School of Salerno and Constantinus Africanus

Salerno was purely a Medical School. A doctor from Salerno is mentioned as early as 848 and a hundred years later there is one more at the court of Louis IV in France. The advent of Constantinus Africanus is the period of greatest literary activity of the school Salerno.

Constantinus Africanus, a native of Tunisia, North Africa was among the first to carry Greco-Arabic learned medicine into western Europe.

The main source of Anatomical knowledge was Constantine’s translation of Al Maleki (Royal Book) written by Haly Ben Abbas, a Persian magnus, who was the author that treatise on matters medical.

Constantinus Africanus translated it into Latin (1070-80) and later another translation was made by Stephen of Antioch. Constantinus Africanus carried out a long series of translation from Greek of the works of the greatest physician of antiquity, Galen of Pergamum, along with many medical works of Byzantine and Arab authors.

Thus the medicine of the middle ages began to receive the effects of the translations and soon also a good number of original textbooks and teaching manual saw the light of day.
School of Salerno and Constantinus Africanus