The intimacy maintained by Frederick with Mohammedan sovereigns contributed greatly to the prosperity of his dominions. The Sultan of Egypt was his friend. The Emir of Tunis was his tributary. With the other Moslem princes he was on the best of terms. Treaties of commerce, framed for mutual advantage, were frequently negotiated with these potentates, who were only too willing to discriminate against other European monarchs in favor of the Emperor of Germany. In 1241, on the arrival of the Imperial ambassadors, Cairo was illuminated in their honor. The trade of Sicily extended to India. The luxuries of the Orient were brought to the ports of Palermo and Messina. In their markets the arms, the jewels, the stuffs, the porcelain, of countries remote from civilization found a ready sale. In return, immense quantities of grain and manufactured articles were exported. It has been established upon undoubted authority that white female slaves of Christian birth formed no inconsiderable portion of the commodities dealt in by the subjects of Frederick II.
The fortunate geographical situation of Sicily, her magnificent harbors, the productiveness of her soil, the excellence and variety of her manufactures, had, in all ages, been factors of paramount importance in her commercial development. That development was now materially aided by the reciprocal observance of humane and courteous regulations, hitherto unrecognized in the intercourse of nations during the Middle Ages. Merchants in foreign ports were received with lavish hospitality; distrust of strangers gradually subsided; and unfortunates, cast away at sea, were no longer compelled to endure both the violence of the elements and the heartless rapacity of ferocious outlaws or amateur freebooters. In the widely distributed commerce of the monarchy the crown enjoyed no insignificant share. The ships of Frederick were anchored in every harbor; his warehouses were filled with the choicest and most costly fabrics of every country; and his agents, conspicuous for their enterprise and daring, collected, in the distant and almost unknown regions of the Orient, articles whose sale would most contribute to the benefit of the royal treasury. The principles of free trade seem to have been first promulgated in the maritime code of Sicily. The Emperor, however, in the application of those principles, evinced no reluctance in discriminating against his own subjects, whose vessels were not permitted to clear for foreign ports until those of the crown had been a certain time at sea. Every branch of commerce paid tribute to the imperial merchant. His ships carried pilgrims to the Holy Land. The grain he annually sent to Africa returned an enormous and certain profit. His trade with India brought into European markets objects of unfamiliar uses and elaborate workmanship, whose rarity often increased their great intrinsic value. His friendly relations with Mohammedan princes, begun during the Crusade and terminated only by his death, made him frequently the recipient of magnificent presents. We read that on one occasion an eastern potentate sent him a dozen camels laden with silver and gold. All ships trading to Palestine were required to bring back a cross-bow for each of their cables, a measure which, while it replenished the royal arsenals with the most effective weapons of the age, was free from the dangers of official incapacity or corruption, and entailed no expense on the government. A great fleet of galleys, commanded by the Genoese admiral Spinola, maintained the naval power of the kingdom and protected the coasts from the depredations of pirates.
In the internal administration of the kingdom, the most progressive and equitable ideas of commercial honor and common advantage prevailed. No duty could be levied on articles of necessity transported from one province to another. While monopolies were not forbidden, they were restricted to the crown, and the oppression resulting from this measure in other countries was not felt by the subjects of Frederick. Annual fairs were held in all the principal cities; markets existed everywhere. Taxes were apportioned according to the wealth of the district where they were to be collected. Constant war made these impositions onerous at times, but there was some relief in the knowledge that the clergy were forced to contribute their share to the public burdens, an inconvenience from which they were elsewhere exempt. The coinage was one of the purest, the most convenient, the most beautifully executed that had ever been put in circulation by any government. Agriculture, still largely in the hands of the Arabs, was carried to the highest perfection. Every plant or tree, whose culture was known to be profitable and which could adapt itself to a soil of phenomenal fertility, was to be found in the gardens and plantations of Sicily. The regulations of the kingdom concerning the rural economy of its people were minute and specific, even paternal, in their character. They were especially exact in details when directing how the royal demesnes should be administered. Records were kept of the crops produced in each district. Inventories of all the stock, poultry, grain, and fruit were made each year; the methods of their disposition and the prices they brought were noted on the public registers. The very uses to which even the feathers of the domestic fowls were destined was a matter of official inquiry. The breeds of horses, asses, and cattle were improved; the greatest care was taken of these animals. Food, which after experiment was found to be the most nutritious, was adopted; and the Emperor, whose interest in these matters was stimulated by the profit he derived from his stables, personally scrutinized their management with the most assiduous care. The supervision exercised by government officials over all occupations was most precise, and must have often proved vexatious. Weights and measures were prescribed by law, and any departure from honest dealing in this respect was visited with the severest penalties. Officers were appointed in every town for the detection of false weights and the sale of spurious merchandise. The laws of hygiene were understood and enforced with a degree of intelligence unknown to many European communities even at the present day. Unwholesome provisions could not be exposed for sale in the markets. Trades offensive to the senses or injurious to public health were prohibited within the walls of cities. A depth was prescribed for graves, that the exhalations proceeding from them might not contaminate the air. No carrion was permitted to be left on the highways.
