Quadrivium

The four higher subjects of scholastic philosophy up to the twelfth century. It embraced music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The quadrivium was the “fourfold way” to knowledge; the trivium (q.v.) the “threefold way” to eloquence; both together comprehended the seven arts or sciences. The seven arts are enumerated in the following hexameter:

“Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astra.”

And in the two following:-

“Gram. loquitur, Dia. vera docet, Rhet. verba colorat. Mus. cadit, Ar. numerat, Geo. ponderat, Ast. colit astra.”

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