Friday, August 12, 2005

A Sixteenth-Century Mnemonic

A brief declaration in meter, of the vij, liberal artes, vvherin Logique is comprehended as one of them.

Grammer dothe teache to vtter vvordes,
To speake bothe apt and playne.
Logique by art settes furth the truth,
And doth tel vs vvhat is vayne.
Rethorique at large paintes vvel the cause,
And makes that seme right gay,
Vvhiche Logique spake but at a vvorde,
And taught as by the vvay.
Musike vvith tunes, delites the care,
And makes vs think it beauen.
Arithemetique by number can make
Reconinges to be cauen.
Geometry thinges thicke and brode,
Measures by Line and Square.
Astronomy by sterres doth tel,
Of foule and eke of fayre.


Thomas Wilson, The Rule of Reason (1551).