In questions of legislation, as well as in those relating to political economy, the kingdom of Sicily was far in advance of its contemporaries. The constitution of England, and especially the organization of the House of Commons, owe much to the Sicilian Parliament. While the duties of its members were ordinarily confined to the registering of royal edicts and the imposition of taxes, it presents the first example of a truly elective, representative assembly that is mentioned in history. From the institutions of Frederick, his relative, Alfonso X. of Castile, appropriated many of the legislative and judicial provisions of Las Siete Partidas,—a compilation for which that monarch is principally entitled for his fame. France and Germany also ultimately experienced the imperceptible but potent impulse communicated to society by the supremacy of law over theology, which had its beginning in Sicily during the thirteenth century.
Extensive and important as were the reforms of Frederick, it was from the munificent and discerning patronage extended to science and literature that is derived his most enduring claim to the gratitude and commendation of posterity. The impressions imparted by Moslem taste, in the prosecution of early studies, during the formation of his character, never lost their power. His court was frequented by the most accomplished Jews and Arabs of the age. They were the favorite instructors of youth. Their opinions, drawn from the sources of classic and Oriental learning, were heard with respect and awe, even by those who dissented from their creeds and deprecated their influence. They filled the most responsible and lucrative offices of the government. Admitted to friendly and confidential audiences with the sovereign, who, himself an excellent mathematician, delighted to pose them with abstruse problems in geometry and algebra, their philosophy was regarded with signal disfavor by distinguished prelates that daily, in halls and antechambers, impatiently awaited the pleasure of the Emperor. So fond was Frederick of these intellectual diversions, that he sent certain questions for solution to the Mohammedan countries of Africa and the East; but no one was found competent to answer them until they reached the court of one of the princes of Moorish Spain. One of the most accomplished of linguists, Frederick sedulously encouraged the study of languages throughout his dominions. Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek were understood and spoken by all who made any pretensions to thorough education. Naples and Salerno were the most famous seats of learning in that epoch,—at the former was the University established by the Emperor; the Medical College of Salerno is justly celebrated as one of the most extraordinary academical institutions that has ever existed. The Faculty of the University was composed of the most eminent scholars who could be attracted by ample salaries, the prospect of literary distinction, and the certain favor of an enlightened monarch. The resources of all countries were diligently laid under contribution to insure the success of this noble foundation. The popularity of Frederick with the Moslem princes of the East gave him exceptional facilities for the acquirement of literary treasures. The collections of Egypt and Syria and of the monasteries of Europe were ransacked for rare and curious volumes with which to furnish the library of the great Neapolitan college. No city was better adapted to the necessities of a large scholastic institution than Naples. Its situation in the centre of the Mediterranean, the salubrity of the climate, the cheapness and variety of its markets, offered unusual inducements to poor and ambitious students desirous of an education. Their interests were protected and their security assured by special and rigorous laws. Extraordinary precautions were taken to prevent their being molested during their journeys to and fro. The prices which might be charged for lodging were clearly and definitely established. Provision was made for loans, at a nominal interest, to such scholars as did not have the funds requisite to successfully prosecute their studies. The preparatory schools of the kingdom were conducted with equal care and prudence, and nowhere else in the world, in that age, could educational advantages of a similar character be enjoyed as in the Sicilian dominions of the Emperor.
