Trivium
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- This article is about the University syllabus.
- For the band, see Trivium (band).
- For the stream cipher, see Trivium (cipher).
In medieval universities, the trivium comprised the three subjects taught first, before the quadrivium. The word is Latin, meaning "the three ways" or "the three roads", the beginning of the liberal arts. It also serves as a root for the concept of triviality. At many medieval universities, such as Oxford, this would have been the principal undergraduate course.
In medieval educational theory, the trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic (or dialectic - logic and dialectic were synonymous at the time). (As Latin was both a second language and the international language of scholarship and thought, it had to be learned intentionally and thoroughly.) Grammar is the mechanics of a language; logic is the "mechanics" of thought and analysis; rhetoric is the use of language to instruct and persuade. These were considered preparatory fields for the quadrivium, which was made up of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the serious study of philosophy and theology.
This schema is sometimes referred to as classical education, but it is more accurately a development of the 12th and 13th centuries rather than a direct descendant of the educational systems of antiquity.