The Trotula Analysis

The work of Galen and Hippocrates formed the solid foundation for the pillar of medicine to be built, from the Grecian times all the way to twelfth century Italy. Without their work, medicine would not have advanced in the pattern that led to the penning of The Trotula, and the subsequent creation of the bridge to scholasticism, which sparked renewed, widespread interest in the knowledge they had to share. While the humours had been the dominating ideology when it came to natural philosophy and medicine, it had not been directly applied to women’s health, and the diseases that afflict women specifically.
Let us now turn our attention to the bridge itself. Although written in the eleventh century, it was not until the twelfth century that The Trotula would become widely translated, and be in the collective consciousness of the medical …show more content…
I have been discussing it as a bridge between worlds of thought, from empirical skills to university teachings. However, it was also a bridge between people. The Trotula was widely translated, including into vernacular languages. In a world of guilds and apprenticeships, the vernacular translations of this work created a bridge between literate women with the opportunity to study directly from the text, and laywomen who could have the text read to them, and learn the remedies just the same. Texts like this also created a bridge into the world of medicine, which had been largely populated by men, for it was one of the first widely circulated texts to explicitly discuss women’s health, and ailments that affected women specifically in their reproductive organs. Proficiency in this area created a bridge women could walk into a world of prestige, regardless of faith and social class.
The Trotula is a prime example of the phrase, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Indeed, there are many examples of remedies in The Trotula that remain relatively unchanged from Galen’s time, even crediting him