The trivium and quadrivium form the seven liberal arts. From around 500BC, Liberal Arts education began to take shape in Ancient Greece. To begin with, Pythagoras argued that there was a mathematical and geometrical harmony to the cosmos or the universe (Pythagoras spent many years in Egypt, and may have got many of his ideas from Egyptian mathematics, cosmology and philosophy).
Pythagoras argued that mathematics and the beauty of number, ratio and proportion were the first principles of everything in existence. His followers linked the four arts of astronomy, mathematics, geometry and music into one are of study called the Quadrivium. The study of number in particular was thought to purify the soul by putting it in mathematical harmony with the universe. Here the microcosm – the human soul – was at one with the macrocosm – the cosmos. Plato put the mathematical sciences at the heart of his design for the new Republic.
In 4th century Athens, the government of the polis, or city-state, respected the ability of rhetoric or public speaking above almost everything else. The Sophists claimed to be able to teach rhetorical skills to those who could pay them, and a science of oratory began to develop. Success required knowledge of grammar and dialectic; grammar in order to produce eloquence, and dialectic in order to make one’s arguments powerful enough to win debates. In time, rhetoric, grammar and dialectic became the educational programme of the Trivium. Until the European Renaissance, the trivium and the quadrivium were the foundation of Western education.
Hugh of St. Victor said (c. 1130s), ‘grammar is the knowledge of how to speak without error; dialectic is the clear-sighted argument which separates the true from the false; rhetoric is the discipline of persuading to every suitable thing.’
In this mnemonic about the seven liberal arts, grammar has priority over the others:
Gram loquitur; Dia vera docet; Rhet verba colorat;
Mus canit; Ar numerat; Ge ponderat; Asti colit astra.
Grammar speaks; dialectic teaches truth; rhetoric adorns words;
Music sings; arithmetic counts; geometry measures; astronomy studies stars.
The picture (left) (Hortus deliciarum [Garden of Delights] of Herrad von Landsberg) is part of a 12th century illustrated manuscript showing the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium circled around Socrates and Plato and Philosophy. This shows that the seven liberal arts were bound together by a philosophical approach to discovering the first principles of the universe and mankind. This philosophical approach is at the heart of our own programme of modern Liberal Arts.
In the Middle Ages Liberal Arts became the melting pot for Pagan, Judaic, Christian and Islamic intellectual tolerance in the centuries before the European Renaissance. But by the 14th century the spirit of Liberal Arts had been lost to the letter of the prescriptive instrumentalism of Scholastic compendia. These were opposed in the Renaissance by Petrarch and others, and a new humanistic form of Liberal Arts emerged which included the whole range of the arts. The Trivium and Quadrivium became less central to Liberal Arts over the next few hundred years, to be replaced by different models of Liberal Arts education.
You can find more on the Trivium and Quadrivium in these pieces by one of our Liberal Arts Tutors.
Liberal Arts Education by and for Women and Philosophy and the Liberal Arts.
Read more > Philosophy, The Seven Liberal Arts, and the roots of Liberal Arts Education.
FAQs
The trivium consists of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, while the quadrivium consists of arithmetic, astronomy, music, and geometry.
What were the 7 parts of a liberal arts curriculum? ›
These subjects – Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy – were collectively known as the Seven Liberal Arts and formed the basis of education across Western Europe for over half a millennium. How did they evolve and can they tell us anything about the educational problems we face today?
What is education liberal arts quadrivium? ›
The quadrivium was the upper division of medieval educational provision in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number in the abstract), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time).
What are the 7 liberal arts? ›
There were seven Liberal Arts which were the subjects of secular education in the Middle Ages and Renaissance but were codified in late Roman antiquity. They were divided into the trivium - Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric - and the quadrivium - Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Music.
What is the trivium quadrivium curriculum? ›
The word “trivium” literally means “three roads” or “three ways,” and these are grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The word “quadrivium” means “four roads” or “four ways” and refers to arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.
What is the full meaning of trivium? ›
Etymologically, the Latin word trivium means "the place where three roads meet" (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which consists of arithmetic (numbers as abstract concepts), geometry (numbers in space ...
What is the history of trivium and quadrivium? ›
The philosopher Boethius (ca. 477–524) devised a curriculum that divided the liberal arts into a more elementary linguistic trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic) and a more advanced, numerological quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music).
What does a liberal arts education look like? ›
The liberal arts form of education covers five main areas of study: the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and mathematics.
What is the difference between liberal arts and liberal studies? ›
The terms “liberal arts” and “liberal studies” are related and sometimes used interchangeably, but there is a distinction between them that Georgetown's programs recognize. While both liberal arts and liberal studies emphasize the arts and humanities, liberal studies takes a broad, integrated view of these subjects.
What is the trivium method of learning? ›
The Classical Trivium describes the learning stages of children as they mature and focuses the educational method in each stage to best develop a knowledgeable, thinking, and articulate student. As its name implies, there are three stages represented in the Trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric.
The quadrivium is the study of arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. These four disciplines observed the laws of the natural world through the study of multitude (quantity) and magnitude (size). Mathematics, more than any other subject, builds upon the previous layers of knowledge.
What are the trivium and the three philosophies? ›
From antiquity they were divided between the three verbal disciplines of grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium or threefold way to wisdom), and the four mathematical disciplines, of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (the quadrivium or fourfold way).
Which of the following is not one of the Seven Liberal Arts? ›
Medicine and architecture are excluded because they are not purely liberal studies.
Is Harvard a liberal arts school? ›
Harvard College founded in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Harvard College offers a four-year undergraduate, liberal arts program for students seeking their first degree. There are about 6,600 undergraduates at the College, with nearly equal numbers of men and women.
What are the seven arts? ›
The traditional subdivision of the arts, being Music, Sculpture, Painting, Literature, Architecture, Performing, and Film.
What are the 7 free arts? ›
The Seven Liberal Arts, being grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.
What are the arts of the trivium? ›
The medieval framework of the seven artes liberales consisted of the trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) and were considered essential to a complete education.
What are the seven subjects in Renaissance education? ›
The original seven liberal arts were grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music. Plato's vision of the liberal arts was quite different from a contemporary understanding, but the idea behind studying these topics was fundamentally the same.
What are the seven liberal arts hortus deliciarum? ›
Philosophy sits in the center surrounded by the Seven Liberal Arts: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Grammar, Mathematics, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. Illustration from "Hortus deliciarum" by Herrad von Landsberg (c. 1180 CE).
