Archive for May 2011
Sylvester II: Scientist, Pope, Wizard, –Vampire?
Gerbert of Aurilac (ca. 940-1003), later Pope Sylvester II, has been tracking me down for months. I first met up with the “scientist-pope” when I was working on Islamic Spain’s influence on medieval Europe. Gerbert was one of the first of the European scholars who traveled to Spain to study the lost quadrivium of the…
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Why Another History Blog?
The first day of my PhD program, my advisor said, “You know there are no jobs, right?” I knew, but I didn’t care. I wanted to write about South Asia and history for a broader audience than the other five people interested in my dissertation topic. I wanted to write for history buffs and nerdy…
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