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
