quadrivium

[kwo-driv-ee-uhm]

noun

plural

quadrivia 

1. (during the Middle Ages) the more advanced division of the seven liberal arts, comprising arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

quadrivium

/ kwɒˈdrɪvɪəm /

noun

1. (in medieval learning) the higher division of the seven liberal arts, consisting of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music Compare trivium

Word History and Origins

Origin of quadrivium¹

1795–1805; < Late Latin, special use of Latin quadrivium place where four ways meet; quadri-, via, -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of quadrivium¹

from Medieval Latin, from Latin: crossroads, meeting of four ways, from _quadri- + via way

Example Sentences

Herschel believed that music belonged as one of the four liberal arts of the quadrivium, alongside arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.

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It underpinned the more difficult “quadrivium”—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy— that students went on to learn; all seven subjects taken in toto being the so-called liberal arts.

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The four subjects of the ‘quadrivium’ were arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.

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Progress in wisdom was to be obtained, so far as secular knowledge was concerned, by the “seven ascents of theoretical discipline,” i.e. the trivium and the quadrivium.

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When lined along all its sides with handsome buildings, the superior elevation above the level of the Lake of the more northerly quadrivium, will be in its favour.

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