In the 11th century one of the greatest medical centres in the world was at Salerno in Southern Italy - physicians from all over Europe went to study there. It was the first non-religious university and Greek, Arabic and Jewish texts were freely studied. Here too women were allowed to learn and qualify alongside men and one of these women was to become renowned as a healer and teacher, not only in her lifetime but for centuries after her death. This woman was Trotula di Ruggerio - mostly known just as Trotula and even referred to in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as 'Dame Trot'! 

In her own day Trotula was known as 'magistra mulier sapiens' - the wise woman teacher - and records of her work, both written and practical, are referred to by writers in both her own time and many years after her death. 

She is described by Constantine the African as performing a Caesarian section to save a child's life and her own work describes an operation to repair a damaged perineum after childbirth. Her books include one on general diseases, one on the ailments of women and children, a text on pre and post-natal healthcare and, what is considered her greatest work - De Mulierium Passionibus - Concerning the Suffering of Women. This covered conception, abortion, menstruation and pregnancy among other topics related to women's health.

Trotula trained her students to be observant and to conduct a thorough examination of the patient and to listen to what they had to say about their ailment: 

' When you reach the patient, ask where his pain is, then feel his pulse, touch his skin to see if he has a fever, ask if he had had a chill, and when the pain began and if it is worse at night....having found the cause of his troubles, it will be easy to determine the treatment' 

She also believed in making her patients physically comfortable, recommending warm herbal baths, special diets, scented oils massaged into the skin and plenty of convalescent rest to aid the healing process. 

Trotula's books on obstetrics and gynaecology became the standard texts on the subject for centuries to come and she was a pioneer in regarding paediatrics as a separate branch of medicine. She also (contrary to the Christian authorities of her time) believed women should not suffer unremitting pain in childbirth and used opiates to help women in labour as well as recommending the use of plant soporifics such as hemlock and hyocyanus during operations. 

Sadly the opportunities allowed to women at Salerno in the 11th century were not to last. Salerno was sacked by Henry VI in 1194 and the medical school never recovered its prestige. Women generally in Europe were denied access to education and those with practical healing skills and herbal knowledge were persecuted as witches. Trotula's own books were scattered and lost and hostility towards women as teachers and healers led to her very existence being denied and her works being assigned to male authors!