Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

Chapter 3. 1200 AD–1500 AD
overing the end of the High Middle ages, the Late Middle Ages and the start
C
of the Renaissance
1211 In Italy a civic community physician (Medici condotti) was
appointed for Reggio and three years later also for Bologne which
were free to the poor. All Italian towns had civic doctors by 1400
1215 The 5 th Lateran Council, named after the Papal palace in Rome,
instructed physicians to summon the physician of souls before
administering bodily medicines.
Fl 1220–1240 Bartolomaeus Anglicus 36 wrote in ‘De Proprietatibus Rerum’
[Concerning the properties of items], a 19 volume encyclopaedia,
commenting on henbane: ‘This herb is called insana wood, for the
use thereof is perilous; for if it be eaten or drunk, it breeds
woodeness, or slow likeness of sleep; therefore the herb is
commonly called Morilindi, for it takes away wit and reason.’
(Gordon, 1977). [FL = Flourished]
1224 The Hohenstaufen 37 , Emperor Frederick II, ordered the regular
inspection of the drugs and mixtures prepared by apothecaries, and
ruled that the life of the seller of a poison, magic elixir, or love potion
would be forfeit if the consumer died (see below).
1241 Edict of Salerno (sometimes called the Constitution of Salerno)
Emperor Frederick II, Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–
1250) made the first legally fixed separation of the occupations of
physician and apothecary: ‘no one who claims the title of physician,
shall exercise the art of healing or dare to treat the ailing, except
such as have beforehand in our University of Salerno passed a
public examination under a regular teacher of medicine and been
given a certificate… Apothecaries must conduct their business with a
certificate from a physician according to the regulations and on their
own credit and responsibility, and they shall not be permitted to sell
their products without having taken an oath that all their drugs have
been prepared in the prescribed form, without any fraud.’ In addition,
the edict provided official supervision of pharmacy practice and
36 Bartolomaeus Anglicus = Geoffrey Launde Bartolomaeus, an English monk, who later became a professor of
Divinity in Paris
37 Hohenstaufen = dynasty of Germanic King (1138-1254) also King of Sicily. It is near Göppingen