Trotula

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Historical representation of the Trota, medieval manuscript around 1200

Trotula is the author's name of a medical composite manuscript from the 12th century, which was one of the standard works of medicine in the field of gynecology until the 15th century (in Germany and England until the 16th century) . Trotula is awarded both important treatises on gynecological diseases and the care of children. At least one of the three scriptures contained goes back to the healing Trota or Trocta , which studied, practiced and taught at the medical school of Salerno in the early 12th century .

Trota of Salerno

Very little is known about Trota. According to Salvatore de Renzi (1800–1872) she was the wife of Johannes Platearius, who was also a doctor. According to this, the doctors Matthaeus Platearius and Johannes Platearius the Younger (around 1130) , also known as medical authors, would be their sons. According to Gilmore and Greenfield (see lit. ), Trota's membership of the Ruggiero family is as little proven as her marriage to Platearius. Monica H. Green also doubts this constellation.

Trota was a member of the Salerno faculty as a general practitioner . She wrote several treatises on medical practice and, according to Renzi's theory, is said to have worked with her husband and sons on the medical encyclopedia Practica brevis . The main text of the School of Salerno, De aegritudinum curatione from the 12th century (around 1180), contains medical textbooks by the school's seven grandmasters, including the Trotula ensemble and the tract Practica brevis by Johannes Platearius the Younger.

In 1985 John F. Benton in Madrid discovered the general medical work Practica secundum Trotam , written by Trota around 1150 in a collective manuscript from the 13th century ( Collectio Salernitana ) . This was the first time that the historical person of the Trota was reliably proven.

The Trotula Ensemble

Illustration from Passionibus Mulierum

The Trotula ensemble comprises three works, the authors of which are anonymous in the first and third cases. Green also thinks male authors are possible. Presumably the works come from three different authors. Over 120 manuscripts of the Latin text as well as around 60 medieval translations into national languages ​​have been preserved.

Liber de sinthomatibus mulierum

This writing already shows influences from Arabic medicine and is based heavily on the Zād al-musāfir by Ibn al-Jazzar , which Constantine the African translated in the late 11th century. The main source for Ibn al-Jazzar was Galenus of Pergamon , Hippocrates of Kos , Oribasius, Pedanios Dioskorides , Paulus and Justinus are also cited.

De curis mulierum

This work, possibly attributable to Trota, is also known as Passionibus mulierum curandorum or Trotula major . Trota emphasizes the importance of cleanliness, a balanced diet and physical activity for women, and at the same time warns of stress and restlessness. Like Hildegard von Bingen , she works with simple means and recipes that are affordable even for members of the common people.

In the introduction, Trota writes about the inhibitions of women to talk to a male doctor about complaints of their reproductive and sexual organs. Your writings testify to an amazingly advanced gynecological knowledge. For example, she knew about the connection between amenorrhea and female infertility. In the case of irregular menstruation , she suspects malnutrition , an illness or psychological stress (grief, anger, excitement or fear) as the cause. Their explanation for heavy bleeding, however, is based on the theories of Galen and Hippocrates about the bile .

Trota also wrote about birth control and infertility . She knew the fertile and sterile days during the female cycle and recommended her patients abstinence or sexual activities on certain days, depending on whether they wanted to have children or not. In contrast to other contemporary doctors, she did not see infertility as a purely female problem, but emphasized that the husband often had difficulties in this regard.

In the chapter on obstetrics - from today's perspective - she also gives very progressive instructions. She recommends supporting the perineum during labor to avoid rupture of the perineum . If a perineal tear nevertheless occurs, it should be sewn together " with a silk thread in three to four stitches ". It also gives the midwives detailed advice on preventing difficult births and damage during childbirth.

Trota also talks about baby care . She recommends stimulating the face and ears of newborns with massages . She lists criteria that must be observed when choosing the right wet nurse . Pain relieving lotions and other tips and tricks for teething are described as well as general medical advice for lice , worms , toothache , eye problems , cancer , deafness and obesity .

De ornatu mulierum

This is a scripture about skin diseases and cosmetics , also known as Trotula minor . It was subsequently inserted into the trotula major .

Aftermath

Until the 16th century, Trotula major in particular was regarded as a standard work in the medical faculties of Europe. In addition, the ensemble went into folk medicine and legends began to circulate about the person of the Trota.

The Trotula major was often copied and many copyists took the liberty of inserting their own changes and ideas into the texts. Others published Trota's work under a different title and under their own name. Individual chapters have been transferred to other works. In the 13th century, another doctor from Salerno shortened the manuscript and made significant changes to the content. In some copies, their name was mutilated to "Trottola", "Tortola" or even the male "Trottus". As early as the 12th century, copies of the Passionibus mulierum appeared under the name of her adopted husband, Johannes Platearius .

