THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF ANY MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITY HAD MORE students and more teaching masters than any of the three other higher faculties: theology, medicine, and law. This was necessarily true because the bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees were prerequisites for entry into the higher faculties. Therefore, all students began their careers in the arts faculty. By virtue of the subjects taught, the faculty of arts was the primary repository of reason in any medieval university. This is evident from the range of courses taught: astronomy, mathematics, optics, logic, and natural philosophy. All were inherently analytical subjects except natural philosophy, which was nevertheless taught as if it were analytical.

THE OLD AND NEW LOGIC

Although logic was a basic subject, it was always regarded as an instrument for the critical study of all other areas of learning. We have already seen the role it played in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth century, Peter of Spain reiterated the central role that logic was accorded in the twelfth century when he declared that “[l]ogic is the art which provides the route to the principles of all methods, and hence logic ought to come first in the acquisition of the sciences.” With the translations of Aristotle's previously unknown logical works, which were added to the old logic, logic was given a substantial foundational role in the curriculum of the medieval university.