Silvester, Bernard

Alternate Name

Bernardus Silvestris

FlourishedFrance, circa1150

Bernardus Silvestris was one of a number of well-rounded scholars who cultivated a revival of learning during the twelfth century. Few personal details are available about Bernard, apart from the fact that he was a master in the schools of Tours, and was associated closely with the school of Chartres, and a friend and literary collaborator of its master Thierry. His major contribution to astronomical literature is the Cosmographia, a concise summary of the high medieval understanding of the creation of the cosmos and the geocentric model of the Universe.

The noted medievalist, Charles Homer Haskins, lists Bernardus among the era’s great writers. Haskins points out Bernardus’s debt to Macrobius ’s Commentary on the Dream of Scipio, and to Thierry of Chartres, to whom the Cosmographia is dedicated. A translation of Ptolemy ’s Planisphere, by Peter the Dalmatian, was also addressed to Thierry, providing additional evidence...