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Quadrivium · V

Arithmetic

Number considered in itself — the one and the many, numbers that take shapes, primes that refuse every pattern. Calculation uses number; arithmetic asks what it is.

I. What the Studium has

Reveal a pattern in figured number.

Companion to the Seven Pillars certificate

Figured number

5 rows form the triangular number 15.

II. From the Seven Pillars

Arithmetic and the Power of Number: the six lectures on this art in the Institute’s certificate course, given on artsofliberty.org and heard there.

  1. 1The Nature of Arithmetic
  2. 2What Is a Number?
  3. 3The Arithmetic of Shaped Numbers
  4. 4The Arithmetic of Primes
  5. 5The Wonders of Arithmetic
  6. 6Arithmetic in Liberal Education
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom ↗

III. In the galleries

  1. Philosophy and the Seven Liberal ArtsFrom the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg, Twelfth century
  2. The School of AthensRaphael, 1511
  3. The Seven Liberal ArtsFrancesco Pesellino, Painted in the artist’s lifetime, 1422–1457
  4. The Seven Liberal Arts Persecuted by Pluto and BacchusJost Amman, Sixteenth century
  5. The Seven Liberal ArtsVirgilius Solis, Sixteenth century
  6. Philosophy Presenting the Seven Liberal Arts to BoethiusCoëtivy Master (Henri de Vulcop), 1460–1470

IV. In the Library

The Arithmetic shelf →The Quadrivium shelf →

V. In the Atlas

Continue the inquiry

Explore sources, people, and connected ideas.

Resource libraryOpen the arithmetic collection →Tradition AtlasTrace proof, ratio, and motion →Teacher StudioTurn this art into a lesson →