Trota, I knew her medicine woman

Imagine that you are living in southern Italy around the year 1115 AD, walking in a beautiful garden with an interesting woman who is talking and cutting plants as they go. The Mediterranean sun pours over your head, filling you with vitality and well-being. An ideal climate to cultivate the multitude of healing plants that are before you.

You embrace the delicious aromas, and this Trota woman describes to some of her female patients what they need. They return to the sun to pick some roses for the incredibly fragrant bouquet of plants that she is going to use in her work as a healer and teacher…

By Horacio Meson

In the 11th and 12th centuries, medical ideas, research, and observations were centered in the flourishing city of Salerno, Italy. Doctors from all over Europe and the Mediterranean world went there to learn. The city, located south of Rome, was a luxury as a commercial and agricultural center.

The inhabitants of Salerno had an abundant supply of medicinal plants derived from their local crops. Also from other herbs from foreign trade, as well as resins, spices and minerals that were an integral part of their medical system.

Salerno’s medical school during the twelfth century was an informal community of teachers and students who developed formal methods of teaching and research. Founded around the year 1000, it was the first non-religious medical school.

Greek, Arabic, and Jewish texts were freely studied. These texts reflected the diversity of Salerno’s population. Lombards, Greeks, Romans, Jews and Muslims from North Africa, a fusion of cultures. The wise doctors of Salerno maintained high standards in surgery, teaching anatomy techniques and animal dissection. They unified surgery and medicine. The school was closed by decree by Napoleon in 1811.

From the 11th to the 13th century, the women of Salerno were allowed to learn and practice medicine alongside the men. Licenses to practice medicine were granted by the state. There are no written records of most of the healers who practiced medicine and obstetrics in the Middle Ages. In Europe women were excluded from formal medical education. One of the few exceptions was an Italian woman who was to be recognized as a healer, teacher, and writer, not only throughout her lifetime, but also for centuries following her death. this woman wasTrout , known as “the wise woman teacher”. We have no knowledge of personal data regarding her, such as her birth, her family and her death. The practice of it is included in the classical texts of Salvatore de Renzi published in 1582 and 1589. Some of the manuscripts of it are in museums throughout Europe. It is known that the book PracticeAccording to Trotam

, includes seventy-one remedies for all kinds of ailments, from gynecological and obstetrical diseases to problems of the eyes, feet and spleen. She gives advice on how to treat a fever, a toothache or hemorrhoids and, of course, recipes for making cosmetics. It is amazing that Trota learned to read and write Latin when most of Salerno’s women were married, had children and received very little education. She knew a lot regarding botany and this was revealed in her remedies. She was a qualified diagnostician who used all of her senses for this. She addressed the pulse and urinalysis, as well as observing the patient’s face and words. She also had the courage to study and leave her results in writing. an important bookOn the Treatment of Illnesses

written in the second half of the 12th century, by the seven main doctors of Salerno, includes Trota, his knowledge is also verified in him. This quote attributed to her explains the true motivation for her work:“Women, because of their modesty, dare not reveal the difficulties of their illnesses to a male doctor. Therefore, feeling sorry for their misfortunes, I began to carefully study the diseases that most frequently afflict the female sex. .

This is the reason why he chose to focus on gynecology, obstetrics, cosmetics and skin diseases.

She used herbs and flowers and imported spices from India. Without a doubt we must classify her as an aromatherapist, almost all of her remedies involve aromatic substances. Trota’s remedies were much simpler than Galen’s recipes, he taught his students to be proud professionals who treated their patients with superiority. Trota taught a gentle and sincere sympathy for sick patients, her medicine was very direct and more touch oriented.

His three books were merged into a single work that was very popular with European doctors, midwives, and women in general. In the year 1400 it was translated into Dutch, French, English and German. By the year 1500 there were six different versions in the Trota collection. This book became one of the pillars on which medieval culture was built, being present in the libraries of doctors, surgeons, monks, philosophers, theologians, and princes from Italy to Spain, and from Ireland to Poland.

Slowly the opportunities that opened up for Trota and her sister from the north in the health field, Hildegar de Bingen, were not to last. The door that allowed women to heal in public was closed at the end of the 12th century. The church emerged as the new authority in the world of medicine. Women were no longer allowed to study medicine and become teachers, even though Salerno was one of the last cities to oppose female education.

Trota represented the female healer from the distant future. She showed confidence in her intuition, knowledge of science, awareness of suffering, sense of service, love of phytomedicine and capacity for compassion. Centuries later, some wonderful examples of women healers would emerge: nurses, doctors, alternative health professionals, and midwives. Trota’s example and writings were an inspiration to all.

The essential content of this article was extracted from the book “Aromatherapy, awakening to healing fragrances” by Elizabeth Anne Jones, 2012, Editorial Antroposofica, Bs. As. Argentine Republic.