SILVESTRO I, Pope, Saint - St. Sylvester presents to Constantine, still afflicted with leprosy, the icon of Sts. Peter and Paul who appeared to him in a dream. Detail of the 12th-century frescoes in the chapel of St. Sylvester - Rome, church of the Ss. Quattro Coronati.

(23 Jan. 1002) could have been fatal to him. He returned to Rome and accommodated himself to a political regime in which the patrician John Crescentius left him scant powers. He died on 12 May 1003.

Gerbert had enemies and was the victim of the Italian nationalists who chafed at the imperial enterprise. The Liber pont. (II, p. 263) contains a legendary account that portrays the Pope as an astrologer and a necromancer and attributes his career of honors to a pact concluded with the devil.

His works were printed by Migne (PL 139) and by A. Olleris (Oeuvres de Gerbert, Paris 1867).

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: M. Buedinger, Über Gerberts wissenschaftliche und politische Stellung, Kassel 1851; F. Lot, Les derniers Carolingiens, Paris 1891; K. Werner, Gerbert von Aurillac, 2nd ed., Vienna 1891; K. Schulthess, Papst Silvester II (Gerbert) als Lehrer und Staatsmann, Hamburg 1891; F. Picavet, Gerbert, un pape philosophe, d'après l'histoire et d'après la légende, Paris 1897; C. Lux, Papst Silvester II. Einfluss auf die Politik Kaiser Ottos III., Breslau 1898; F. Lot, Etudes sur le règne de Hugues Capet, Paris 1903; Fr. Eichongrun, Gerbert (Silvester II.) als Persönlichkeit, Berlin 1928; ed. of the Historiae of Richer, monk of St-Denis, publ. by R. Latouche, Paris 1930 (preferable to MGH, Scriptores, III, pp. 561-694 (Richer was raised by Gerbert and received much information about events directly from his master); Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, VII, nos. 71-79, 371.

Guglielmo Mollat

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Sylvester I, Pope, Saint

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