[7] Textbooks on the art of letter-writing began to appear by the eleventh century, explaining in detail how to prepare the five divisions of a letter: (1) the salutation (salutatio), (2) the art of introducing the subject properly and making a good impression (captatio benevolentiae), (3) the body of the letter (narratio), (4) how to make the request (petitio), and (5) a fitting conclusion (conclusio).
[8] Anderson reproduces a portion of a chapter by Capella on the number four, which is illustrative of the mediaeval study of the properties of number:
"What shall I call four? in which is a certain perfection of solidarity; for it is composed of length and depth, and a full decade is made up from those four numbers added together in order, that is, from one, two, three, four. Similarly a hundred is made up of the four decades, that is, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, which are a hundred; and again four numbers from a hundred on amount to a thousand, that is, 100, 200, 300, 400. So ten thousand is made up of another series. What is to be said of the fact that there are four seasons of the year, four quarters of the heavens, and four principles of the elements? There are also four ages of man, four vices, and four virtues."
[9] Anderson reproduces a paragraph from Maurus, showing how number was applied to Holy Writ. It reads:
"A real thinker," says Maurus, "will not pass on indifferently when he reads that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasted forty days. Without strict observance and investigation the matter cannot be explained. The number 40 contains the number 10 four times, by which all is signified which concerns the temporal. For, according to the number 4, the days and the seasons run their course. The day consists of morning, midday, evening, and night, the year of spring, summer, autumn, winter. Further, we have the number 10 to recognize God and the creature. The three (trinity) indicated the Creator; the seven, the creature which consists of body and spirit. In the latter is the three: for we must love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. In the body, on the other hand, the four elements of which it consists reveal themselves clearly. So if we are moved through that which is signified by the number 10 to live in time—for 10 is taken four times—chaste, withholding ourselves from worldly lusts, that means to fast forty days. So the Holy Scriptures contain suggestively in many different numbers all sorts of secrets which must remain hidden to those who do not understand the meaning of numbers."
[10] Gerbert (953-1003) was one of the most learned monks of his day, having studied in the Saracen schools of Spain. He afterwards became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003). Because of his scientific knowledge in an age of superstition he was accused of transactions with the devil.
[11] For example, the Stabat Mater and the Dies Irae, two thirteenth- century hymns. The former has been called the most pathetic and the latter the most sublime of all mediaeval poems.
[12] Cassiodorus was an educated later Roman, who had been chief minister to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king, and had done much to carry over Latin learning and civilization into the new régime. He later founded the monastery of Viviers, in southern Italy, and spent the latter part of his life there in writing and contemplation. He urged the monks to study, and those who had no head for learning he advised to read Cato and Columella on agriculture, and then to devote themselves to it.
[13] "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars." (Proverbs, IX, 1.)
[14] Abelson, in his monograph on The Seven Liberal Arts, reduces each of these textbooks to their equivalent in a modern 16mo printed page, with the following results: