Schola Medica Salernitana
It achieved its greatest celebrity between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, from the last decades of Lombard power, during which its fame began to spread more than locally, to the fall of the Hohenstaufen.
It is reported that a Greek pilgrim named Pontus had stopped in the city of Salerno and found shelter for the night under the arches of the Arcino aqueduct.
[1][2][3] The Historia inventionis ac translationis et miracula Sanctae Trophimenae chronicle narrates that in the period in which Pulcari was prefect of Amalfi (867–878 c.) a young woman by the name of Theodonanda fell seriously ill.
By the 10th century the city of Salerno was already very famous for its healthy climate and its doctors, and the fame of the medical school had reached northern Europe.
[6] We are told that "they were devoid of literary culture but provided with great experience and innate talent", and their fame was based more on their practical, observational, and experimental knowledge of medicine and successful cures rather than from ancient books and learning.
[8] Richerus tells the story of a Salernitan physician at the French court in 947, whose medical knowledge he describes rooted in practical experience rather than books.
[10] Geographic location certainly played a key role in the growth of the School: Salerno, a Mediterranean port, fused influences of Arab and Eastern Roman culture.
Johannes (d. February 2, 1161) and Matthaeus Platearius, possible father and son, resided in Salerno at this time when they apparently published their famous "Liber de Simplici Medicina" (a.k.a.
The meeting of different cultures led to a synthesis and the comparison of different medical knowledge, as evidenced by a legend that ascribes the foundation of the school to four masters: the Jewish Helinus, the Greek Pontus, the Arab Abdela, and the Latin Salernus.
De Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum was first published around 1100 AD and was a prominent text until a major revision by Louise Bourgoise, a midwife whose husband worked as assistant to Ambrose Paré in the early 1600s.
The Salernitan institution, however, remained alive for several centuries until, on November 29, 1811, it was abolished by Gioacchino Murat during the reorganization of public education in the Kingdom of Naples.
But with Arabic books becoming more common, the scientific influence of the school, which was believed to be of a Latin tradition, was decreasing, superseded by universities in Northern Italy.
The spread of Salernitan medical doctrines to distant regions is attested by documents such as a codex that is kept in the Capitolare di Modena from the abbey of Nonantola.
Its aim was to submit students who had completed the required years of study to a rigorous examination to obtain the doctorate, not only to practice medicine but also to teach it.
The first sovereign act validating the college's prerogatives by granting legal recognition to the academic titles issued by it dates back to Emperor Frederick II in 1200.
The oath represented the highest moral conception of the doctor's function, who swore to give his help to the poor without asking for anything and at the same time was a sublime affirmation before God and men to maintain an honest life and strict conduct.
In order to obtain a pharmacy license, that is to say in arte aromatariae, the candidate was required to be of a moral and honest character, qualities which the School held in high esteem.
In the middle of these circular seals is clearly visible the coat of arms of the city, represented by the patron Saint Matthew in the act of writing the Gospel.
With Garioponto (who studied the ancient Latin writers who followed Hippocrates and Galen) Salernitan medicine begins its golden age.
We see for the first time a woman, the famous Trotula de Ruggiero, who ascends to the honors of the chair, and gives instructions to women in labor.
The first constitution of the Societas was formed by those jatrophysici, who took office on the hill Bonae diei and Salernitam Scholam scripsere, laid the foundations of that school and leaving to posterity the Flos Medicinae, a monument of greatness and piety.
Other eminent figures were Romualdo Guarna, who was called twice to the bedside of William I of Sicily, and Antonio Solimena, who treated Queen Joanna II of Naples at the end of the 14th century.
This most celebrated legend was handed down by the medieval German minstrels, and written in the 1190s as the narrative poem Der arme Heinrich (Poor Henry) by Hartmann von Aue.
One day, however, he was struck by leprosy and began to swell quickly, so that the subjects, seeing him now destined to certain death, renamed him "Poor Henry".
The prince had a dream one night: the devil personally suggested that he be taken care of by the Salernitian doctors, intimating to him that he would only be healed if he had bathed in the blood of a young virgin who had died for him voluntarily.
Because his condition had become serious, he returned to Salerno to consult physicians, whose response was drastic: the only way to save his life was to suck away the poison from the wound, but who would have done it would have died in his place.
