The multi-cultural origins of the salernitan medical school: a historiographical debate

Abstract

The Salernitan Medical School, widely considered the oldest medical school in Christian Europe, represents a milestone in the history of medicine and the university. Much has been written over the centuries about the question of its age and origins, due not only to the difficulty of dating its beginnings, but also establishing the situation in which it emerged: was the school the result of the opportune convergence of different cultures or, on the contrary, the extension of an ancient Roman tradition? The focus of this study is not the origins of the Salernitan Medical School per se, but rather how researchers have interpreted the origins over the centuries. It does not provide an exhaustive history or analysis of the numerous investigations into this question, but examines how the relationship between the institution’s Semitic elements –‒ both Jewish and Arab ‒– and the oldest medical school in Europe has been approached in the most important works on the topic.