The most prominent man of the school is Constantinus Africanus, a native
of Carthage, who, after numerous journeys, reached Salernum about the
middle of the eleventh century. He was familiar with the works both of
the Greeks and of the Arabs, and it was largely through his translations
that the works of Rhazes and Avicenna became known in the West.
One work above all others spread the fame of the school--the Regimen
Sanitatis, or Flos Medicinae as it is sometimes called, a poem on
popular medicine. It is dedicated to Robert of Normandy, who had been
treated at Salernum, and the lines begin: "Anglorum regi scripsit schola
tota Salerni . . . " It is a hand-book of diet and household medicine,
with many shrewd and taking sayings which have passed into popular use,
such as "Joy, temperance and repose Slam the door on the doctor's nose."
A full account of the work and the various editions of it is given
by Sir Alexander Croke,(8) and the Finlayson lecture (Glasgow Medical
Journal, 1908) by Dr. Norman Moore gives an account of its introduction
into the British Isles.
(8) Regimen Sanitutis Salernitanum; a Poem on the Preservation of
Health in Rhyming Latin Verse, Oxford, D.A. Talboys, 1830.
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