In 1544 the first printed edition of the Passionibus mulierum appeared in Strasbourg as part of the anthology Experimentarius medicinae , which, in addition to other scientific treatises, also contained Hildegard von Bingen's Physica . In 1554 Victorius Faventius published another edition to which he had added some of his own inventions. In 1566 Kaspar Wolff published another edition of the Trotula major in Basel , which he however attributed to Julias, the Roman family doctor, the daughter of Emperor Augustus, Eros Juliae . Eros Juliae had also written a text about gynecology and skin care, which Wolff probably confused with Trota's present writings. Some other publishers adopted this version of the Passionibus mulierum , while others ascribed it to the Roman physician Erotian , who himself published commentaries on Hippocratic gynecology in the 1st century AD. Although the assignment of the Passionibus mulierum to these two authors could not possibly be correct (many of the authors quoted by Trota lived long after Erotian or Eros Juliae), this mistake was used by medical historians of the 19th century as "proof" of their thesis that Trota was impossible to live and her writings were actually written by a man.

The question of the existence of Trotas and the authenticity of their texts

Although there were very divergent ideas about the person of Trota between the 11th and 19th centuries, her role as the author of the Passionibus mulierum was hardly questioned.

Karl Sudhoff , an early 20th century medical historian, theorized that the healing women ( Mulieres Salernitanae ) who studied and taught at the Salerno school were in fact not doctors, but midwives and nurses. According to this logic, they could not have written gynecological treatises either. Since the Passionibus mulierum contains instructions on surgical interventions and the main field of midwives, normal obstetrics, only marginally touches on, the text could not possibly come from a woman, according to Sudhoff.

Charles Singer , a science historian, advocated the thesis in 1928 that Passionibus mulierum was in truth not a gynecological script, but pornography . The author, a doctor named Trottus, would have given himself a woman's name to emphasize the erotic character of the script.

The main argument of Sudhoff and Singers for the assumption that the Passionibus mulierum could not have come from a woman is said to have been the very direct form in which sexuality and venereal diseases are discussed in the text. In particular, Chapter 15, "Method of constricting the vulva so that a seduced woman can be mistaken for a virgin" is an example.

Although the existence and authorship of the Trota von Salerno cannot be proven beyond doubt, there is strong evidence of this. In medieval Italy, for example, female scholars, although relatively rare, were fully accepted members of the academic community . If Trota had lived, then she would have been recognized in Salerno as a capacity for gynecology and as a lecturer. Italian medical historians have never doubted the authenticity of Trota or the existence of female students and lecturers at the medical faculty of Salerno in the 11th and 12th centuries. In addition to Trota, other Salern doctors (Sigelgaita, Abella , Mercurias, Rebecca Guarna, Francisca, Constanzia Calenda) have been named.

In a scientific-sociological sense, the controversy over the existence of Trota is cited as an early example of the Matilda effect , which can lead to the systematic suppression of the contribution of women scientists to research .

In the late 20th century, John F. Benton, professor at the California Institute of Technology , researched both the historical figure of the Trota and the Trotula ensemble. This work was continued after his death in 1988 by Monica H. Green at the University of Pennsylvania .

Illustration of the historical novel The Healer of Salerno by Ina-Marie Cassens

Trivia

The historical figure of Trota has found its way into fiction and contemporary literature . In the historical novel The Healer of Salerno Ina-Marie Cassens tells a fictional life story of Trota von Salerno.

literature

  • Ina-Marie Cassens: The healer from Salerno. Droemer / Knaur, 2007, ISBN 978-3-426-63338-0 . (Historical novel based on Trota von Salerno.)
  • Monica Helen Green: The development of the 'Trotula'. In: Revue d'histoire des textes. Volume 25, 1996, pp. 119-203.
  • Monica H. Green with David D. Gilmore and Monica Greenfield: The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. Pennsylvania University Press, Philadelphia 2001. ISBN 0-8122-3589-4 .
  • Monica H. Green: The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. University of Philadelphia Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8122-1808-6 .
  • Margaret Alic: Hypatia's daughters. Unionsverlag, 2000. ISBN 3-293-00116-5 .
  • Anna Blanca Césarine Maria Delva (Ed.): Vrouwengeneeskunde in Vlaanderen tijdens de late middeleeuwen, met uitgave van het Brugse 'Liber Trotula'. (Philosophical dissertation) Bruges 1983 (= Vlaamse historical studies. Volume 2).
  • Karin Maringgele: Trotula. In: VIRUS - Contributions to the social history of medicine 3. LIT-Verlag Vienna, 2004. ISSN  1605-7066 .
  • Britta-Juliane Kruse: Trotula (Trota, Trocta, Trotta). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1421 f.
  • Konrad Goehl : Women's secrets in the Middle Ages. The women of Salern. German Science Publishing House, Baden-Baden / Kappelrodeck 2010.
  • Alberto Alonso Guardo: “Trota tamquam magistra”. Estado de la cuestión de la obra ginecológica transmitida bajo el nombre de Trótula. In: Ana Maria Aldama Roy, María Felisa del Barrio Vega, Matilde Conde Salazar, Antonio Espigares Pinilla, María José López de Ayala y Genovés (eds.): La Filología Latina hoy. Actualización y perspectivas. Madrid 1999, Volume 1, pp. 599-606.
  • Albert Alonso Guardo: Trótula y un poema médico de la 'Collectio Salernitana'. Part I: 'De secretis mulierum'. In: Cuadernos de Filología Clásica. Estudios Latinos. Volume 23, 2003, pp. 381-402.

