346 education: Europe who made a masterpiece was considered a master and could thereafter open his own workshop and take on his own apprentices Some girls learned trades through apprenticeship, particularly textile trades such as embroidery or femaledominated trades such as midwifery A son of a wealthy or noble family might spend his youth learning to be a knight When he was about seven years old he would be sent to live with another noble family, who would train him in military arts and courtesy Sending boys to other families was part of a long tradition of fostering, which served a dual purpose: It allowed boys to form alliances with their foster families, and it kept the boys’ families from attacking the foster families A boy often went to live with a family richer than his own or even at the king’s court When a young boy first arrived at his foster home, he became a page He worked as a personal servant to the lords and ladies of the house and began his training for the knighthood He learned noble skills such as riding horses, hunting with bow or falcons, proper behavior at court, and the use of a sword When the boy turned 14, he might become a squire, serving as the personal assistant and shield bearer to a knight The knight was expected to teach his squire the skills he would need in battle After the young man had worked for seven years or so as a squire, his lord might finally make him a knight Formal education in reading, writing, and other academic subjects was available only through the church throughout most of medieval Europe In many areas only priests and monks were literate Boys who went into the priesthood or joined a monastic order often learned to read and write, though not all did, and illiterate clerics were not at all uncommon Boys destined for the priesthood learned the fundamentals of Christian theology and how to conduct religious services A boy who joined a monastery would become a novice, or trainee monk He would learn the monastic lifestyle, including the words and songs to the several religious services he had to attend every day He would learn the tasks expected of monks, which could include farm work, cooking, sheep husbandry, cheese making, or any other operation his monastery ran Most novices received some instruction in Latin reading and writing If a novice displayed a talent for writing, he would be taught how to copy books If he was artistic, he might learn how to paint the pages of books with designs called illuminations He might also learn how to make parchment or vellum from sheepskin or calfskin, how to manufacture ink and pigments, and how to bind books The only way to create new books was to copy them by hand, so medieval monasteries performed an invaluable service in preserving and transmitting information Ireland’s monasteries of the early medieval period A hornbook, teaching and instructional aid for children, Britain, 15th century (© Museum of London) were especially renowned for producing literate monks who did excellent copying work Actual schools for lay students were rare in western Europe during the early medieval period The few schools that existed were small cathedral schools run by priests and designed primarily to train boys for the priesthood During the 12th and 13th centuries, however, schools became more common, especially in cities with large populations of merchants and professionals Schools gradually moved away from cathedrals, became more open to lay students, and taught subjects beyond theology and canon law Medieval students studied a specific set of subjects The seven so-called liberal arts were defined in late antiquity and persisted throughout the medieval period They were divided into two parts, the trivium and the quadrivium The trivium included grammar, rhetoric, and logic, or dialectic Mastery of the trivium was considered necessary for progression to the quadrivium, which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music