Virtual Museum Salerno Medical School

The museum

The museum was created to tell the story of the glorious past of the Salernitan Medical School, which arose in the 9th-10th centuries under Longobard rule and was the first and most important European medical institution in the Middle Ages and is considered by many to be the forerunner of modern universities.

It was made possible through the collaboration of local scholars and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Salerno. In 2023, the layout was renovated with new and more modern technological solutions.

Site of the museum is the small Church of St. Gregory, presumably founded in the 11th century on the ancient Via dei Mercanti, in the heart of the historic center. The current appearance of the church-formerly a three-aisled church– has a single nave surmounted by a barrel vault and punctuated on the sides by arches. The church is decorated on the outside with a’ceramic work by artist Enzo Bianco.

The story

In the museum you can touch upon the glorious past of the first medical university in the West, learning about its discoveries and personalities.

Standout among them are the stories of Matteo Silvatico and his vegetable garden (now the Minerva Garden), of Trotula de Ruggiero, the first woman physician in history, and of the bishop and physician Alphanus I, who worked translating from Greek and Arabic the great Constantine the Africanus.

Video projections and digital panels reproduce ancient manuscript and illuminated codices. The section devoted to the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum describes the valuable treatise in Latin verse written in the 12th-13th centuries.

The floor of the main hall is made of glass, so that the pre-existing ancient structure is left visible. Look carefully and you will see a number of surgical instruments, both original and reconstructed, from the earliest physicians in history.

To be discovered

• Church of St. Gregory

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Built around the year 1000, today the formerly three-aisled church has a single nave surmounted by a barrel vault and punctuated on the sides by large arches. The church is decorated on the outside with a’ceramic work by artist Enzo Bianco. A sandstone plaque, now kept in the Diocesan Museum, from the church’s counterfaçade, testifies that it underwent a major restoration by order of King William II in 1176.

Curiosities / to know

• The first school of medicine

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The Salerno Medical School is the oldest medical academy in the Christian West and the first medicine-related university institution in Europe. According to one tradition it was born from the meeting of four wise masters, a Jew, an Arab, a Latin, and a Greek, who happened to meet in Salerno. After discovering that all four dealt precisely with medicine, they decided to start a school where they could bring their knowledge together, improve it and disseminate it.

• Medicine and beyond

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The areas most practiced by Salerno physicians were: the study of the symptom, urology,’anatomy, and herbalism or “simple” medicine. Closely related to the mastery of medicina simplicium is the great tradition and experience of the Salernitans in the preparation of poisons and antidotes, attested, among other things, in episodes of Middle Latin literature.

• Federicus II and the School

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The first act by which Salerno’s operational and educational structures are legally recognized is issued by Frederick II in 1231. In the Liber Augustalis Frederick indeed pays great attention to the recruitment of medical professors, the’ordering of studies, the regulation of the professions of physician, surgeon and pharmacist, public hygiene and environmental protection.