The quadrivium (plural: quadrivia) comprised the four subjects, or arts, taught in the Renaissance Period, after teaching the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning "the four ways" (or a "place where four roads meet"), and its use for the four subjects has been attributed to Boethius or Cassiodorus in the 6th century. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts (based on thinking skills), as opposed to the practical arts (such as medicine and architecture).
The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These followed the preparatory work of the trivium made up of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the serious study of philosophy (sometimes called the "liberal art par excellence") and theology. Quadrivium, Wikipedia
Esoteric traditions from many cultures have shared this interest in simple geometrical or mathematical patterns.
Probably the most influential of these was the Pythagorean school in ancient Greece from whose insights we learned the basis of much of western geometry and music theory.
Music is one of the most Geometrical of the arts, though the fundamental forms appear at all levels of the fractal infinity of existence.
The Quadrivium:—
Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy.
The Quadrivium (which pertains to Matter & Quantity) - the advanced four.
ARITHMETIC —
Number in itself, which is a pure abstraction; that is, outside of space and time.
GEOMETRY —
Number in space.
MUSIC OR HARMONIC THEORY —
Number in time.
ASTRONOMY —
Number in space and time.
a. Number
b. Geometry
c. Harmonics
d. Cosmology
See Also