election to the support of the young emperor Otto III. who was his student. This is also reflected in the chosen Pope's name. According to the (disproved) legend, New Year's Eve I was an advisor to Constantine the Great .

Life

Comparatively much is known about the life of Gerbert von Aurillac because one of his students, the monk Richer von Reims , wrote a history of France and in this Richeri historiarum libri IV also went into detail about the career of his mentor . A number of his letters have also survived.

Gerbert von Aurillac was born near Aurillac in the south of France and entered a local monastery at a young age. Presumably, due to his low status, he was initially a lay brother, but the abbot of the monastery recognized his talent early on and made it possible for him to be ordained as a monk. In one of his later letters, Gerbert von Aurillac stated that he owed everything to this abbot. In 967 the young monk was noticed by the Spanish nobleman Borrell II , who was visiting the monastery. Gerbert von Aurillac probably accompanied him back to Barcelona as a secretary and then stayed in Spain for about two years to study mathematics. In the following years he also studied natural sciences in the Christian city of Barcelona, ​​thus reaching a level of knowledge that was unusually high in the rest of Christian Europe. In 969 Borrell made a pilgrimage to Rome and took Gerbert von Aurillac with him. Gerbert met Pope John XIII there. and Emperor Otto I. The Pope convinced Otto to appoint Gerbert as a tutor for his young son, the future Emperor Otto II . Gerbert was later sent to Reims in northern France to complete his studies there. In letters that have survived from this period, he explains, among other things, why he attached such great importance to arithmetic. Around 982, Gerbert von Aurillac became abbot in the Italian monastery of Bobbio with the support of his former student Otto II . However, he failed to a large extent in this office. The monastery was impoverished and the monks opposed him, who owed his office only to the emperor's patronage. Gerbert eventually left this monastery and returned to Reims, where he became the archbishop's secretary. After the dismissal of his employer in 991, Gerbert succeeded him in this office. He was considered one of the leading scholars of his time.

From 997 Gerbert was the personal teacher and political advisor to the young German emperor Otto III. (980-1002), who made him Archbishop of Ravenna in 998 and finally the first French Pope in 999 . As Pope he was able to support Otto's policy ( Renovatio imperii Romanorum ). The great goal of New Year's Eve was to restore peace in troubled times under Otto's protection. However, he could not realize this project because he had to leave the city after an uprising of the Roman nobility in 1001. He did not return to Rome until shortly before his death.

Gerbert died in May 1003 and was buried in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran . In 1308 a fire destroyed the original tomb. In San Giovanni there is a cenotaph from the 17th century.

Scientific activity

Gerbert's scientific work is equivalent to the political and ecclesiastical ambitions. His rhetorical skills were praised, as was his knowledge, especially in mathematics and astronomy . The Geometria , mainly a collection of ancient writings, has been preserved. But practice was also included. In a letter (Bubnov: ep. 148) to the monk Remigius von Trier, Gerbert describes in some detail the manufacture of a celestial globe . Richer von St. Remi adds to the representation (Richeri Historiarum Liber III, 50). It is described that a wooden ball was covered with horse skin. The constellations were applied in color to this coating in a simple or more complex design; either monochrome as dots in red, or using different colors. In this case it remains unclear whether it was then only dots or perhaps painted constellations. Simple copies of a celestial globe were finished after the constellations had been applied, while the better ones were provided with a horizon ring. The use of the abacus and astrolabe are associated with Gerbert . Gerbert proves to be a representative of his time, both of political and church developments and of the early medieval educational canon. According to Oswald Spengler , it was he who " invented the construction of the stroke and wheel clocks " around 1000 .

Legends

Representation of the devil's alliance in Cod. Pal. germ. 137, f216v (around 1460)

Monument to Pope New Year II in Aurillac, Auvergne, France

In the times from around 1100 stories developed that New Year's Eve II had dealt with magic and was in league with the devil . According to legend, Gerbert studied in Córdoba and Seville during his stay in al-Andalus . He was credited with the introduction of the Arabic numerals, including zero, into occidental arithmetic, but this only happened in the course of the 12th century through translations of Al-Khwarizmi's arithmetic book . On the other hand, it is true that while studying in Andalusia, Gerbert also got to know the Arabic numerals, but not yet zero. He contributed to the introduction of a medieval special form of the abacus with numbered calculating marks.