Great as it was, the reputation of the University of Naples has been eclipsed by the superior renown of the Medical College of Salerno. There the study of surgery and medicine was pursued under the eyes of the most learned and distinguished practitioners of every nation familiar with the healing art. Ignorance of any language could scarcely be an impediment to the student, for instruction was given in Latin, Greek, German, Hebrew, Arabic. Scientific methods were invariably observed in its curriculum. The prevalent superstitions, which, encouraged by the clergy, appealed to the credulous fears of the vulgar, were contemptuously banished from its halls. While the School of Salerno had existed since the eighth century, and, from its origin, chiefly owed its fame and success to Arabic and Jewish influence, it attained its greatest prosperity under the fostering care of Frederick II. The writers principally relied on by its professors were Hippocrates and Galen, whose works had been preserved from barbarian destruction or oblivion by the Saracens of Egypt and Spain. But while these venerable authorities were always quoted with reverence, no obstinate adherence to tradition, no devotion to errors consecrated by the usages of centuries, characterized the College of Salerno. Its spirit was eminently progressive, inquisitive, liberal. The monk, the rabbi, the imam, the atheist, were numbered among its teachers, and each maintained a position among his fellows in a direct ratio to his intellectual attainments. This anomalous condition, the more conspicuous in an era of general ignorance, and flourishing under the very shadow of the Papacy, itself inimical to all pursuits which tended to mental progress and interference with its spiritual emoluments, rendered the existence of such an institution all the more remarkable. To its researches are to be attributed many maxims, theories, and methods of practice still recognized as correct by modern physicians. Its investigations were thoroughly philosophical and based largely upon experiment. Information was communicated by lectures; anatomical demonstrations, as in modern times, were considered among the most useful and valuable means of instruction. Mediæval prejudice still opposed the mutilation of the human form, which, with the sectarian prohibition of ceremonial uncleanness, had long before been overcome by the Moorish surgeons of Cordova; and, in the Salernitan clinic, anatomists were forced to be apparently content with the dissection of hogs and monkeys. In secret, however, human bodies were not infrequently delivered to the scalpel, and the offices of many internal organs were observed and determined by the aid of vivisection,—a practice indispensable to a proper understanding of surgery, yet reprobated, even in our age of scientific inquiry, by a class of noisy, but well-meaning, fanatics. The unsatisfactory memorials of the School of Salerno which have descended to us—some of doubtful authenticity, others of unknown derivation—nevertheless disclose the extraordinary discoveries its professors had made in anatomy; among them those of the functions of the chyle ducts, of the lymphatic system, of the capillaries, which then received their name; of the different coats and humors of the eye; of the phenomena of digestion, together with detailed descriptions of the office of the ovaries and their tubes, which anticipated the researches of Falloppio by more than four hundred years. Specialists then, as now, devoted their talents to the improvement and perfection of certain branches of medical science. There were many celebrated oculists and lithotomists, and practitioners who were highly successful in the treatment of hernia, of mechanical injuries of every kind, and of the diseases of women. The rules of hygiene, the properties of the various substances of the Materia Medica, the principles of pathology and therapeutics, as laid down by the faculty of Salerno, have been transmitted to us in a lengthy and curious poem entitled, “Flos Medicinæ Scholæ Salerni,” popularly known as Regimen Sanitatis.
This extraordinary production, none of which is probably later than the twelfth century, and whose origin is unknown, has been ascribed by Sprengel to Isaac ben Solomon, a famous Jewish practitioner of Cordova, who died in 950. Careful examination, however, discloses the fact that it is not the work of a single hand, but a compilation of various medical precepts and opinions belonging to different epochs. In its prologue, the pre-eminent value of temperance in all things is diligently inculcated:
“Si vis incolumem, si vis te vivere sanum:
Curas linque graves, irasci crede profanum.
Parce mero, cœnato parum; non sit tibi vanum