Trotula of Salerno

Pioneering 11th-century female physician who transformed medieval women's healthcare

Trotula of Salerno (c. 1000–1097) revolutionized medieval medicine through her groundbreaking work De Passionibus Mulierum (On Women's Diseases). As a professor at the Schola Medica Salernitana—Europe's first medical school—she challenged gender norms by teaching male students and advocating for women's health rights.

Her Trotula texts synthesized Arab, Greek, and local medical knowledge, covering topics from childbirth to cosmetics with unprecedented detail. She insisted that women's health issues required scientific study rather than moral judgment, writing: 'Women are ashamed to reveal their weaknesses to males. Therefore, it is necessary for a woman to learn these matters.'

Trotula's innovative practices included early anesthesia techniques using opium and mandrake root, surgical interventions for uterine prolapse, and hygiene protocols that reduced childbirth mortality. Her work remained standard medical reference for 500 years, though later male scribes often obscured her authorship.

Modern analysis shows her texts contained remarkably progressive views. She debunked the Aristotelian notion that women were 'imperfect men', emphasized mutual pleasure in marital relations, and developed early gender-affirming treatments for intersex individuals. The Trotula corpus became foundational to Renaissance medicine while establishing women's right to practice and receive healthcare.