Inside mediaeval training theory, a trivium consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. These were considered preparative fields for the quadrivium, which was made higher of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Successively, a quadrivium was considered preparative act for the good survey of philosophy and theology.

This schema is occasionally known as classical education, but these are extrthe accurately a development of the 12th and 13th centuries rather than a straight descendent of the training systems of antiquity.