Medical School of Salerno images

The Medical School at Salerno was founded in the 9th century as part of the dispensary of a monastery and reached its zenith in the 10th to 13th centuries. After that, the school at Montpellier, France became as or more prominent. The school's heyday began with the arrival of Constantine Africanus in 1077, a major translator of Arabic medical texts into Greek or Latin. Salerno was so proud of its school that the town became known as the Town of Hippocrates, and even today, a part of the town's coat of arms refers to the school. The images attached here give visual impact to this discussion.


Medical School of Salerno from Avicenna's Canons



Trota or Trotula de Ruggerio

Part of the coat of arms for the town of Salerno

Constantine Africanus lectures to classroom

Medieval medical drawing of pregnant woman

Byzantine Military Tactics

OK, it's really not THAT much of a stretch from medicine to killing - wounds, etc., right? Check out this link - it's terrific. Medievalists.net is a newsletter full of articles and things for us - medievalists. They have a great article on Byzantine military tactics, which the Normans either appropriated (I'm thinking specifically here of Robert Guiscard, but they all did it) or, is this more interesting - did the Byzantine Emperor learn this from his Varangian Guard?

Medical School of Salerno -

You know, I just read a terrific book by James J. Walsh called Old Time Makers of Medicine and for anyone interested in ancient or medieval medicine, this is the book for you. For me, he devotes several chapters to the Medical School of Salerno, that famous place founded in the supposedly Dark Ages that incorporated water and aroma therapy, music, meditation, and herbal medicines. They also performed surgery, including brain surgery (which everyone knows was practiced by the Egyptians so how "new" was that?) but Walsh also goes into details not usually known. such as female physicians who organized, taught and administered the department of female diseases and illnesses, who performed whatever necessary surgery was required, and taught medicine as well. I have actually been on the site of the medical school in Salerno. I'll never forget it. It was 1992 and I had an English guide who had lived in the area for 12 years. Christina and I tramped through private walkways, gardens and backyards to a place where, alas, some urban development had definitely erased its history, but there were a few 11th century walls and although I am not prone to such things - an AURA or feeling of some kind. Not unpleasant, but emotional. I only remember one other site where I "felt" such a thing - at Montsegur in Cathar Country, standing over the Field of the Burned Ones. If you're interested, read a fascinating and great historical novel - Mistress of the Art of Death by the now (alas) deceased Ariana Franklin. The heroine is a graduate of the famous Medical School of Salerno and she is what we would now call a forensic pathologist. Read it!!!

Trota of Salerno, physician

A woman physician, now nearly forgotten, wrote one of the most widely distributed treatises on the medical problems of women in the 12th century. Nothing is known about the real life of Trota of Salerno, who apparently lived in Italy in the late 1100's. It was only in 1985 that an important work written by her was discovered in Spain by John F. Benton, the Practica Scundum Trotam (Practical Medicine According to Trota), which covers a variety of different medical topics, from infertility and menstrual disorders to snakebite and cosmetics. Trota also wrote a treatise on the medical treatment of women De Curis Mulierum (On the Treatment of Women). This text was combined with 2 others on similar topics in a work called the Trotula. This 3-part text then came down in history as the work of one person, Trotula, causing confusion with the name of this one author. Monica H. Green posits that the text seems to capture the collective practices of one group of female practitioners, setting down their cures for readers who will have the same unfettered access to the bodies of their female patients: "it appears to have been written down to provide a more permanent and concrete mechanism for the transmission of knowledge from woman to woman than the oral forms that had traditionally served the needs of Salernitan women. . . . [T]he text posits a community of female readers who would be able to rely on this text for instruction . . ." The earliest copy of this text is found in England at the Bodleian Library. It contains a few English words, suggesting that the text was among those transferred by the Normans from their Italian kingdoms to other areas of their influence.

Link for Louis XIV's shoes

I've been asked for a link to Louis' shoes - I should be so lucky - they are sure fabulous looking!  He could walk down Rialto Drive with no problem today!  Actually, Mary, all I did was Google Louis XIV's shoes and a whole ton of stuff came up to choose from - so have at it!  I certainly don't want to limit your possibile shoe enchantment!

Medieval Warhorses - the Hispano-Arab

So I'm researching training medieval warhorses.  There's a lot of misinformation out there, like all medieval warhorses were 17-19 hands high and were something like Percherons or Clydesdales.   Actually, most warhorses were 14-15 hands high, at least in my century, the 13th century, and it's my understanding that the Hispano-Arab breed was most typical. 


These are beautiful horses and I'll post a picture of one on my next post - I even have permission to use his name (thanks Cody!!!) - so stay tuned - he's gorgeous.  I read several training manuals for present day horses (good grief!) - very complicated, won't be in Book #3, I assure you, but did watch a terrific show on Lippizan horses, and how they are bred and trained.  Very very interesting as many moves that a medieval warhorse is trained to do are similar to what the Lippizans do now. 


If anyone else knows more about training warhorses, I invite you to comment!!!