The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric

An essential book to develop mastery in reading, writing, speaking, and intellectual reasoning

In Plato’s Republic Socrates proposes a course of study that may be the original presentation of the idea of the “Liberal Arts.” These “arts” are divided into two groups of learning: the Quadrivium (number, geometry, music, and astronomy) and the Trivium (logic, grammar, and rhetoric). The study of the Trivium develops mastery in reading, writing, speaking, and intellectual reasoning.

The Trivium is key to a classical education

“Trivium” means the crossroads where the three branches of language meet. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, students studied and mastered this integrated view of language. Regrettably, modern language teaching keeps the parts without the vision of the whole. In the 1940s, Sister Miriam Joseph at Saint Mary's College rescued that integrated approach with The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. The Paul Dry Books edition provides new graphics and notes to make the book accessible to today’s readers.

“Is the trivium, then, a sufficient education for life? Properly taught, I believe that it should be.”—Dorothy L. Sayers

"The Trivium is a highly recommended and welcome contribution to any serious and dedicated writer's reference collection."—Midwest Book Review

“Whoever owns this book owns a treasure.”—Eva Brann

Sister Miriam Joseph (1898-1982) earned her doctorate from Columbia University. A member of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Sister Miriam was professor of English at Saint Mary's College from 1931 to 1960. She was also the author of Shakespeare's Use of the Arts of Language and many articles on Shakespeare and on the trivium.

Marguerite McGlinn was an editor and writer whose essays and short stories appeared in English Journal, the New York Times, the Sun-Sentinel, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times.