The seven liberal arts indicate all the school subject of the schools of the Antiquité, but also of the Moyen-âge. They in particular were transmitted by Alcuin, intellectual adviser of Charlemagne and are at the origin of the school reform of this one, during the period known as of the Carolingian Renaissance .

The liberal arts are divided into two degrees: the Trivium and the Quadrivium . Trivium, which means the three ways in Latin, relates to the capacity of the language and refers being studied of the Grammaire, the Dialectique and the Rhétorique. Quatrivium, the four ways of the second degree, refers to the capacity numbers and refers to the Arithmétique, the Musique, the Géométrie and the Astronomie.

They are defined one and the other in these two mnemonic worms: Gramm loquitur, Dia verba docet, Rhet verba colorat,
Driven canit, Ar numerat, Geo ponderat, Ast colit astra.

Arts of trivium are regarded as the base necessary to control arts of quadrivium. The trivium is much more than to learn with good speech and to use good syntax as could indicate it the modern significance of the terms.

Distinction

Joinery, the pottery and the disciplines which in common have the transformation of a tangible matter are to be arranged among the servile arts . By opposition, the matter on which carry the liberal arts is intellectual and intangible.

Whereas the liberal arts aim at the knowledge of truth, the fine art aim at the contemplation of beautiful. What explains besides why works of painting, the dance and other fine arts do not need to be useful.

Genesis

The liberal arts find their origin in the works of Martianus Capella (5th century).

It is Cassiodore at the 6th century which gave them their structure. Cassiodore developed the trivium , which gathered the literary disciplines:

• the Grammar,
• the Rhetoric,
• the Dialectical .

Its contemporary Boèce defines the contents of the quadrivium , or quadruple way, which gathered the scientific disciplines:

• the Arithmetic ,
• the Geometry,
• the Astronomy,
• the Music.

At the 8th century, the English monk Bède worthy the developed the liberal arts in his treaties, and created the Comput . It is Bède Worthy the, with Isidore of Seville, which transmitted the liberal arts to the Christian Occident.

The Moine English Alcuin took again this base to establish its program of teaching in the schools of the Carolingian Empire.

Towards the Year millet, the Comput gathered two disciplines of the trivium (Grammaire, Dialectique) and two disciplines of the quadrivium (Arithmétique and Astronomie).

The canon Leflon, in his biography of Gerbert d' Aurillac (future pope Sylvestre II), note that the Quadrivium was not taught almost any more about years 960 in the Monastère S. This is why the count Borel II of Barcelona enmena Gerbert in Catalogne so that it learns there the scientific disciplines developed by the Arabs, who were known in the kingdom very close to Cordoue.

See also: Islamic Sciences and technology

Thereafter, Gerbert will be called by Adalbéron with Rheims to teach these disciplines there.

At the 12th century, the translations of works of Aristote introduced an enrichment of the To know, which was introduced by Albert Large the into the universities lately created at the 13th century. The liberal arts remained nevertheless the base of teaching.

See too

• Martianus Capella

• Cassiodore, Boèce
• Quadriuium, Trivium
• Bède Worthy the
• Comput
• Carolingian Rebirth
• Education with the Middle Ages
• Alcuin
• Gerbert d' Aurillac
• Year millet
• the Middle Ages
• Universities of liberal arts