Liberal Arts: what are they and what are their characteristics

In the Museo del Prado in Madrid we find a beautiful frontal chest that shows the liberal arts. The studies are personified by maidens who carry attributes and are accompanied by great masters of each discipline. In the center of the composition, eminently quattrocentista, we find Astronomy sitting on a throne, carrying the celestial sphere. At his feet is Ptolemy, reading his work, in which he made a compendium of Greek astronomy.

To the left of Astronomy a splendid procession unfolds, the arts of quadrivium: Geometry carries a square and a compass and leads Euclid by the hand; Arithmetic, a table to calculate and is accompanied by Pythagoras. Closing the group, Música plays an organ while Tubalcaín, the inventor of the instrument according to the Bible, watches her.

To the right of Astronomy we find another group. On this occasion, it is the Trivium: Rhetoric Holding a Long Scroll of Writing Paper, Closely Followed by Cicero; next to him, Dialectic goes hand in hand with Aristotle and carries an olive branch (symbol of harmony) and a scorpion, representing the opposite. Finally, Grammar, the first of the studies, is accompanied by two children and holds several books on her cloak. Behind her, a character, who may be Donato or Prisciano, closes the entourage.

What are the liberal arts?

The work of El Prado, executed in 1435 by the Florentine Giovanni dal Ponte (1376-1437) magnificently captures the concept of liberal arts medieval, which were still valid in the Renaissance and, in fact, did not see its decline until the eighteenth century, the time of the Illustration.

But what are the liberal arts? In this article we are going to detail what they consist of and how they differ from the so-called vulgar or manual arts. Let's see it.

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Some arts only for free men

Although the fame of the liberal arts is due, in particular, to the centuries of Middle Ages (when they flourished through the Scholastic) the teaching of these arts dates back to classical times. The term liberal art comes from bast, free in Latin, in a clear reference to those who exercise them, who are none other than free men, that is, those who are neither servants nor slaves.

Thus, the liberal arts are studies intended for the privileged classes of society. Its objective, unlike the vulgar arts or manuals, it was not economic, but, simply and simply, knowledge. Thus, while the servile arts were exercised by serfs and artisans, who performed them to earn a living, the liberal arts had the exclusive goal of achieving wisdom.

This is completely logical if we keep in mind that the free men who studied this type of arts did not need to work to earn their bread. Let's remember that we are talking about members of the clergy and the aristocracy, so their livelihood was guaranteed through the income and various privileges they had. The only intention when it came to pursuing liberal studies was an improvement of the soul, an approach to God through reason, logic and knowledge.

A free man of the Middle Ages could not stoop to working with his hands.. The idea that social hierarchy was a classification established by God was very present; At the top of the pyramid were the speakers (those who pray), personified by the ecclesiastical establishment; Second, came the bellatores (those who fight) and, finally, the laboratories (those who work), who supported the other two estates with their work.

Several things can be deduced from this scheme. First, the strict stratification of the feudal regime, which offered no possibility of changing social place, since permeability was zero. And second, that, initially, the members of the second estate, the bellatoresThey also had no access to the liberal arts, since their trade (mainly war) was also considered a servile art.

Therefore, initially, the individuals who enjoyed liberal education were members of the Church. Little by little, the privilege was extended to the nobility, but the members of the third estate (the laboratories) remained excluded and their access to the liberal arts remained highly restricted until the Enlightenment.

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He Trivium and the quadrivium

On the chest front of El Prado we have seen what were the liberal arts that were consolidated in the Middle Ages. Specifically, it was Alcuin of York (d. 804) who set them in the 8th century, with the intention of establishing the educational curriculum that directed the teachings of the Palatine School of Aachen, the capital of the Carolingian empire.

However, long before Alcuin there were thinkers who spoke of the importance of the liberal arts as a gateway to knowledge. Marcianus Capella (360-428) wrote in the fifth century his famous Satyricon, in which he codified the seven liberal arts and put into the mouth of each of them what their respective teachings were. A little later, during the reign of the Ostrogoth Theodoric (c. VI), Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus (d. 585) imbues the old classical liberal arts with an evident Christianity.

Thus, the seven liberal arts were established, considered the basic and necessary studies to access higher education. In turn, these liberal arts were divided into two groups: the Trivium (in Latin, three ways), which compiled the arts related to language, and the Quadrivium (four ways), in which the disciplines related to the sciences.

This classification between letters and sciences is not, however, completely exact, since within the quadrivium Music was also included, which in our current world is considered an artistic discipline. It is necessary to remember that, in the Middle Ages, as well as in the classical world and the Renaissance, there was no border between letters and sciences, and although it is true that everything related to mathematics was considered knowledge superior, the definitive classification did not arrive until the Enlightenment. Classification, by the way, that continues to be maintained today.

So what do they make up? Trivium and the quadrivium? In the first, grammar (the basic studies), logic or dialectic (which teaches how to use thought correctly) and rhetoric (the final phase of the Trivium, in which linguistic skills are applied to argue and persuade).

On the other hand, the quadrivium It was a higher step in the access to knowledge, which was reached after having passed the Trivium. It was made up of arithmetic (calculation), geometry, music, and finally astronomy, the highest of the liberal arts. Upon completion of the Quadrivium, the student was considered ready for further studies. specific, usually taught in medieval universities and which used to be Law, Medicine and Theology. The latter was considered the highest study, the final goal of any aspirant to knowledge.

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Liberal Arts vs. Mechanical Arts

The fact that the liberal arts fixed on seven has a lot to do with the religious symbology of this number: seven were the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments and the Christian virtues, among many others concepts.

Probably because of the great popularity of seven as a highly symbolic number in the 12th century. the theologian Radulfo de Campo Lungo (1155-1215) tried to fix the mechanical or manual arts also in seven disciplines. Among them, Radulfo included the art of war, navigation, agriculture and, surprisingly, the medicine, which was considered a manual art until the appearance of university studies related to subject. In this sense, the University of Montpellier, founded in the 12th century, stood out in particular. Illustrious figures such as Arnau de Vilanova (d. 1311 or 1313) or Nostradamus (1503-1566).

This last character serves to illustrate how the division between liberal and manual arts was still very present in modern times and did not disappear definitively until the 18th century. We have commented that Nostradamus studied medicine in Montpellier, but in reality he could not finish his studies. He was expelled from the faculty when it was made public that he had previously practiced as an apothecary, a trade considered servile (manual) and strictly prohibited by the statutes of the university.