The latter included physics, metaphysics, history,
law, moral and political philosophy, modern languages, and ethics
(domestic principles of government, military history, diplomatic
history, and public principles of government), and mathematics
(arithmetic, geometry, algebra, music, optics, astronomy). The
astronomy taught was that of Ptolemy, whose view was that the
celestial bodies revolved around a spherical earth, on which he
had laid out lines of longitude and latitude. There were lectures
on Greek and Latin literature, including Aristotle, Plato, and
Cicero. There were no courses on English history in the
universities.
About 1564, the curriculum was changed to two terms of grammar,
four terms of rhetoric, five terms of dialectic (examining ideas
and opinions logically, e.g. ascertaining truth by analyzing words
in their context and equivocations), three terms of arithmetic,
and two terms of music. There were now negative numbers,
irrational numbers such as square roots, and imaginary numbers
such as square roots of negative numbers. The circumference and
area of a circle could be computed from its radius, and the
Pythagorean theorem related the three sides of a right triangle.
Also available were astrology, alchemy (making various substances
such as acids and alcohols), cultivation of gardens, and breeding
of stock, especially dogs and horses. Astronomy, geometry, natural
and moral philosophy, and metaphysics were necessary for a
master's degree.
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