Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/92

 76 S I L S I M Persius, and Lucan are specially named as entering into a course of training which was rendered more stimulating by a free use of open discussion. More remarkable still were his methods of teach- ing the quadrivium. To assist his lectures on astronomy he con- structed elaborate globes of the terrestrial and celestial spheres, on which the course of the planets was marked ; for facilitating arith- metical and perhaps geometrical processes he constructed an abacus with twenty-seven divisions and a thousand counters of horn. A younger contemporary speaks of his having made a wonderful clock or sun-dial at Magdeburg ; and we know from his letters that Gerbert was accustomed to exchange his globes for MSS. of those classical authors that his own library did not contain. More extraordinary still was his knowledge of music an accomplish- ment which seems to have been his earliest recommendation to Otto I. Probably he was beyond his age in this science, for we read of Garamnus, his first tutor at Rheims, whom he attempted to ground in this subject: "Artis difficultate victus, a musica rejectus est." Gerbert's letters contain more than one allusion to organs which ho seems to have constructed, and William of Malmesbury has preserved an account of a wonderful musical instrument still to be seen in his days at Rheims, which, so far as the English chronicler's words can be made out. seems to refer to an organ worked by steam. The same historian tells us that Gerbert borrowed from the Arabs (Saraceni) the abacus with ciphers (but see NUMERALS, vol. xvii. p. 627). Perhaps Gerbert's chief claim to the remembrance of posterity is to be found in the care and expense with which he gathered together MSS. of the classical writers. His love for literature was a passion. In the turmoil of his later life he looked back with regret to his student days ; and " for all his troubles philosophy was his only cure. " Everywhere at Rome, at Treves, at Moutier-en-Der, at Gerona in Spain, at Barcelona he had friends or agents to procure him copies of the great Latin writers for Bobbio or Rheims. To the abbot of Tours he writes that he is "labouring assiduously to form a library," and " throughout Italy, Germany, and Lorraine (Belgica) is spend- ing vast sums of money in the acquisition of MSS." It is note- worthy, however, that Gerbert never writes for a copy of one of the Christian fathers, his aim being, seemingly, to preserve the fragments of a fast- perishing secular Latin literature. It is equally remarkable that, despite his residence on the Spanish mark, he shows no token of a knowledge of Arabic, a fact which is perhaps sufficient to overthrow the statement of his younger contemporary Adhemar as to his having studied at Cordova. There is hardly a trace to be found in his writings of any acquaintance with Greek. So remarkable a character as that of Gerbert left its mark on the age, and fables soon began to cluster round his name. Towards the end of the llth century Cardinal Benno, the opponent of Hildebrand, is said to have made him the first of a long line of magician popes. Orderic Vitalis improves this legend by details of an interview with the devil, who prophesied Gerbert's threefold elevation in the famous line that Gerbert's contemporaries attri- buted to the pope himself : Transit in R. Gerbertus in R. post papa vigens R. A few years later "William of Malmesbury adds a love adventure at Cordova, a compact with the devil, the story of a speaking statue that foretold Gerbert's death at Jerusalem a prophecy fulfilled, somewhat as in the case of Henry IV. of England, by his dying in the Jerusalem church of Rome, and that imaginative story of the statue with the legend "Strike here," which, after having found its way into the Gesta Romanorum, has of late been revived in the Earthly Paradise. Gerbert's extant works may be divided into five classes, (a) A collection of letters, some 230 in number. These are to be found for the most part in an 11th- century SIS. at Leyden. Other important MSS. are those of the Uarbnrini Library nt Rome (late IGtli century), of Middlehill (17th century), and of St Peter's abbey, Salzburg. With the letters may be grouped the papal decrees of Gerbert when Silvester II. (6) The Acta Concilii. Jifmeiisis ad Sanctum Bufolum, a detailed account of the proceedings and discourses at the great council of St Basle ; a shorter account of his apologetic speeches at the councils of Mouzon and Causey; and drafts of the decrees of two or three other councils or imperial constitutions promulgated when he was archbishop of Ravenna or pope. The important works on the three above-mentioned councils are to be found in the 11th-century Leyden MS. just alluded to. (<) Gerbert's theological works com- prise a Sermo de Informations Episcopnrum and a treatise entitled De Corpore et Sanguine Domini, both