The
quadrivium (plural: quadrivia) are the four subjects, or arts, taught after teaching the
trivium. The word is
Latin, meaning "the four ways" (or a "place where four roads meet"), and its use for the four subjects has been attributed to
Boethius or
Cassiodorus in the 6th century. Together, the
trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven
liberal arts (based on thinking skills), as opposed to the practical arts (such as
medicine and
architecture).