Astronomia, from The Seven Liberal Arts. The liberal arts are those subjects or skills that in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free person to know in order to take an active part in civic life. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric were the core liberal arts (Trivium), while arithmetic, geometry, the theory of music, and astronomy (or astrology) also played a part in education (Quadrivium). In the Renaissance, humanists re-christened the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name: Studia humanitatis, they downplayed logic as opposed to the traditional Latin grammar and rhetoric, and added to them history, Greek, and moral philosophy (ethics), with a new emphasis on poetry as well. Engraving and etching by Paulus Furst, circa 1628-1666. |