It was written in the circles of the Schola Medica Salernitana, the center of European medical knowledge in the High Middle Ages.
The book has little information on how medicines should technically be prepared, but focuses on ingredients, including their sequence and the quantities needed, and the manner in which they should be administered.
Suggestions include a doctor from Salerno, a professor at the Schola Medica, or a Salernian physician called Nicolò Aversano.
Some experts even claim that there were multiple works with the same name, including a French one from the 15th century written by Nicolas de Farnham.
1224), a French royal physician, wrote De laudibus et virtutibus compositorum medicaminum, partly based on the Antidotarium.
[9] Jean de St. Amand, medecin at the University of Paris in the 13th century, also wrote a "Expositio supra Antidotarium Nicolai".