FREE THE TROTULA: AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MEDIEVAL COMPENDIUM OF WOMENS MEDICINE PDF Monica H. Green | 248 pages | 28 May 2002 | University of Pennsylvania Press | 9780812218084 | English | Pennsylvania, United States Trotula - Wikipedia Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine. The Trotula was the most influential compendium of women's medicine in medieval Europe. Scholarly debate has long focused on the traditional attribution of the work to the mysterious Trotula, said to have been the first female professor of medicine in eleventh- or twelfth-century Salerno, just south of Naples, then the leading center of medical learning in Europe. Yet as Monica H. Green reveals in her introduction to the first English translation ever based upon a medieval form of the text, the Trotula is not a single treatise but an ensemble of three independent works, each by a different author. To varying degrees, these three works reflect the synthesis of indigenous practices of southern Italians with the new theories, practices, and medicinal substances coming out of the Arabic world. Green here presents a complete English translation of the so-called standardized Trotula ensemble, a composite form of the texts that was produced in the midthirteenth century and circulated widely in learned circles. The work is now accessible to a broad audience of readers interested in medieval history, women's studies, and premodern systems of medical thought and practice. Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Temporarily Out of Stock Online Please check back later for updated availability. Overview The Trotula was the most influential compendium of women's medicine in medieval Europe. Product Details About the Author. About the Author Monica H. Her dual-language critical edition of the Trotula is also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. The Middle Ages Series. Project MUSE - The Trotula The Trotula was the most influential compendium on women's medicine in medieval Europe. Scholarly debate has long focused on the traditional attribution of the work to the mysterious Trotula, said to have been the first female professor of medicine in eleventh- or twelfth-century Salerno, just south of Naples, then the leading center of medical learning in Europe. Yet as Monica H. Green reveals in her introduction to this first edition of the Latin text since the sixteenth century, and the first English translation of the book ever based upon a medieval form of the text, the Trotula is not a single treatise The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine an ensemble of three independent works, each by a different author. To varying degrees, these three works reflect the synthesis of indigenous practices of southern Italians with the new theories, practices, and medicinal substances coming out of the Arabic world. Arguing that these texts can be understood only within the intellectual and social context that produced them, Green analyzes them against the background of historical gynecological literature as well as current knowledge about women's lives in twelfth-century southern Italy. She examines the history and composition of the three works and introduces the reader to the medical culture of medieval Salerno from which they emerged. Among her findings is that the second of the three texts, "On the Treatments for Women," does derive from the work of a Salernitan woman healer named Trota. However, the other two texts—"On the Conditions of Women" and "On Women's Cosmetics"—are probably of male authorship, a fact indicating the complex gender relations surrounding the production and use of knowledge about the female body. Through an exhaustive study of the extant manuscripts of the TrotulaGreen presents a critical edition of the so-called standardized Trotula ensemble, a The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine form of the texts that was produced in the mid-thirteenth century and circulated widely in learned circles. The facing-page complete English translation makes the work accessible to a broad audience of readers interested in medieval history, women's studies, and premodern systems of medical thought and practice. Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless. Institutional Login. LOG IN. In this Book. Additional Information. Table of Contents. Cover p. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication pp. Contents pp. List of Illustrations pp. Preface pp. Introduction pp. Edition and Translation of the Standardized Trotula Ensemble pp. Notes pp. Bibliography pp. Index Nominum et Locorum pp. Index Verborum pp. General Index pp. Project MUSE Mission Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Eliot Prose. Contact Contact Us Help. The Trotula | Monica H. Green Trotula is a name referring to a group of three texts on women's medicine that were composed in the southern Italian port town of Salerno in the 12th century. The name derives from a historic female figure, Trota of Salernoa physician and medical writer who was associated with one of the three texts. However, "Trotula" came to be understood as a real person in the Middle Ages and because the so-called Trotula texts circulated widely throughout medieval Europefrom Spain to Poland, and Sicily to Ireland, "Trotula" has historic importance in "her" own right. In the 12th century, the southern Italian port town of Salerno was widely reputed as "the most important center for the introduction of Arabic medicine into Western Europe". They The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine topics from childbirth to cosmetics, relying on varying sources from Galen to oral traditions, providing practical instructions. These works vary in both organization and content. For the next several hundred years, the Trotula ensemble circulated throughout Europe, reaching its greatest popularity in the 14th century. More than copies exist today of the Latin texts, and over 60 copies of the many medieval vernacular translations. The Liber de sinthomatibus mulierum "Book on the Conditions of Women" was novel in its adoption of the new Arabic medicine that had just begun to make inroads into Europe. As Green demonstrated inConditions of Women draws heavily on the gynecological and obstetrical chapters of the ViaticumConstantine the African 's Latin translation of Ibn al-Jazzar's Arabic Zad al-musafirwhich had been completed in the late 11th century. Galen, as opposed to other notable physicians, believed that menstruation was a necessary and healthy purgation. Indeed, the author presents a positive view of the role of menstruation in women's health and fertility: "Menstrual blood is special because it carries in it a living being. It works like a tree. Before bearing fruit, a tree must first bear flowers. Menstrual blood is like the flower: it must emerge before the fruit—the baby —can be born. Seemingly conflicted between two different theoretical positions—one that suggested it was possible for the womb to "wander" within the body, and another which saw such movement as anatomically impossible—the author seems to The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine the possibility that the womb rises to the respiratory organs. There are discussions on topics covering menstrual disorders and uterine prolapse, chapters on childbirth and pregnancy, in addition to many others. De curis mulierum "On Treatments for Women" is the only The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine of the three Trotula texts that is actually attributed to the Salernitan practitioner Trota of Salerno when it circulated as an independent text. However, it has been argued that it is perhaps better to refer to Trota as the "authority" who stands behind this text than its actual author. There is a lack of cohesion, but there are sections related to gynecological, andrological, pediatric, cosmetic, and general medical conditions. In a work stressing female medical issues, remedies for men's disorders are included as well. De ornatu mulierum "On Women's Cosmetics" is a treatise that teaches how to conserve and improve women's beauty. It opens with a preface later omitted from the Trotula ensemble in which the author refers to himself with a masculine pronoun and explains his ambition to earn "a delightful multitude of friends" by assembling this body of learning on care of the hair including bodily hairface, lips, teeth, mouth, and in the original version the genitalia. As Green has noted, The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine author likely hoped for a wide audience, for he observed that women beyond the Alps would not have access to the spas that Italian women did and therefore included instructions for an alternative steam bath. One therapy that he claims to have personally witnessed, was created by a Sicilian woman, and he The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Womens Medicine another remedy on the same topic mouth odor which he himself endorses.