Sylvester

Pope Sylvester (a man by the name of Gerbert) was a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 999 to 1003. He may have been the designer of the Eye Between the Worlds or similar technology. Manannan's Eye may have originally been Sylvester's or based on his technology.

Background
In the Other World, Gerbert reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 999 to 1003. He was known as Pope Sylvester the Second and was considered one of the great scholars of his age. His contemporaries, though, thought of him as one of the great magicians of his age. Sylvester attempted to collect manuscripts on all that was known during his time--magic, mathematics, natural history, geography, philosophy, whatever he could obtain. He is known to have constructed many devices for accurately tracking the movements of the planets, stars, and celestial spheres. He is also known to have built calculating machines to solve mathematical and geometrical problems, and he built wonderous clocks and other machines. He traded many of his devices and inventions for rare manuscripts of obscure knowledge.

What gave Pope Sylvester his reputation as a magician-pope, however, was his building of what is described as either a talking statue or a talking head constructed of brass. This head was capable of solving problems that were put to it, and some say it could predict the future. So great was the impact of this machien that stories began to circulate that the Pope had made a pact with Satan. Because of this, many scholars think that Sylvester is the basis for the story of the magician named Faust--a man who made his own pact with the devil. When Sylvester died, his magical head disappeared into the depths of the Vatican.

Had Pope Sylvester constructed some eleventh century equivalent to the modern computer? Had Manannan? "Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic." If technology can emulate magic, why can't magic emulate technology?