Rudimenta artium dialecticae et rhetoricae

R V D I M E N T A

Therefore, there are three parts of every Syllogism: the Major Proposition, the minor, and the conclusion.

What a proposition is, and its parts. A Proposition is a statement that certainly signifies something true or false. True, as: God is just. False, as: The soul is mortal. Its parts are two: the Subject and the Predicate: as in the major proposition of the aforementioned Syllogism,
Every seditious person is punished by law.
Seditious is the subject; is punished by law is the predicate. For this very thing, being punished by law, is predicated and said of the Seditious person: which name is therefore placed at the beginning of the proposition, so that something may be predicated and commemorated about that very thing.

The three terms of Syllogisms. Furthermore, every Syllogism is constructed from only three words, which are called Terms by Dialecticians, because they, as it were, terminate the propositions themselves. And one of these is called the major term, another the minor, and the third the middle term.

Major. The major term is understood as that which is placed only in the major proposition, or which is the predicate of the conclusion.