Pope Sylvester II
Head of the Catholic Church from 999 to 1003
Summary
Pope Sylvester II, originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Moorish and Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics and astronomy, reintroducing to Western Christendom the abacus, armillary sphere, and water organ, which had been lost to Latin Europe since the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He is said to be the first in Christian Europe to introduce the decimal numeral system using the Hindu–Arabic numeral system.
Originally created by MichaelTinkler
11/12/2001, 5:38:20 AM
Modified
5/10/2026, 5:03:09 PM
Recent revisions
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