The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences
Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic,
Geometry, Music, Astronomy
Light from Mackey's Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry p603:
Quadrivium:
In classical Latin the word quadrivium meant a place where four roads met
and trivum meant a place where three roads met. The scholastics of the
middle ages, looking to the metaphorical meaning of the phrase "the paths of
learning", divided what were called the seven liberal arts and sciences, but
which comprised the whole cycle of instruction in those days, into two
classes, calling grammar, rhetoric, and Logic the trivium, and arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy the quadrivium. These two 'Roads to the
Temple of Wisdom', including seven distinct sciences were, in the Middle
Ages, supposed to include universal knowledge.
Quadrivium and Trivium:
The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Quadrivium in the language of the
schools, (of the Middle Ages) were the four lesser arts, arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy; while the trivium were the triple way to
eloquence by the study of grammar, Logic, and rhetoric.
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