Seven Liberal Arts: A Study in Medieval Culture

by Paul Abelson

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Genres: History

150 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bom, é um livro interessante. Em qualidade de conteúdo, realmente, é impressionante a bibliografia do autor, além de ter entendido a capacidade do mesmo em adquirir conhecimento. Porém, faltou retórica em seus discursos, convencimento e uma explicação melhor. Em suma, eu comecei o livro esperando receber alguma instrução no estudo sobre a cultura medieval em relação aos estudos, como se fosse um guia. Entretanto, a obra é um compêndio de informações e livros utilizados para os estudos das sete artes liberais durante a idade média, ou seja, o livro em si é uma bibliografia. Recebi informações importantes, porém, a conclusão do livro foi escrita contendo praticamente toda a informação geral do livro, e restando do livro somente os livros específicos. O problema com certeza estava na minha expectativa, pois o livro em si é ótimo para quem deseja uma introdução aos estudos medievais, e principalmente às pessoas que conhecem latim e desejam se aprofundar. De toda forma, sei que não esgotei o livro, e se estudar mais um pouco, retornarei à ele buscando mais esclarecimento e mais obras-referência.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rich historical work for any researcher or other interested party. We are introduced to our read with: "The investigation thus narrowed itself to a definition of the limits of the curriculum of the seven liberal arts; a determination of the scope of each of the subjects taught; the discovery of any intrinsic progress in the quantity and quality of the instruction afforded by the mediaeval schools; and finally, the comprehension of the relation of this liberal education to the amount of knowledge possessed by the mediaeval world during the period and to the entire scheme of the mediaeval Weltanschauung."

Our work focusses upon seven important facets of baseline education: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic (aka: Dialectic), Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music... "for the practical life of the ideal citizen." "Wisdom builded her house; she has hewn out her seven pillars" (Proverbs 9; 1). The Trivium, grammar-rhetoric-logic, occupied the greater portion of the time devoted to the study of the seven liberal arts.

A brief history of these 'Arts' is presented, along with other varied lists from times prior, century by century, including information regarding the mystical Pythagorean theories. Some of the vital Seven Liberal Arts, unfortunately and sadly, have been eliminated from the education of our youth. The focused education of past days' youth is admirable. Quite an enjoyable read. Footnotes with references abound.

- Excerpts:

"This fundamental subject of the curriculum of the seven liberal arts aimed therefore at a mastery of the universal language of the day... a practical mastery of the Latin language as the highroad to all knowledge; and second, an appreciation of its literary forms."

"...we are assured that mediaeval writers were acquainted in a greater or lesser degree with at least the following authors: Plautus, Terence, Catullus, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, Martial, Persius, Cicero, Seneca, the Plinys, Quintilian, Cornelius Nepos, Caesar, Sallust, Livy, Suetonius, Tacitus."

"The mediaeval textbook represented not only what the pupil studied, but also what in many cases the teacher knew, of a given subject... The texts were of two kinds: (1) encyclopaedic, including treatises on all or nearly all of the subjects of the curriculum; and (2) individual, treating of specific subjects only. The latter class were nearly always either abbreviated or elaborated adaptations from the standard encyclopaedic works and were almost always the work of some teacher."

"The results of this study may be summarized as follows: The curriculum of the seven liberal arts was fully developed in the schools of the Roman Empire in the fourth century... There was a general interest in classical studies in the schools of the Middle Ages. This was never stronger than at the time when the church controlled all the educational institutions."

[Patrick S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating undertaking on the books and material used of classical education from their starting point to the Middle Ages. Published before the ease of computer database access en mass in 1972, this doctoral dissertation had to be an amazing undertaking in research. To be able to trace the literature of the seven subjects back from the time of the Greeks, through the Romans, through the early church histories, and into the middle ages I can't even fathom the pouring over sources that had to happen.

Taking each of the seven subjects as their own section, Abelson gives a brief accounting of them and traces them throughout the periods described also with an introduction of where the trivium and the quadrivium were kind of first coined in their collected seven. What's interesting is learning just how much the Greeks did for education and that we would think the Romans would have added a lot to it, but it seems the Romans tended to be more utilitarian in their gleanings of the Greeks. Christianity taking up the charge once paganism decreased and they happily utilized pagan "education" under the umbrella of common grace.

The longest section is the Latin/language/grammar section and just how much movement was made later where a person's lectures would be written down and combined with another book to build the prevailing textbook. The section on math was also interesting in that it wasn't that scholars hid what was known, it was that so little was known at the time that passing along the knowledge was easy and therefore doesn't stand out in history. The movement of astronomy to be able to calculate Easter was pretty funny. Where math had a desert of resources until the Renaissance period, music was such a universal concept that there was abundant resources although "musician" wasn't really a thing until the Renaissance as well but the study of music was drowning in resources.

I believe this work could use a great 3rd edition and combining with a resource list to see if one could track down copies of the works discussed would be a noble undertaking. I was quite impressed with how interesting this book was and one who was interested in classical education and the philosophy behind it would enjoy this work as I did. Final Grade - B+

[Fred Fanning · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book title is not what the contents is about.