Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle AgesWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
History
Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of The Students And Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Medicine, Medieval; Physicians
After Trotula we have a number of women physicians of Salerno whose
names have come down to us. The best known of these bear the names
Constanza, Calendula, Abella, Mercuriade, Rebecca Guarna, who belonged
to the old Salernitan family of that name, a member of which, in the
twelfth century, was Romuald, priest, physician, and historian, Louise
Trencapilli, and others. The titles of some of their books, as those of
Mercuriade, who occupied herself with surgery as well as medicine, and
who is said to have written on "Crises," on "Pestilent Fever," on "The
Cure of Wounds," and of Abella, who acquired a great reputation with her
work on "Black Bile," and on the "Nature of Seminal Fluid," have come
down to us. Rebecca Guarna wrote on "Fevers," on the "Urine," and on the
"Embryo." The school of Salernitan women came to have a definite place
in medical literature.
While, as teachers, they had charge of the department of women's
diseases, their writings would seem to indicate that they studied all
branches of medicine. Besides, there are a number of licenses preserved
in the archives of Naples in which women are accorded the privilege of
practising medicine. Apparently these licenses were without limitation.
In many of these mention is made of the fact that it seems especially
fitting that women should be allowed to practise in women's diseases,
since they are by constitution likely to know more and to have more
sympathy with feminine ills. The formula employed as the preamble of
this license ran as follows: "Since, then, the law permits women to
exercise the profession of physicians, and since, besides, due regard
being had to purity of morals, women are better suited for the treatment
of women's diseases, after having received the oath of fidelity, we
permit, etc."
Salerno continued to enjoy a reputation for training women physicians
thoroughly, until well on in the fifteenth century, for we have the
record of Constance Calenda, the daughter of Salvator Calenda, who had
been dean of the faculty of medicine at Salerno about 1415, and
afterwards dean of the faculty at Naples. His daughter, under the
diligent instruction of her father, seems to have obtained special
honors for her medical examination. Not long after this, Salerno itself
lost all the prestige that it had. The Kings of Naples endeavored to
create a great university in their city in the thirteenth century. They
did not succeed to the extent that they hoped, but the neighboring rival
institution hurt Salerno very much, and its downfall may be traced from
this time. Gradually its reputation waned, and we have practically no
medical writer of distinction there at the end of the fourteenth
century, though the old custom of opportunities for women students of
medicine was maintained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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