of very doubtful authenticity. (<-/) Of his philosophical works we only have one, Libellus de nationals et Rations tili, written at the request of Otto III. and preserved in an 11th-century MS. at Paris, (e) His mathematical works consist of a Regula de Abaca Computi, of which a 12th-century MS. is to be found at the Vatican ; and a Libellm de Nwnerorum Divisione (llth and 12th century MSS. at Rome, Montpellier, and Paris), dedicated to his friend and correspondent Constantino of Fleury. A long treatise on geometry, attributed to Gerbert, is of somewhat doubtful authenticity. To these may be added a very short disquisition on the same subject addressed to Adalbold, and a similar one, on one of his own spheres, addressed to Constantino, abbot of Micy. All the writings of Gerbert are collected in the edition of M. Olleris. (T. A. A.) SILVESTER III. When Boniface IX. was driven from Rome early in January 1044, John, bishop of Sabina, was elected in his stead and took the title of Silvester III. Within three months Boniface returned and expelled his rival. Nearly three years later (December 1046) the council of Sutri deprived him of his bishopric and priest- hood. He was then sent to a monastery, where he seems to have died. SIMANCAS, a walled town of Spain, 8| miles south- west from Valladolid, on the road to Zamora, is situated on the Pisuerga, here crossed by a fine bridge of seventeen arches. The population within the municipal boundaries was 1258 in 1885. In the north-western angle of the town stands the Archivo General del Reino, originally a fortified castle, to which the national archives of Spain were removed in ] 563 (the suggestion was due to Ximenez). The extensive architectural alterations and repairs which were necessary were made under the direction of Herrera, Berruguete, and Mora, and the arrangement of the papers was entrusted to Diego de Ayala. They now occupy forty- six rooms, and are arranged in upwards of 80,000 bundles (30,000,000 documents), including important private as well as state papers, ambassadors' correspondence, and the like. The archives of the Indies, originally lodged here, were transferred in the 18th century to the Lonja of Seville. Permission to consult the documents at Simancas can now be readily obtained. SIMBIRSK, a government of eastern Russia, on the right bank of the middle Volga, with Kazan on the N., Samara on the E., Saratoff on the S., and Penza and Nijni-Novgorod on the W., has an area of 19,110 square miles, and a population (1882) of 1,471,164. It is occupied by the eastern parts of the great central plateau of middle Russia, which slowly rises towards the south, and gently slopes in the north towards the great Oka depression of the middle Volga. Its higher parts range from 750 to 1000 feet above the sea, and form the Zheguleff range of hills, which compel the Volga to make its great bend at Samara; while the numerous valleys and ravines which intersect it, and are excavated to a depth of 700 to 800 feet, give quite a hilly aspect to several parts of it, especially in the east, where it descends with abrupt crags towards the broad valley of the Volga. In the west a broad depression, traversed by numerous rivers and streams, extends along the left bank of the Sura. All geological formations, from the Carboniferous upwards, are met with in Simbirsk. The Volga flows for 300 miles along the eastern boundary, separating Simbirsk from Samara. The shallow Sviyaga rises in the Samarskaya Luka Hills and flows parallel to the Volga, at a distance of 2 to 20 miles, but in an opposite direction. The Sura, also flowing northwards, waters the western part of Simbirsk ; it is navigable for more than 270 miles, and, as it is free from ice earlier than the Volga and flows towards central Russia, goods are sometimes transported by land to the Sura to be shipped on it when speedy transport is desired. Its tributaries the Barysh, Alatyr (100 miles), Piyana, and others are not navigable. The Usa (80 miles) and the Syzran (100 miles) flow east and join the Volga below the Samara bend. A few lakes and marshes are met with in the west of the government. The forests, although rapidly disappearing, still cover 3,894,800 acres, while of the remainder 5,930,600 acres are arable, 1,150,800 acres prairie and pasture land, and 605,600 acres uncultivable. In the north excellent forests of timber cover large areas, but in the south they are rare. The climate is severe, and the extremes are great. At Simbirsk the average temperature is 38 '7, but the ther- mometer sometimes reaches 114 F., and frosts of - 47 F. are not uncommon ; the average rain and snow fall is only 17 '6 inches. South of the Samara Hills the climate is much less severe, and gardening, which is prosecuted with great difficulty in the north, flourishes there. The population, which was but 1,192,510 in 1867, had reached 1,471,164 in 1882, of whom only 100,740 lived in towns. The