[L. (f. quadri- QUADRI- + via way), a place where four ways meet; in late L., the four branches of mathematics (Boethius).] In the Middle Ages, the higher division of the seven liberal arts, comprising the mathematical sciences (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).
1804. Ranken, Hist. France, III. IV. 308. Arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy formed Quadrivium.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets (1863), 123. The trivium and quadrivium of the schools.
1872. Lowell, Dante, Pr. Wks. 1890, IV. 124. There can be no doubt that he went through the trivium … and the quadrivium … of the then ordinary university course.
