> While explaining about trivium and quadrivium in my History of Mathematics
> class, I showed my students the picture of the quadrivium included in Roger
> Cooke's History of Mathematics (p.285). According to the caption, this
> picture is taken from Boethius' Arithmetica and it shows the familiar
> representation of the four artes comprising the quadrivium by four female
> figures. Each can be readily identified by their attributes. Besides, the
> text above their heads (which is mirrored, suggesting that the whole
> picture is mirrored -- an oversight, Roger?) identifies them as well.
>
> Now, Arithmetica clearly betrays herself by representing a number with her
> one hand (the number 5, if I go by Menninger's History of Numbers). In her
> other hand, she holds something that looks like an oversized rosary and I
> suppose this object would have been typical of her "trade" as well. Is
> there anyone who might be able to say something sensible about what this
> object is that she holds? While we are at it, I was also wondering what
> object it is that astronomia/astrologia is holding.
I haven't seen Cooke's book, but on the Internet at
www.cosmopolis.com/muses/liberal-arts.html
(posted by David Fideler, e-mail phanes@cris.com)
there is an illustration of the Seven Liberal Arts (i.e. the Trivium +
Quadrivium) which seems to match your description. There are seven female
figures (I will number them left to right as 1 to 7). All except number 4
are standing. 4 is seated and is holding in her lap something the size and
shape of a laptop computer with the top folded down. The top of the object
has parallel lines and small circles on it. 4 is touching the top of the
object with her right index finger. 5 is holding a harp. 6 is holding what
I would describe as a cross between a cat's-cradle held vertically and a bad
drawing of a Coleman lantern; it certainly fits your description "looks like
an oversized rosary". 7 is holding an armillary sphere.
The caption on the figure reads "LOGICA RHETORICA GRAMA ARITHMETICA
MVSICA GEOMETRIA ASTRONA". 5 is Mvsica. 7 is Astrona. 1 through 3 are
easily identified as the Trivium (Logic, Rhetoric, Grammar). Hence it seems
safe to assume that the figures are in the same order as the names in the
caption. Therefore 4 is Arithmetica and her "laptop computer" is indeed a
laptop computer, more specifically an abacus. (She is seated because an
abacus that size is too clumsy to be held in one hand and operated with the
other. The artist had to have the abacus resting on something and her lap
was something that would no clutter up the picture.) That means 6 is
Geometria and the "oversized rosary" must be a geometric figure of some kind.
Looking carefully at it, I can make out a tall, narrow isosceles triangle
which appears to represent a cone.
The same Web site has another illustration of the Seven Liberal Arts,
apparently depicted in the same left-to-right order. Figure 4 is holding an
abacus (although the artist carelessly depicted the abacus being held almost
vertically), figure 6 is holding a carpenter's square (apparently
representing a right angle) in one hand and a segmented circle in the other,
and figure 7 is holding a cicle filled with stars.
James A Landau