A passionating history, which has be seen as the ideal self-made man, or the genius prevailing against all odds.
Reliably Gerbert was noble and cadet, monk and mathematical genius, so he could move from Aurillac to Catalunya around 969, were he met the mozarabic science world and developed some original algorithms either in mathematics and in music, as in the treatises on the Abacus and on the Orgue’s tubes lengths, written in Reims where he was called as scholarch since 972 by Archbishop Adalbero. In 991 he become Archbishop of Reims after the discussed deposition of Arnulf. Pope John XV did not accept such deposition and Gerbert went to the court of the young Emperor Otto III to be his teacher. He encouraged the election of Bruno of Carinthia, Gregory V, cousin of Otto III, to strengthen the relationship between Church and Empire. Gregory moved the exiliated archbishop Gerbert from Reims to Ravenna, and his sudden death in 999 determined the election of Gerbert to the Roman Pontificate. Never before such a prominent scholarly figure, renowned in all Europe for his science, become Pope (999-1003). During his papacy the young Emperor died in January 1002 and the political situation in Rome remained in strong tension, but respected the wise Pope.
