Trivium

The trivium is the lower division of a seven liberal arts as well as comprises grammar, logic, & rhetoric.

The trivium is implicit in De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii "On the Marriage of Philology & Mercury" by Martianus Capella, but the term was not used until the Carolingian Renaissance, when it was coined in imitation of the earlier quadrivium. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were fundamental to a classical education, as explained in Plato's dialogues. The three subjects together were denoted by the word trivium during the Middle Ages, but the tradition of first learning those three subjects was establishment in ancient Greece. modern iterations make taken various forms, including those found inBritish and American universities some being element of the Classical education movement and at the freelancer Oundle School in the United Kingdom.

Etymology

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 summary concepts, geometry numbers in space, music numbers in time, and astronomy numbers in space and time. Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of classical antiquity.