The esoteric fifteenth century philosopher Pico dell Miranda, was so confident as a polymath that he wrote a treatise called De omni re scibile: "Concerning every known thing". Fast forward and Pascal, who as inventor of a prototype for the modern computer was not lacking little grey cells, satirized this, and then Voltaire applied his mordant wit by adding to Pico's title et quibusdam alias ("and some other things").
Back in the tenth century like a flash in one of the bleakest times of the Church, Gilbert of Aurillac became the first French pope: and perhaps the most brilliant of pontiffs as well as one of the wisest if wisdom consists not just in knowing a lot of things, but also in knowing that there are a lot of things that one does not know. In his formative academic career he mastered the classical quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music which would be resources as he introduced to Christendom the decimal system of Hindu-Arabic numerals, an armillary sphere, the first mechanical clock, and an hydraulic musical
organ. The observatory for asteroidal and lunar occultation in Bukowiec, Poland is named for him.
