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200 THE MIDDLE AGES.
Greeks, and Latins contributed to the foundation of the
school of Salerno, that the instruction there was at first
given in different languages and that the medical doctrines
of the Salernians were developed out of the scientific
knowledge acquired by the Greeks and Romans, the
Hebrews and the Arabs. Some of the names quoted are
marred by incorrect calligraphy; it is easy to understand .,
that ELINUS arose from ELIAS, and PONTUS must be
improved into GARIO-PONTUS and ADALA into ABDALLAH.
It is clear then from these considerations that we do not
know, when and how the School of Salerno arose. The
beginnings of it were either so unpretentious that they
were unnoticed, or they reach so far back into antiquity f
as to be beyond the historian's grasp. The political
fortunes of this town, constantly changing as they were,
and bringing its inhabitants into touch with the-Romans,
the Greeks, the Lombards, the Arabs, and the Normans,
were bound to leave deep traces in the development of
their civilization and to exert a powerful influence on all
1 departments of intellectual life.
The custom usual in ancient times, of men of learning
privately taking in pupils and instructing them in the
sciences, obtained also in Italy in the middle ages* If the
doctors followed this example there can never have been
any dearth of students to live with them in Salerno, the
mild climate and the noble situation of which, on the shores
of a bay not far from shady woods and healing mineral •
springs, attracted patients from far and wide.
It is not known when the doctors who learned the \
healing art in Salerno joined together into a common
activity and gave themselves an organization. At first, •
as it appears, any doctor might act as a teacher of
medicine without distinction of nationality or religious
* W. GIESEBRECHT: De litterarum studiis apud Italos primis medii aevi '
sseculis, Berol. 1845, p. 15.—S. DE RENZI (Storia docum., p. 161) cites a great ,
' number of doctors who were practising in Italy during the time of the
Lombards ; one of these was designated as Magister Scolce.