Ancient world Scale Living tradition
Work The Intellectual Life Early 20th century Person Socrates c. 470–399 BC Person Plato c. 427–347 BC Work Apology 399 BC Person Cicero 106–43 BC Virtue Wisdom An enduring virtue Person Augustine 354–430 Person Boethius c. 480–524 Discipline Quadrivium Classical and medieval Person Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274 Work Divine Comedy completed 1321 Artwork School of Athens 1509–1511 Work The Tempest 1611 Work Founding Documents 1776–1791 Person John Henry Newman 1801–1890 Person Dorothy Sayers 1893–1957 Institution Arts of Liberty Today Person Pythagoras c. 570–495 BC Work Euclid’s Elements c. 300 BC ? Question Ratio & Proportion Classical tradition Person Ptolemy c. 100–170 Work Copernicus & Kepler 1543–1609
500 BC Classical Medieval Renaissance Modern Today
Person Late Antique · c. 480–524
Boethius The liberal arts transmitted
Boethius is called the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastics: a philosopher, a translator, and — in prison awaiting execution — the author of the Consolation.
Why it matters He coined the word quadrivium, and his handbooks on arithmetic and music carried Greek mathematical learning across the wreck of the Western empire. The Institute that built this Atlas is named for him.
Logic Quadrivium Transmission
Questions carried forward Can philosophy console? How does number reveal order? What survives cultural rupture? Connected in the Atlas transmitted through Plato → organizes Quadrivium → inherited by Thomas Aquinas →
