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Salerno School of Medicine
The foundation of the School is, by legend, attributed to four Masters: Helinus, Pontus, Adela and Salernus.The ars medica of Salerno was determined from the union of these four Jewish, Greek, Arabic and Latin cultures. Indeed, the geographical position of 
Salerno in the very heart of the Mediterranean Sea placed the city in a dominant crosspoint at the centre of important exchanges with East and Africa, promoted by Amalfi and Sicily.The great cultural revival linked to the fenomenon of Benedectine monasticism, which had its main centre at Montecassino and was represented in Salerno by the Abbey of S. Benedetto, also played an important role in the evolution of scientific study and therapeutical practice.The ars medica enriched its store of experimental knowledge both through its charitable, or to be more precise, hospital activities, wich were carried out in the infirmaries and monasteries, and also through the work of lay doctors, sometimes women, who first of all performed their experiments separately, and then together with a more speculative and didactic aim.
Historical evidence of the activities of the School goes back to the 10th century, but there is reference to it in a document by Federico II, published in Melfi in 1231, in which it was called the Salerno Medical School, the only one in the kingdom.In 1280, Carlo I gave it its first statute and continued its activities under changing circumstances up to 1811 when Gioacchino Murat reorganised the public education of the kingdom, and gave Naples University the exclusive right to grant degrees.
Salerno in the very heart of the Mediterranean Sea placed the city in a dominant crosspoint at the centre of important exchanges with East and Africa, promoted by Amalfi and Sicily.The great cultural revival linked to the fenomenon of Benedectine monasticism, which had its main centre at Montecassino and was represented in Salerno by the Abbey of S. Benedetto, also played an important role in the evolution of scientific study and therapeutical practice.The ars medica enriched its store of experimental knowledge both through its charitable, or to be more precise, hospital activities, wich were carried out in the infirmaries and monasteries, and also through the work of lay doctors, sometimes women, who first of all performed their experiments separately, and then together with a more speculative and didactic aim.
Historical evidence of the activities of the School goes back to the 10th century, but there is reference to it in a document by Federico II, published in Melfi in 1231, in which it was called the Salerno Medical School, the only one in the kingdom.In 1280, Carlo I gave it its first statute and continued its activities under changing circumstances up to 1811 when Gioacchino Murat reorganised the public education of the kingdom, and gave Naples University the exclusive right to grant degrees.
