Virtual museum Medical school Salerno

The museum

The museum was born to tell the glorious past ofMedical school in SalernoIt was the first and most important European medical institution in the Middle Ages and is considered by many as the ancestor of modern universities.

It was created thanks to the collaboration of local scholars and the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Salerno. In 2023 the exhibition was renewed with new and more modern technological solutions.

Museum venue is the smallChurch of San Gregorio, founded presumably in the 11th century on the ancient Via dei Mercanti, in the heart of the historical center. The current aspect of the church – formerly to three aisles – is a unique nave surmounted by barrel vaults and scanned on the sides by arches. The church is decorated outside with a ceramic work by the artist Enzo Bianco.

The story

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In the museum you can touch the glorious past of the first medical university in the West, knowing its discoveries and characters.
Among these is the story ofMatteo Silvaticoand its garden (now Garden of Minerva), ofTrotula de Ruggiero, first medical woman in history, and the bishop and doctorAlphano I, which translated from Greek and Arabic the great Constantine the African.

Video projections and digital panels reproduce ancient manuscripts and miniatures. The section dedicated toRegimen Sanitatis Salernitanumdescribes the precious treatise in Latin verses written in the XII-XIII century.
The floor of the main room is made of glass, so as to leave to view the old existing structure. Looking carefully will see a series of surgical instruments, original and reconstructed, of the first doctors in history.

To discover

– Church of San Gregorio

Built around the year 1000, today the Church, formerly three aisles, is a unique nave surmounted by barrel vaults and scanned on the sides by large arches. The church is decorated outside with a ceramic work by the artist Enzo Bianco. A stone of sandstone, now kept in the Diocesan Museum, coming from the counterfaceted church, shows that in 1176 it underwent an important restoration by order of King William II.

Curiosity / to know

– The first school of Medicine

The Salernitan Medical School is the oldest medical academy in the Christian West and the first university institution linked to medicine in Europe. According to a tradition it would be born from the encounter of four wise masters, a Jew, an Arabic, a Latin and a Greek, who by chance would have met in Salerno. After discovering that all four of them were taking care of medicine, they decided to give life to a school where to bring their knowledge, improve them and disseminate them.

– Medicine and not only

The areas most practiced by Salerno doctors were: the study of the symptom, urology, anatomy, herborism or medicine of “simples”. Directly connected to the mastery ofmedicine simpliciumis the great tradition and experience of the Salento in the preparation of poisons and antidotes, attested, among other things, in episodes of medieval literature.

– Federico II and the School

The first act with which the operational and educational structures of Salerno are legally recognized is issued by Frederick II in 1231. InLiber AugustalisFederico pays great attention to the recruitment of medical professors, to the order of studies, to the discipline of the professions of doctor, surgeon and pharmacist, to public hygiene and to the protection of the environment.