The Schola Medica Salernitana () was a medieval medical school, the first and most important of its kind. Situated on the Tyrrhenian Sea in the south Italian city of Salerno, it was founded in the 9th century and rose to prominence in the 10th century, becoming the most important source of medical knowledge in Western Europe at the time.
Arabic medical treatises, both those that were translations of Greek texts and those that were originally written in Arabic, had accumulated in the library of Montecassino, where they were translated into Latin; thus the received lore of Hippocrates, Galen and Dioscorides was supplemented and invigorated by Arabic medical practice, known from contacts with Sicily and North Africa. As a result, the medical practitioners of Salerno, both men and women, were unrivaled in the medieval Western Mediterranean for practical concerns.
Overview
Founded in the 9th century, the school was originally based in the dispensary of a monastery. 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. The arrival in Salerno of Constantine Africanus in 1077 marked the beginning of Salerno's classic period. Through the encouragement of Alfano I, Archbishop of Salerno and translations of Constantine Africanus, Salerno gained the title of "Town of Hippocrates" (Hippocratica Civitas or Hippocratica Urbs). People from all over the world flocked to the "Schola Salerni", both the sick, in the hope of recovering, and students, to learn the art of medicine.
The school was based on the synthesis of the Greek-Latin tradition supplemented by notions from Arab and Jewish cultures. The approach was based on the practice and culture of prevention rather than cure, thus opening the way for the empirical method in medicine.
Legend of the foundation The foundation of the school is traditionally linked to an event narrated by a legend. 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. There was a thunderstorm and an Italian traveller, named Salernus, wandered into the same place. He was hurt and the Greek, at first suspicious, approached to look closely at the dressings that the Latin applied to his wound. Meanwhile, two other travellers, the Jew Helinus and the Arab Abdela had come. They also showed interest in the wound and at the end it was discovered that all four were dealing with medicine. They then decided to create a partnership and to give birth to a school where their knowledge could be collected and disseminated.
The first period: 9th–10th centuries The origins of the "School" should date back to the 9th century, though the documentation for this first period is rather poor. Little is known about the nature, lay or monastic, of doctors who were part of it, and it is unclear whether the "School" already had an institutionalized organization.
In 568 AD, King Alboin brought the Langobards to Italy, where they gained power and control. They remained in power until the late 700s when the Normans took control of the area. In the mid 750's, many wealthy Langobards pursued religion and became monks, which led to a large amount of new clergy present. This caused a change in how the monasteries functioned, moving them away from strictly religious institutions to cultural and political ones. At this point in time, there was also a shift in the occupations of the monks themselves, where they moved from transcribing older medical texts to applying the knowledge more. During this time, the Langobardian monks, most notably Gariopontus, began to include a much larger level of detail in their records of illnesses, which helped them better understand the diseases they were treating people for.
Antonio Mazza dates the foundation of the school in 802. With that being stated, there is a greater amount of information that comes into play about the timeline of Schola Medica Salernitana from the 10th century. A German document written by Richer of Reims and an anonymous chronist of the Bishop of Verdun from the late 10th century says that Salerno from 985 and forwards, was known as a renowned center of medicine, and based on the time frame they believed that Salerno had taken around ten to twenty years to develop that prestige and reputation. Historians generally agree that Schola Medica Salernitana has been around since the 9th century but seems to have started to gain a reputation during the 10th century. 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. Her husband and relatives took her to Salerno to be treated by the great archiater Hyerolamus, who visits her and consults a great amount of books ("immensa volumina librorum").
From the 9th century there was a great legal culture in Salerno as well as the existence of lay teachers and an ecclesiastical school. Alongside the masters of the law there were also those who cared for the body and taught the dogmas of the art of health. 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. 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.Premessa storica di Cecilia Gatto Trocchi alla Regola sanitaria Salernitana, Newton Compton, Roma 1993 In 988, went to Salerno to have himself cured by the famed Salerno physicians, as told in the Gesta episcoporum Virdunensium. 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. In his Historia Ecclesiastica, Orderic Vitalis (1075 – ) states that in Salerno "the most ancient school of medicine has long flourished".
