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 CHAPTER XXI

MEDICAL INSTRUCTION AT SALERNO, ITALY, IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The date of origin of the Medical School at Salerno is not known, but such evidence as we possess shows without a doubt that already in the earliest part of the Middle Ages some sort of facilities for studying medicine were provided in that little town—the Civitas Hippocratica, as it was called at a later period. It seems to be the general impression, says Daremberg, that during those early centuries only ignorance and superstition prevailed in Italy and Gaul; in other words, that all desire for scientific research had vanished, and that there no longer existed such a thing as the regular practice of medicine. This impression, he adds, is erroneous. History shows that schools modeled after those established by the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings (448-639 A. D.), existed up to as recent a date as the middle of the seventh century, and that subsequently the bishops organized the teaching in such a manner that it should be entirely under their control. As time went on, however, the schools assumed a more public character, although the actual teaching was still carried on in the cloisters and church edifices. It is well known, furthermore, that the chief of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Lombards—the so-called Barbarians, who at that time occupied these parts of Europe as conquerors—showed themselves on many an occasion to be the enlightened protectors of public instruction and the enthusiastic admirers of classical literature and science.

At Milan there is preserved a manuscript which furnishes satisfactory proof that the writings of Hippocrates and Galen were