In
medieval universities, the 'trivium' comprised the three subjects taught first:
grammar,
logic, and
rhetoric. The word is a
Latin term meaning “the three ways” or “the three roads” forming the foundation of a medieval
liberal arts education.
Description
Grammar is the mechanics of a language;
logic (or
dialectic — logic and dialectic were synonymous at the time) is the "mechanics" of thought and analysis;
rhetoric is the use of language to instruct and persuade. (As Latin was both a second language and the international language of scholarship and thought, it had to be learned intentionally and thoroughly.) These were considered preparatory fields for the
quadrivium, which was made up of
arithmetic,
geometry,
music, and
astronomy. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the serious study of
philosophy and
theology. The trivium was the beginning of the
liberal arts. At many medieval universities this would have been the principal undergraduate course.
Further reading
★ Joseph, Sister Miriam. ''The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric''. Paul Dry Books Inc, 2002.
★ Winterer, Caroline. "The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910." Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
★ Dorothy L. Sayers, essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning", presented at Oxford, 1947.
See also
Quadrivium
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