Artes Liberales

What This Is

This site is an open restoration of the liberal arts curriculum as it was practiced in the Jesuit colleges of early modern Europe. We begin with the foundation: Grammatica—the systematic mastery of Latin and Greek through reading, memorisation, imitation, and composition. All materials are public domain or sourced from original Latin works.

We are not recreating school. We are restoring a curriculum of civilisation: a canon of formation, studied at home or in small communities, with books and practices that shaped the minds of saints, scientists, statesmen, and scholars for centuries.

Open Source & Public Domain: All resources are either public domain or open source. Suggestions and contributions are welcome—visit the project on GitHub.

Curriculum Overview

As structured in the original Ratio Studiorum.

I. Grammatica (Latin and Greek Grammar School)

Aim: Full internalisation of Latin and Greek grammar through repetition, memorisation, reading, and composition.

• Grammar I (Lowest Class):
  • Latin: Rudiments – declensions, conjugations, basic syntax.
  • Greek: Alphabet, simple noun and verb forms.
  • Reading: Simplified Latin sentences, Cicero's easiest letters.
  • Method: Daily memorisation, prelection, oral recitation, contests.
• Grammar II (Middle Class):
  • Latin: Complete syntax, figures of speech, idioms.
  • Greek: Irregular nouns and verbs.
  • Reading: Cicero’s Ad Familiares, simple poems of Ovid.
  • Method: Composition drills, oral Latin, repetition, academic rivalry.
• Grammar III (Highest Class):
  • Latin: Mastery of grammar, prosody, poetic metre.
  • Greek: Full grammar except dialects.
  • Reading: Cicero’s De Senectute, De Amicitia, Virgil, Catullus, selected Greek prose.
  • Method: Latin-only instruction, dictation, memorised recitation, written themes.

II. Humanitas (Humanities / Poetry Class)

Aim: Transition from grammar to fluent expression in Latin; foundation in literature, history, and rhetorical theory.

• Authors: Cicero (De Officiis), Livy, Sallust, Virgil (Aeneid), Horace.
• Greek: Continued reading of prose and poetry.
• Rhetoric: Introduction using Soarez’s De Arte Rhetorica.
• Exercises: Latin composition, verse writing, Greek translation, academic contests.

III. Rhetorica (Rhetoric Class)

Aim: Mastery of eloquence; full command of Latin prose and verse, spoken and written.

• Core Texts: Cicero’s Orations, Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics.
• Exercises: Monthly Latin orations, verse composition, Greek prose, disputations.
• Output: Public declamations, rhetorical analysis, contests, academies.

IV. Philosophia (Three-Year Course)

Logic, Physics, and Metaphysics grounded in Aristotle, with mathematics and ethics.

• Year I: Logic (Organon, Categories, Prior Analytics).
• Year II: Natural Philosophy (Physics, On the Heavens, Meteorology).
• Year III: Metaphysics, De Anima, Aristotelian Ethics (Nicomachean).

V. Theologia (Four-Year Course)

Scholastic theology rooted in the Summa Theologica, supported by Scripture, moral cases, Hebrew, and ecclesiastical history.

• Systematic study of God, creation, sacraments, virtues.
• Additional: Biblical exegesis, Hebrew, Canon Law, Moral Theology.
• Method: Lectures, disputations, scriptural defence of doctrine.

Phase I Focus: Grammatica

We are now building the resources, exercises, and original Latin texts to restore this first and most essential phase of education. This includes:

• Daily Latin drills and paradigms from Alvarez's Grammar (Institutiones Grammaticae).
• Graded reading plans (Cicero, Ovid, Virgil).
• Latin-only flashcards and memory work.
• Tools for prelection, repetition, and retroversion (vernacular to Latin).

This is the entry point to the Artes Liberales. Nothing proceeds without Grammatica.