[3] So called because it embraced the seven subjects of learning: the _trivio_ (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), and the _quadrivio_ (music, astrology, physics, and metaphysics). CHAPTER IV THE DIDACTIC AGE 1301-1400 Only the barest mention need be made of a "clerkly poem" called the _Vida de San Ildefonso_ (Life of St. Ildephonsus), a dry narrative of over a thousand lines, probably written soon after 1313, when the saint's feast was instituted by the Council of Peñafiel. Its author declares that he once held the prebend of Úbeda, and that he had previously rhymed the history of the Magdalen. No other information concerning him exists; nor is it eagerly sought, for the Prebendary's poem is a colourless imitation of Berceo, without Berceo's visitings of inspiration. More merit is shown in the _Proverbios en Rimo de Salomón_ (Solomon's Rhymed Proverbs), moralisings on the vanity of life, written, with many variations, in the manner of Berceo. The author of these didactic, satiric verses is announced in the oldest manuscript copy as one Pero Gómez, son of Juan Fernández. He has been absurdly confounded with an ancient "Gómez, _trovador_," and, more plausibly, with the Pero Gómez who collaborated with Paredes in translating Brunetto Latini's _Tesoro_; but the name is too common to allow of precise opinion as to the real author, whom some have taken for Pero López de Ayala. Whoever the writer, he possessed a pleasant gift of satirical observation, and a knowledge of men and affairs which he puts to good use, with few lapses upon the merely trite and banal.