SALERNO, SCHOOL OF. - In it, in Salerno, the purest classical spirit and monastic medicine took refuge, and there monastic medicine was transformed into lay medicine, while remaining, however, untouched by magical or superstitious practices. Although it produced nothing new, the s. s. has the undisputed merit of having handed down medical thought in its purest expression and of having been the first school to flourish in the Christian West.
The earliest notices go back to 904, when, according to documents, a man of Salerno was a physician at the Court of France; in 984 the bishop of Verdun, Adalbero, went to Salerno to be treated. Leaving aside the legends about the origin of the s. s., the problem narrows down to its lay origin, asserted by De Renzi, and its monastic origin, upheld by Puccinotti. According to the most modern views, the Benedictines were the first representatives and promoters of the school; they, more than in their other numerous monasteries, found in Salerno a medical tradition, and here they had centers of hospitality attached to the monasteries, where, also by rule, pilgrims were given lodging. In any case, in the first period (pre-Constantinian), the principal names are predominantly those of ecclesiastics, beginning with Guarimpoto or Garioponto, who lived in the 11th century, considered an ecclesiastic by Capparoni and called subdiaconus in the Liber Confraternit of the Confraternity of the Crusaders of Salerno. His work too, the Passionarius, already shows its religious character from the title. Pietro Clerico was a contemporary of Guarimpoto and wrote a Practica, very similar to the work of the former. Another representative of this period is Archbishop Alfano I (v.), d. in 1085. Alongside these ecclesiastics, however, there is no lack of well-known laymen who made up entire families such as the Cofoni and the Plateari; nor are there lacking women dedicated to the medical art, among whom Trocta excels, who devoted herself to the obstetric art, leaving us the book De mulierum passionibus in, ante et post partum. Among the anonymous works written around the year 1000, one should not forget the Speculum hominis, in verse, and the Antidotario salernitano, a codification of the prescriptions used in hospital practice. In this period one should particularly note in medical thought and in the works, none of which is original, the complete absence of magical and astrological doctrines.
The second period (period of Constantinian splendor, 1100-1300) is characterized by the arrival of Constantine the African (v.), the greatest representative of the s. s., and by a moderate Arabic influence, which coincide with the spread of the school's fame and the consequent greater influx of students and of teachers of clear renown. Add to this that the State intervened to regulate the school, conferring on it an official character. Frederick II, in fact, with his Constitutions of Frederick established that the medical art could not be practiced except with the approval of a commission of masters of Salerno; the course of study had to last five years, preceded by three of logic; surgeons, finally, had to have attended lectures in surgery for at least one year and to demonstrate that they had followed lectures in anatomy.
In this period too there is no lack of families of physicians; of those already mentioned, the Cofoni have their greatest representative in Cofone the Younger, author of a short treatise on anatomy; the Plateari, with Giovanni II and III and Matteo the Elder; that of the Ferrario, originating from a certain Giovannaccio, of whom one must remember Giovanni II, physician and lord of Gragnano. Among the isolated physicians of this period, worthy of note: Giovanni da Procida, Giovanni Afflacio and Niccolò Salernitano. A pupil of the s. s. was also Pierre Gilles de Corbeil, a student of Musandino and Plateario, who flourished in the 12th century, and who, having returned to his homeland, was archiater of Philip Augustus.
The Salernitan doctrine, although based on the Hippocratic humoral theory, was completed with all the branches then within the domain of medical practice. Particular interest was given to uroscopy, which studied the urine in its most external aspects, quantity and color; the s. s. led to new diagnostic interpretations, turning uroscopy toward uromancy, a purely medieval science. Master Mauro wrote a treatise De urinis, and masters Sacco, Ursone, Giovanni Plateario and Pierre Gilles de Corbeil also dealt with the subject. On the other hand, ophthalmology was cultivated by master Zaccaria, Davide Armenio, author of the Tractatus de oculis, Camanosoli, who treats of nosology, therapy and ocular surgery according to the s. s.; but Benvenuto Grasso or Grafeo excels, of the second half of the 13th century, author of the Ara probata oculorum.
An undisputed merit of the s. s. is that of having restored to honor anatomical thought and the study of anatomy, which, from the time of Galen, had declined and been almost forgotten. With the Constitutions of Frederick, on the other hand, as has been said, the study of anatomy was imposed on all who wished to practice the surgical art. But from Frederick's edict it cannot be proved that this concerned the anatomy of human bodies and that human autopsies were performed, human anatomical study being limited to knowledge of the Galenic texts alone. The best-known Salernitan work in this field remains the Anatomia porci of Cofone the Younger, who flourished at the end of the 11th century; a very short treatise, in it one limits oneself to a listing of the principal organs and to the position of those most apparent upon section; among brief personal observations, mention is made of the lacteal vessels of the intestine which Gaspare Aselli would later identify with the chyliferous vessels discovered by him. Master Mauro (ca. 1170) and master Ursone also dealt with anatomy, to whom a short treatise already considered anonymous must be attributed.
A true pride of the school was surgery, which underwent a notable increase because of the landing in southern Italy of wounded Crusaders, returning from the Holy Land. And so in Salerno surgery, having declined and being practiced only by empirical charlatans, returned to the hands of illustrious masters. The first to rehabilitate surgery is Pietro Clerico, who lived after the year 1000 and was the author of a Practica. But the great representative is Ruggero di Frugardo, a native of Parma who lived between the 12th and 13th centuries, author of the work Post mundi fabricam, better known as the Rogerina. Even better known is Rolando da Parma, author of a Chirurgia better known as the Rolandina, a pupil of the former and flourishing around 1250. This was above all external surgery, but in cases of necessity it did not shrink
SALERNO, ARCHDIOCESE OF - Aerial panorama - Salerno. (phot. Eni)
from resorting to a true cavity surgery, albeit only for reparative purposes.
Medical therapy too was quite advanced, and from the texts one can infer how the best of what was in the works of Galen and Avicenna had been assimilated, without, however, any clear distinction being made from hygienic norms. The anonymous work Regimem salernitanum in Leonine verses, which tradition holds was first written for Robert of Normandy and which from its initial 356 verses was gradually expanded, compendiates Salernitan therapy and hygiene.
A third period follows (p. of decadence) due both to the rise of universities as official schools and to the privileges granted by Frederick II to the Neapolitan Studium. Nevertheless, with alternating fortunes the school continued to live until the 19th century and was officially abolished only by the decree of Joachim Murat dated 29 Nov. 1811.
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Gustavo M. Apolloni