The second period: 11th–13th centuries
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. The School bridged the Byzantine and Roman sects of Christianity, and it was very close to large groups of Muslim and Jewish people. There was a larger diversity of ideas and knowledge because of this, which helped to improve the teachings of the school. Books of Avicenna and Averroes arrived by sea, and the Carthaginian physician Constantine the African (or Ifrīqiya) who arrived in the city for several years came to Salerno and translated many texts from Arabic: Aphorisma and Prognostica of Hippocrates, Tegni and Megategni of Galen, Kitāb-al-malikī (i.e. Liber Regius, or Pantegni) of Alī ibn'Abbās (Haliy Abbas), the Viaticum of al-Jazzār (Algizar), the Liber divisionum and the Liber experimentorum of Rhazes (Razī), the Liber dietorum, Liber urinarium and the Liber febrium of Isaac Israel the Old (Isaac Iudaeus).
Johannes (d. February 2, 1161) and Matthaeus Platearius, possibly father and son, resided in Salerno at this time when they apparently published their famous "Liber de Simplici Medicina" (a.k.a. "Circa Instans") which is first recorded in Salerno under their name early in the 13th Century. Subsequent incarnations—c.1480 now found in Brussels; and in the early 1500s, published in Paris with art by Robinet Testard and now found in both Paris and St. Petersburg—bore the name "Livre des simples medecines". Facsimiles with commentary for both editions have been published by Opsomer and Stearn (1984) and by Moleiro (2001).
At this time classical monastic works were rediscovered. With the medical school's support, interest in medicine as a discipline was renewed.
Monks of Salerno and of the nearby Badia di Cava were of great importance in Benedictine geography, for we note in the city in the eleventh century the presence of three important figures of this order: Pope Gregory VII, the Abbot of Montecassino Desiderio (future Pope Victor III) and bishop Alfano I.Museo Virtuale della Scuola Medica
In this context, the "School" of Salerno grew until it became a point of attraction of both sick and students from all over Europe. The prestige of doctors in Salerno is largely witnessed by the chronicles of the time and the numerous manuscripts kept in the major European libraries.
In 1231, the authority of the school was sanctioned by Emperor Federico II. In his constitution of Melfi it was established that the activity of a doctor could only be carried out by doctors holding a diploma issued by the Medical School Salernitana. In 1280 Charles II of Anjou approved the first statute in which the School was recognized as a General Study in Medicine.
Its fame crossed borders, as proved by the Salernitan manuscripts kept in many European libraries, and by historical witnesses. The twelfth- or thirteenth-century author of the poem Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum gave a Salernitan provenance to his poem in order to advertise his work and give validity to it. The school kept the Greek-Latin medical tradition going, merging it with the Arab and Jewish medical traditions. 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. In the school, besides the teaching of medicine (in which women too were involved, as both teachers and students), there were courses of philosophy, theology, and law.
The most famous female doctor and medical author at the school is Trota or Trotula de Ruggiero, who is accredited with several books on gynaecology and cosmetics, collectively known as The Trotula. 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. A further 19 less definitive manuscripts by Trota can be found in European libraries today. She was very proficient in her recordings of cosmetics and medicinal plants, many of which are still used in the present. Some of these were common plants such as cinnamon, oats and walnuts, while others were minerals or animal byproducts. While there were some poisonous treatments for ailments and skincare, many of the products she used are still included in the cosmetic industry today. Some of these were cinnamon and clove as depilatories, saffron for gold hair dye, and violet oil for anti-ageing purposes. Additional women physicians who attended this school became known as the "Women of Salerno", or the mulieres Saleritanae, and included women such as Abella, Constance Calenda, Rebecca de Guarna, and Mercuriade.
Books made the Salernitan school famous. They had a strong start with the Pantegni, Constantine's translation and adaptation of the Al-malaki of Haly Abbas, ten volumes of theoretical medicine and ten of practical medicine. He had also translated a treatise on the ophthalmology of Hunayn bin Ishaq and the Viaticus of Ibn al-Jazzar. The most famous pharmacopeia of the Middle Ages, the Antidotarium Nicolai, also was written in the circles of the school. For the transmission of Constantine's translations to Salerno early in the twelfth century an important role seems to belong to Johannes Afflacius. Johannes was the pupil of Constantine at Montecassino. After the middle of the twelfth century the translations of Constantine became the common property of the Salerno school and even the center of its medical teaching.