Trotula de Ruggiero

In Salerno women also practiced medicine, specialized in female diseases, were the famous mulieres salernitanae.

The most famous and important of all was Trotula de Ruggiero, of noble family, lived in the 11th century, the most glorious period in the history of Medical School, the period of the passage from the Lombards to the Normans, in which they operated Alfano I and Constantine the African.

Wife and mother of doctors, he was not a simple doctor among others (the others), but scholar and teacher, Trotula, as well as author of texts of what we call “gynaecology” today. His lyrics knew very long life, until they had the print version in the 16th century, when they were still used as manuals. His most important book was precisely De passionibus mulierum ante in et post partum (on the diseases of women before and after childbirth), in which it deals with gynecological problems.

But, faithful to the prescriptions of the Medical School, which linked health and well-being – modern concepts and today revalued – also deals with female cosmetics and beauty in De ornatu mulierum (on women’s cosmetics), in which it gives advice and indications on how to preserve youth and beauty, in the idea that health cannot ignore the general well-being.

In Salerno, in via Vinciprova, the famous artist partenopeo, Jorit, dedicated to Trotula de Ruggiero a splendid murals, within a project promoted by Salerno Mobility in collaboration with the Alfonso Gatto Foundation.