Roberto Papi Museum

The museum

 

Titled after Roman collector Roberto Papi, the museum was curated by his father Mario and brother Fernando, who donated to the City of Salerno one of the most important collections in the world in terms of scientific interest and quantity of materials.

The birth of the museum, inaugurated in 2009 in the historic Palazzo Galdieri, is linked to the ancient tradition of the Salerno Medical School, the most important medical institution in medieval Europe, considered by many to be the forerunner of modern universities.

The location on the street Trotula de Ruggiero, the first and perhaps most famous of the medieval women physicians, makes a visit to this truly original and educationally interesting museum even more impressive.

 

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The collection

 

The Papi Museum’s rich collection includes historical instruments dating between the 17th and 20th centuries and rare medical-surgical and pharmaceutical equipment.

The originality of the exhibition lies in the research and attention to detail with which the precious objects, belonging to almost every field of medicine such as surgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, cardiology anatomy, pulmonology dentistry, and neurosurgery, have been placed.

In the itinerary, which spans two floors and fourteen rooms, one encounters extremely rare pieces such as the Mathieu bonnet from a late 18th-century warship or an oral hygiene case with gold decorations from the Empire.

In many rooms, real-life scenes have been recreated, transporting visitors on an evocative journey through time. Among the many settings, one encounters entire ancient doctor’s offices, a 16th-century pharmacy, a field hospital dating back to World War I, and a barber’s store cavadenti.

The museum’s history is a real-life experience.

 

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Curiosities / need to know

 

• The first “physician” in history

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Trotula de Ruggero, a noblewoman from Salerno who lived in the 11th century at the Lombard court of Guaimar IV, was the first woman physician. Author of the gynecological treatise De passionibus mulierum curandarum and the first book on women’s cosmetics, the De ornatu mulierum, she is remembered especially for her studies in the field of gynecology In contrast to the medical doctrines of the time, she dealt with the problem of infertility, looking for causes not only in women but also in men.

• Treats of Other Times

One of the most widely used diagnostic techniques by the masters of the Salerno Medical School was the’analysis of urine. Since the Middle Ages, in fact, the Salerno masters diagnosed diseases by analyzing the urine of patients. One of the greatest experts in this technique was the French master Aegidius of Corbeil. He came from France to study the Salerno techniques and became one of the leading experts. In fact, when he returned to his homeland, he wrote the De Urinis, a treatise on urine that was studied until the eighteenth century in universities throughout Europe.

• The medical ars in Roman times

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A veritable “toolbox” of a Roman-era surgeon has been found in Pompeii. About forty iron and bronze surgical tools were found inside his home, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The artifacts, now housed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, appear very similar to today’s: probes, catheters, forceps, forceps and scalpels, but also a speculum magnum matricis, a divarication system used in both surgery and gynecology.