Another Salernian treatise worth mentioning is that written by Peter Musandinus, under the title “On Foods and Beverages suitable for Persons affected with a Fever.” This writer, who was one of the teachers at the school of Salerno about the middle of the twelfth century, says that great attention was paid in his time to the preparation of foods in such a manner as to tempt the appetite of people who were ill. He speaks of a meat extract which is prepared from the flesh of the chicken, and also recommends that a soup made by boiling a fowl in rose water be given to patients who are affected with diarrhoea. He even goes so far as to lay stress upon the importance of serving food to a sick person in dishes which are pleasing to the eye. Apropos of the subject of foods that are easily digestible and therefore suitable for invalids I may mention how Meaux Saint-Marc translates or interprets the line in the “Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum” which reads O fluvialis anas, quanta dulcedine manas! His version may be rendered into English thus:
“Oh wood-duck, how gently doth thy soft flesh glide over the internal surface of the stomach!”
Toward the end of the twelfth century (1180 A. D.) there was published at Salerno a work on surgery—the oldest treatise on this subject that is known to have been written in Italy during the Middle Ages. It is now called “Roger’s Practice of Surgery,” but originally it was spoken of (in accordance with a custom quite common in those days) as “Post mundi fabricam,” which are the first three words of the text. This book is of a very practical character and is written in a simple, straightforward style. While it contains the usual amount of traditional knowledge about surgical matters, it gives at the same time the results of the personal experience of Roger, of his teachers, and of his associates. As published in the “Collectio Salernitana” the work represents, not the treatise as it was originally written, but a revision made by Rolando of Parma. It is divided into four parts or books, the topics treated in which comprise most of those usually discussed in works on surgery. Under the heading “Wounds of the Intestine,” in Book III., there occurs this most remarkable piece of advice, viz., “to insert into the intestinal canal a small tubular piece of elder and then to stitch the raw edges of the bowel together over it.”
Another treatise on surgery, entitled “Chirurgia Jamati,” was published at Salerno before the end of the twelfth century. Its authorship is attributed to Jamerius, and in many respects it resembles closely the treatise of Roger.
The “Regimen Sanitatis” was not, it appears, the only treatise on medicine which was published at that period in the form of a poem. Gilles de Corbeil (Petrus Aegidius Corboliensis), who had received his professional training at the school of Salerno and was afterward appointed the personal physician of King Philip Augustus in Paris (1180–1223 A. D.), wrote versified treatises on these two groups of topics—“The pulse, the urine, and the beneficial characteristics of composite remedies,” and “The signs and symptoms of the different maladies.” Both of these treatises were received everywhere throughout Europe with great favor and they maintained their popularity for a period of over four centuries. A French translation (by C. Vieillard) of the treatise on urology was published in Paris in 1903. An edition of the “De signis et symptomatibus aegritudinum” was printed in Leipzig in 1907. The following five lines are quoted by Neuburger; and they certainly display the remarkable gift possessed by Aegidius for condensing a large amount of information into a very small space:—
DE CONDITIONIBUS URINAE
- Quale, quid, aut quid in hoc, quantum, quotiens, ubi, quando,
- Aetas, natura, sexus, labor, ira, diaeta,
- Cura, fames, motus, lavacrum, cibus, unctio, potus,
- Debent artifici certa ratione notari,
- Si cupit urinae judex consultus haberi.
To translate this into easily comprehensible English prose would certainly require the employment of at least five times as many words.
Another physician who received a part of his training at Salerno and who is mentioned by Neuburger as “The greatest eye surgeon of the Middle Ages,” is Benevenutus Grapheus (twelfth century), a native of Jerusalem, and probably of Jewish parentage. He wrote a practical treatise (“Practica oculorum”) which had a wide circulation, and which has been translated into Provençal, French and English.
Toward the end of the thirteenth century the famous Medical School of Salerno began to show signs of decadence. Various circumstances were responsible for this change. In the first place, its career of great usefulness had already covered a period of about seven hundred years, and—according to the law affecting all things human—its time of decrepitude was already more than due. Then, in the next place, vigorous rivals were beginning to appear in different parts of Europe,—at Bologna, at Montpellier and at Paris,—and these new schools must have attracted large numbers of students who otherwise would have frequented the University of Salerno for the educational facilities which they required. Commercialism—if such a term may be employed to characterize the action of those who were not willing to undergo the entire course of training required for obtaining the full privileges belonging to a physician—may perhaps also be named as one of the influences which contributed to the slow breaking up of the school. That this force had already begun to exert some effect upon the management of the institution may be inferred from the fact that in 1140 A. D., Roger, King of Sicily and Naples, promulgated the law that nobody would be permitted to practice medicine in his kingdom until he should have satisfied the royal authorities that he was properly qualified to undertake such practice. The establishment of such a law surely indicated that the number of those who were incompetent to assume the responsibilities of a practitioner of medicine was alarmingly on the increase; and, after it had gone into effect, many must have been deterred from choosing a medical career, and perhaps others have been diverted to schools which were located in countries where the laws were more lax. In 1240 A. D. the Roman Emperor Frederic II., who was also King of Sicily, made it a law that the course of medical studies at Salerno should cover a period of five years. All these factors taken together would seem to have been sufficient slowly to diminish the popularity of this celebrated school. But to these there were added, in the latter half of the thirteenth century,—if we may believe Puschmann,—two new factors, which exerted a powerful influence in destroying all hope of further regeneration, viz., the establishment of a university at Naples, in 1258 A. D., by Manfred, King of Sicily, and the narrow and illiberal spirit in which the Church, by this time in almost full control of the education at Salerno, managed the medical school.