1140

Revival of Greco-Roman medicine begins in Salerno, when Roger II of Sicily decrees that all practitioners of medicine and surgery in his realm must pass battery of tests administered by secular physicians. Then, decades later, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen grants Salerno’s faculty sole authority to approve all physicians and surgeons in the kingdom. Publication of Practica Chirurgie by Rogerius (Roggerio dei Frugal, aka Roger of Salerno) ca. 1180 “was the era’s preeminent manuscript and earliest original surgical work in the West” (Rutkow, 43). Frederick-type ordinances for lay control spread to Spain in 1283 and then to Germany. By beginning of 14th century, Paris replaced Salerno as gathering place for surgical talent, though the surgical practice was divided between rivalrous groups of illiterate barber-surgeons and small faction of educated surgeons.