Pope New Year's Eve is said to have celebrated Mass on the New Year's Eve before the turn of the first millennium , because he expected the end of the world during the change .

swell

• Fritz Weigle (Hrsg.): The letters of the German imperial era 2: The collection of letters by Gerberts of Reims. Weimar 1966 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
• Life of St. Bernward, Bishop of Hildesheim , written by Thangmar (?), In: Biographies of some bishops of the 10th – 12th centuries Century, translated by Hatto Kallfelz (Selected Sources on the German History of the Middle Ages 22), Darmstadt 1973, pp. 263–361.
• Thietmar von Merseburg : Chronicon , transferred and explained by Werner Trillmich (Freiherr vom Stein Memorial Edition, Vol. IX), Darmstadt 1957.
• Richer von St. Remi: Richeri Historiarum Libri IV (Monumenta Germania Historica SS XXXVIII)
• Sigrid Hunke: Allah's sun over the west . Fischer Library No. 643, 1965, p. 43 f.

literature

• Gerd Althoff : Otto III. (= Design of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance ). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1997.
• Werner Bergmann: Innovations in the Quadrivium of the 10th and 11th Centuries. Studies on the introduction of the astrolabe and abacus in the Latin Middle Ages (= Sudhoffs Archive, supplement 26) , Stuttgart 1985.
• Nicolaus Bubnov (Ed.): Gerberti Opera Mathematica (972–1003) , reprint Hildesheim 1963.
• Nicolaus Bubnov (Ed.): Sbornik pisem Geberta kakh istoritcheskij istotchnik , 2 volumes, Kiev 1888 to 1890 (Gerbert's letters)
• Fritz Eichengrün: Gerbert (New Year's Eve II) as a personality , Leipzig-Berlin 1928
• James Hannam: God's Philosophers - How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science , Icon Books 2009, ISBN 1-84831-070-6 .
• Hans-Henning Kortüm : Gerbertus qui et New Year's Eve. Papacy at the turn of the millennium . In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages, Vol. 55 (1999), pp. 29–62. ( Digitized version )
• Hans-Henning Kortüm:  New Year's Eve II. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 415 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Harriet Peatt Lattin (transl.): The letters of Gerbert with his papal privileges as Sylvester II. New York: Columbia University Press 1961.
• Uta Lindgren : Gerbert von Aurillac and the Quadrivium. Studies on education in the age of the Ottonians (= Sudhoffs Archiv, Beih. 18) , Wiesbaden 1976.
• Massimo Oldoni:  SILVESTRO II. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Rome 2000 ( treccani.it ).
• Pierre Riché: Gerbert d'Aurillac. Le Pape de l'An Mil , Paris 1987.
• Karl Schulteß:  New Year's Eve II. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 330-342.
• Mathilde Uhlirz : Investigations into the content and dating of Gerbert's letters from Aurillac, Pope Sylvester II (= series of publications by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Vol. 2) , Göttingen 1957.
• Kurt Vogel: Gerbert von Aurillac as a mathematician. In: Acta historica Leopoldina , Vol. 16 (1985), pp. 9-23.
• Karl Ferdinand Werner : On the transmission of Gerbert's letters from Aurillac. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 17 (1961), pp. 91–144.

novel

• Gerhart Ellert , The Magician. Novel. F. Speidelsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna and Leipzig 1933. New edition: Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1981, ISBN 3-85378-185-3 .

Web links

Commons : New Years Eve II.  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Latin e-texts from Migne PL in Wikisource
• New Year's Eve II in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Literature from and about New Year's Eve II in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 24.
2. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 26.
3. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 26.
4. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 27.
5. ^ Hans-Henning Kortüm: Gerbert von Aurillac . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . tape 4 . dtv, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-59057-2 , Sp. 1300 f .
6. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 27.
7. ↑ Hannam: God's Philosopher . 2009, p. 30.
8. ↑ vaticanhistory.de

predecessor	Office	successor
Gregory V.	Pope 999-1003	John XVII
Arnulf	Archbishop of Reims 991–999	Arnulf
John X.	Archbishop of Ravenna 998–999	Leo II