Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 2.djvu/432

420 I shall only add Malmesbury's account of the education of Gerbert, which is a curious illustration of what has often been inculcated in these volumes, concerning the introduction of romantic fiction into Europe.

Gerbert, a native of France, went into Spain for the purpose of learning astrology and other sciences of that cast, of the Saracens; who, to this day, occupy the upper regions of Spain, They are seated in the metropolis of Seville; where, according to the customary practice of their country, they study the arts of divination and enchantment. Here Gerbert soon exceeded Ptolemy in the astrolabe, Alchind in astronomy, and Tulius Firmicus in fatality. Here he learned the meaning of the flight and language of birds, and was taught how to raise spectres from hell. Here he acquired whatever human curiosity has discovered for the destruction or convenience of mankind. I say nothing of his knowledge in arithmetic, music, and geometry, which he so fully understood, as to think them beneath his genius, and which he yet, with great industry, introduced into France, where they had been long forgotten. He certainly was the first who brought the algorithm from the Saracens, and who illustrated it with such rules as the most studious in that