Web links

Commons : Trotula of Salerno  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beryl Rowland: Medieval Woman's Guide to Health. The First English Gynecological Handbook. Middle English Text, with Introduction and Modern English Translation by Beryl Rowland . Kent State University Press, Kent / Ohio 1981, ISBN 0-87338-243-9 , pp. 3 .
  2. ↑ Salvatore de Renzi (ed.): Collectio Salernitana, ossia Documenti inediti e trattati di medicina appartenenti alla scuola medica salernitana raccolti ed illustrati da Guglielmo Eduardo Teodorico Henschel , Carlo Daremberg e Salvatore de Renzi. 5 volumes. Naples 1852-1859; Reprint Bologna 1967 (= Biblioteca di storia della medicina. Part II, Volumes 1–5), here: Volume 1 (1852), pp. 149–161: Trotula, e le donne Salernitane . (Digitized version)
  3. ^ A b Monica H. Green: Who / what is "Trotula"? 2008.
  4. ^ Salvatore de Renzi (ed.): Collectio Salernitana […]. 5 volumes, Naples 1852-1859; Reprint Bologna 1967 (= Biblioteca di storia della medicina II. Volumes 1–5).
  5. ^ Alberto Alonso Guardo: Medicina y poesía medieval: el poema médico de la 'Collectio Salernitana' (IV, 1–176). In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 34, 2015 (2016), pp. 13–28.
  6. ↑ Bernhard D. Haage: The healing woman [...]. (1993), p. 123.
  7. ^ John F. Benton: Trotula, Women's Problems, and the Professionalization of Medicine in the Middle Ages. In: Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 59, no. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 30-53.
  8. ↑ Alberto Alonso Guardo: “Trota tamquam magistra”. Estado de la cuestión de la obra ginecológica transmitida bajo el nombre de Trótula. 1999.
  9. ↑ Cf. also Monica H. Green: A Handlist od Latin and Vernacular Manuscripts of the so-called 'Trotula' Texts. Part II: The Vernecular translations and Latin re-writungs. In: Scriptorium. Volume 51, 1997, pp. 80-104.
  10. ↑ Monica H. Green: The Development of the T “rotula”. In: Revue d'Histoire des Textes. 26 (1996), pp. 119-203.
  11. ↑ Monica H. Green: In Search of an “Authentic” Women's Medicine: The Strange Fates of Trota of Salerno and Hildegard von Bingen. In: Dynamis. Volume 19, 199, pp. 25-54.
  12. ^ Walther Schönfeld , Director of the University Dermatology Clinic in Heidelberg : Women in Western Medicine. From classical antiquity to the end of the 19th century , Ferdinand Enke Verlag Stuttgart 1947, on Trotta (Trota, Trotula) pp. 64–67.
  13. ↑ See also Alberto Alonso Guardo: Trótula y un poema médico de la 'Collectio Salernitana'. Part II: 'De ornatu mulierum'. In: Manuel C. Díaz y Díaz, José M. Díaz de Bustamante (eds.): Poesía Latina Medieval (siglos V – XV). Actas del IV Congreso del 'International Central Latin Committee'. Santiago de Compostela, 12-15 de septiembre de 2000. Florence 2005, pp. 309-402.
  14. ^ Digitized version of the "Experimentarius medicinae" of the Bavarian State Library in Munich. Retrieved May 6, 2015 .
  15. ^ Karl Sudhoff in: Theodor Meyer-Steineg and Karl Sudhoff. History of medicine at a glance with illustrations. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1921, p. 202 (digitized version) . Unchanged reprint in the 4th edition 1950, pp. 197–198
  16. ^ Charles Singer. From Magic to Science. Essays on the Scientific Twilight . Noni and Liveright, New York 1928, pp. 243–244: The Ladies of Salerne (digitized version )
  17. ^ Bernhard Dietrich Haage: The healing woman in poetry and reality of the German Middle Ages. In: Würzburg medical history reports. 11, 1993, pp. 107-132, here: pp. 122 f.
  18. ↑ First version: Who / what was “Trotula”? 2008.