Artes liberales
Artes liberales sunt artes quae dignae idoneaeque putantur, ut homines liberi beata mentis vita versentur, adversus eas inliberales artes, quae sunt ad fines serviles, occupationales, aut oeconomicas. 

Graeci quamquam iuvenes liberos certis doctrinarum disciplinis erudiendos esse affirmabant, tamen certum numerum earum non noverunt.

Cicero eruditionem perfecti oratoris disscribens artes liberales docuit geometriam, musicam, studium litterarum poëtarumque complecti, cum scientiis naturalibus, ethica, et civilitate. 

Apud Romanos encyclion - ut ita dicam - septem artium disciplinam primus Marcus Terentius Varro polyhistor protulit. Quae divisae in trivium et quadrivium libris Martiani Capellae, Flavii Aurelii Cassiodori, Isidori de Sevilla Medio Aevo traditae sunt.

Ita ab antiquitate usque ad aetatem mediaevalem tandem, artes liberales dicuntur septem quae et eruditionem in monasteriorum scholis, facultates et curricula universitaria constituebant. Hae artes in partes duas divisae sunt, trivium et quadrivium appellatas:
Trivium: grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica 
Quadrivium:  arithmetica, geometria, musica, astronomia

Quadrivii disciplinae appellatae sunt post disciplinas in quas olim Pythagoriani fautores omnem mathematicam diviserunt:
Arithmetica: numerus purus
Geometria: numerus in spatio
Musica: numerus in tempore
Astronomia: numerus in spatio temporeque

Anonymus auctor mediaevalis illos versiculos excogitavit, quibus hae disciplinae memoriae mandari solebant: 

GRAM loquitur, DIA verba docet/colit, RHET verba ministrat/colorat,

MUS canit, AR numerat, GEO ponderat, AST colit astra.

Bibliographia 
 Blaich, Charles, Anne Bost, Ed Chan, et Richard Lynch. "Defining Liberal Arts Education." Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, 2004.
 Blanshard, Brand. 1973. The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students. Open Court. ISBN 0-8126-9429-5.
 Friedlander, Jack. 1982. Measuring the Benefits of Liberal Arts Education in Washington's Community Colleges. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Community Colleges. ED 217 918.
 Joseph, Sister Miriam. 2002. The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Paul Dry Books Inc.
 Pfnister, Allen O. 1984. "The Role of the Liberal Arts College." The Journal of Higher Education 55 (2, March/April: 145–170.
 Reeves, Floyd W. 1930. "The Liberal-Arts College." The Journal of Higher Education 1(7): 373–380.
 Seidel, George. 1968. "Saving the Small College." The Journal of Higher Education 39(6): 339–342.
 Winterer, Caroline. 2002. The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780–1910. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
 Wriston, Henry M. 1937. The Nature of a Liberal College. Lawrence University Press.
 Kitao, T. Kaori, et William R. Kenan, Jr. 1999. "The Usefulness Of Uselessness," keynote address, The 1999 Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth's Odyssey at Swarthmore College, 27 March.

Artes humaniores

Nexus Externus

Notae 

Ars
Historia
Medium aevum