Trivium Quotes

“By the Middle Ages… the introduction of the Trivium was well-known: SÂDI, an educated black from Tombouctou, author of the well-known work entitled, ‘Tarikh es-Soudan’ cites amongst the subjects that he mastered, logic, dialection, grammar, rhetoric, not to mention law and other disciplines...the long lists of subjects studied and the lettered African intellectuals who taught them at the University of Tombouctou…”
― Cheikh Anta Diop, CIVILISATION OU BARBARIE

“Au moyen âge… L’introduction du trivium est attestée: SÂDI, un noir lettré de Tombouctou, auteur du célèbre ouvrage intitulé le ‘Tarikh es-Soudan’ cite parmi les matières qu’il avait maitrisées, la logique, la dialectique, la grammaire, la rhétorique, sans parler du droit et autres disciplines…les longues listes des matières étudiées et des savants ou lettrés africains qui les enseignent a l’Université de Tombouctou…”
― Cheikh Anta Diop, CIVILISATION OU BARBARIE

“The ordering of knowledge has changed with the centuries. All knowledge was once ordered in relation to the seven liberal arts— grammar, rhetoric, and logic, the trivium; arithmetic, geometry astronomy, and music, the quadrivium. Medieval encyclopedias reflected this arrangement. Since the universities were arranged according to the same system, and students studied according to it also, the arrangement was useful in education.
[How to Read a Book (1972), P. 180]”
― Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren