Abbo of Fleury and Gerbert of Rheims

Gerbert of Aurillac

A near contemporary of Abbo, Gerbert of Aurillac was born c. 946. In 999 he became pope, taking the name Sylvester II. He died in 1003. Gerbert is also an influential figure in the history of medieval science. During a period in Spain he was influenced by advanced Arabic mathematics, and on his return to the north of France introduced the abacus, a counting device, for use in schools. This manuscript, which contains a number of Gerbert’s mathematical and astronomical works, opens with a table of numeric terms (f. 2r).

Intellectual networks

Gerbert became head of the cathedral school in Rheims in 972 while Abbo taught at the monastic school of Fleury prior to his elevation to abbot in 988. Thanks to their powerful ecclesiastical positions, they built up networks of political and intellectual acquaintances, useful sources for obtaining manuscripts of rare texts. Gerbert, for example, wrote to Constantine, scolasticus or schoolmaster at Fleury, asking if he had copies of works of Cicero, such as the Republic and the Verrine Orations. See another letter of Gerbert here.

The revival of the logica vetus

The body of works referred to as the logica vetus, or ‘old logic’, included many texts translated from the Greek, notably those made by Boethius. In addition to his translations, Boethius made a number of commentaries on the most important works. These commentaries became significant dialectical textbooks in their own right. The texts of the logica vetus were often combined in manuscripts. Both Abbo and Gerbert were instrumental figures in the revival of interest in the logica vetus in the late tenth century, introducing these works to new generations of students.

Abbo and dialectic

Abbo wrote a number of dialectical treatises influenced by the corpus of works included in the logica vetus. Abbo made use of diagrams and tables to illustrate and explain his works, many of which were copied by his fellow monks in the scriptorium in Fleury. Find out more about an example of Abbo’s logical writings here.

As well as providing a list of titles, Richer also offers a few biographical details about their authors. He notes that Boethius’s commentary on the Isagoge depended on a translation of the text by the rhetorician Marius Victorinus. He comments that Cicero’s Topica was translated by “Tullius” from Greek into Latin, and adds that Boethius, whom he refers to as “Manilius”, was a consul (an important political role in the Ostrogothic kingdom). These details underscored the authority of these authors.

Gerbert’s curriculum: Rhetoric

Richer also describes Gerbert’s rhetorical curriculum (Historia, III.47). To learn the art of eloquence, students read the Latin poets Virgil, Statius and Terence along with the satirical works of Juvenal, Persius and Horace. In addition, they read Lucan’s histories – presumably the Pharsalia, a lengthy epic poem. Richer emphasises that Gerbert’s rhetorical curriculum didn’t depend on rhetorical classics, such as Cicero’s De inventione, but on the practical study of rhetoric as applied in exemplary Latin works. For an example of a manuscript containing some of these texts, see Paris, BnF lat. 7900A.

Gerbert and Abbo: Friends or Foes?

Gerbert and Abbo were leading intellectual figures of their day, but they seem to have had little to no contact. Were they rivals? The silence of the sources might suggest so. In 980 Gerbert wrote a letter to Constantine, monk of Fleury, introducing his writings on the abacus. In this letter he criticised a “half-educated philosopher” who “really still a learner along with me”, “pretends that only he has knowledge of it, as Horace says”.3 This ‘half-educated philosopher’ has often been presumed to be Abbo, but in truth Gerbert could have been criticising anyone who prized the appearance of knowledge over its possession. In quoting here from Horace (Epistles, II.I.87), Gerbert is also showing off his classical knowledge to Constantine, and so playing an intellectual game that we cannot necessarily over-interpret.