Seres, purpureas vestes: Galli, sua vina.
Although, as a matter of fact, the Arabs had no gold to send, and the Scythians no arms, and Egypt no precious stones save only the turquoise, the Chinese (Seres) may have sent their purple vestments, and the north her sables and other furs, and France her wines. At any rate the verses show very clearly an extensive foreign trade.
Then there were the Crusades, which in these times brought the East in touch with the West. The spirit of the Orient showed itself in the songs of the troubadours, and the baudekin,[[428]] the canopy of Bagdad,[[429]] became common in the churches of Italy. In Sicily and in Venice the textile industries of the East found place, and made their way even to the Scandinavian peninsula.[[430]]
We therefore have this state of affairs: There was abundant intercourse between the East and West for
some centuries before the Hindu numerals appear in any manuscripts in Christian Europe. The numerals must of necessity have been known to many traders in a country like Italy at least as early as the ninth century, and probably even earlier, but there was no reason for preserving them in treatises. Therefore when a man like Gerbert made them known to the scholarly circles, he was merely describing what had been familiar in a small way to many people in a different walk of life.
Since Gerbert[[431]] was for a long time thought to have been the one to introduce the numerals into Italy,[[432]] a brief sketch of this unique character is proper. Born of humble parents,[[433]] this remarkable man became the counselor and companion of kings, and finally wore the papal tiara as Sylvester II, from 999 until his death in 1003.[[434]] He was early brought under the influence of the monks at Aurillac, and particularly of Raimund, who had been a pupil of Odo of Cluny, and there in due time he himself took holy orders. He visited Spain in about 967 in company with Count Borel,[[435]] remaining there three years,
and studying under Bishop Hatto of Vich,[[436]] a city in the province of Barcelona,[[437]] then entirely under Christian rule. Indeed, all of Gerbert's testimony is as to the influence of the Christian civilization upon his education. Thus he speaks often of his study of Boethius,[[438]] so that if the latter knew the numerals Gerbert would have learned them from him.[[439]] If Gerbert had studied in any Moorish schools he would, under the decree of the emir Hishām (787-822), have been obliged to know Arabic, which would have taken most of his three years in Spain, and of which study we have not the slightest hint in any of his letters.[[440]] On the other hand, Barcelona was the only Christian province in immediate touch with the Moorish civilization at that time.[[441]] Furthermore we know that earlier in the same century King Alonzo of Asturias (d. 910) confided the education of his son Ordoño to the Arab scholars of the court of the
wālī of Saragossa,[[442]] so that there was more or less of friendly relation between Christian and Moor.
After his three years in Spain, Gerbert went to Italy, about 970, where he met Pope John XIII, being by him presented to the emperor Otto I. Two years later (972), at the emperor's request, he went to Rheims, where he studied philosophy, assisting to make of that place an educational center; and in 983 he became abbot at Bobbio. The next year he returned to Rheims, and became archbishop of that diocese in 991. For political reasons he returned to Italy in 996, became archbishop of Ravenna in 998, and the following year was elected to the papal chair. Far ahead of his age in wisdom, he suffered as many such scholars have even in times not so remote by being accused of heresy and witchcraft. As late as 1522, in a biography published at Venice, it is related that by black art he attained the papacy, after having given his soul to the devil.[[443]] Gerbert was, however, interested in astrology,[[444]] although this was merely the astronomy of that time and was such a science as any learned man would wish to know, even as to-day we wish to be reasonably familiar with physics and chemistry.
That Gerbert and his pupils knew the ġobār numerals is a fact no longer open to controversy.[[445]] Bernelinus and Richer[[446]] call them by the well-known name of