The Quadrivium and the Discipline of Music

The liberal arts are considered by Robert Grosseteste as guides in human activities and in the study of nature. In his early De artibus liberalibus is told that they are servants (ministre) both in natural philosophy and in moral philosophy. For the English philosopher, therefore, the quadrivium is no longer the Boethian set of the four mathematical sciences, but rather an articulation of four contexts of knowledge linked to nature and to human beings as living and operating in their natural environment. The definition and organization of the quadrivium is entirely dependent upon the notion of movement (motus) and work (opus), as activities related to the two components of human beings: mind and body. Robert Grosseteste’s ideas on the quadrivium are presented in this study after a preliminary overview of the main sources on which he based his thought on this topic,namely Augustine, Boethius, Hugh of St Victor. Then the case of music is examined, as by far the most articulated of the four disciplines in the context of the De artibus liberalibus