Women of Salerno

There were cedars, almonds, coated walnuts, imperial drapes, fine gold ornaments; wine, nuts, fruit, trees and crops abounded.

In this political, social and cultural background, the women shared the deeds of men, participated in battles and exercised the medical art, as doctor or not.

Intellectual openness excluded dogmas and confronted with the daily practice of dialogue and experience, with the comparison of Greek, Latin, and Arab texts that were studied without prejudices or hierarchies of value.

The Mulieres Salernitanae preferred treatments like aromatized baths, therapies with herbs and massages, and there are no traces in their history of prayers or other supernatural methods in order to treat diseases.

They were innovative in many respects, considered prevention fundamental, proposed unusual methods for the time, stressed the importance of hygiene, a balanced diet, physical activity, their advice included baths and massages, decoctions, bloodletting.

[12] Their students were able to differentiate between typhoid and malaria, they could calculate fever temperatures and estimate recovery times, and they could treat complex wounds with appreciable chances of success.

There were also many rumours about the mulieres salernitanae: as an example, Arnaldo da Villanova, a Spanish scientist, explained that women of Salerno drank mysterious potions during gestation and for this reason women grew aberrant, accompanying the recitation of the Pater noster with a mysterious magic formula: Binomie lamion lamium azerai vaccina deus deus sabaoth Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, hosanna in excelsis.

[13]These rumors were born due to the fact that, despite the wealth and intellectual openness of the city of Salerno, the early medieval era also represented the start of prejudice towards women and the theory of feminine inferiority.

The textbook, “De Passionibus Mulierum ante in et post partum”,[19] that witnesses the birth of obstetrics and gynecology as science, was first published around 1100 AD and completely revised by Ambrose Paré's assistants in the early 17th century.