Trotula of Salerno: Women’s Health Findings
Trotula of Salerno is one of the earliest victims of historiographical misogyny. Trotula was one of the most famous physicians of the time. She is considered the world’s first gynecologist. Trotula di Ruggiero came from a wealthy family. Her birth and childhood remain a mystery. Trotula was a pioneer in women’s health and specialized in obstetrics, gynecology, cosmetics and skin disease. She wrote many medical works, her most famous being Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum (The Diseases of Women), also known as Trotula Major. This work was comprised of sixty-three chapters pertaining to the special health issues of women.
The purpose of this work was to educate male physicians about the female body because male physicians knew little at that time. Another work Practica Secundum Trotam was a larger work of a general nature. Her writings have remained instrumental building blocks in our knowledge about human health, and women’s health specifically. And yet, her authorship had been cast into doubt over the ensuing centuries, entirely because historians and medical professionals were skeptical that a woman could have produced works of such accuracy or importance. Yup, you read that right. But this idea was so ingrained in the general public, that many even doubted that Trotula of Salerno existed. This convenient doubt ultimately allowed numerous male physicians over subsequent years to cut and paste their own names over her work.