Dame Trot

Author(s): Susan Mosher Stuard

Source: Signs, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1975), pp. 537-542
Published by: University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173063
Accessed: 31-01-2016 21:48 UTC
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REPORTS/REVISIONS

Dame Trot
Susan Mosher Stuard

To be lost900 years,or ratherlost and resurrectedby turnsat the whim

of the historian,seems to be the lot of Dame Trotula of Salerno, the
disputed author of two medical treatises: "De passionibus mulierum
ante, in, et post partum" (the Trotula Major on gynecology)and "De
ornatu mulierum" (the Trotula Minor on Cosmetology).
As eleventh-centuryfigures go, her credentials for existence are
comparatively strong. Twelfth-centuryprofessors at the school of
medicine at Salerno recognized her. Bernard of Provence made frequent mention of her and the other women at Salerno.' Odericus Vitalus emphasized her contributionbut did not listher name.2 As "Dame
Trot" she entered popular literaturein the works of the thirteenthcenturyminstrel,Ruteboeuf. Chaucer numbered "Dame Trot" on his
most engaging list of women authoritiesin The Wifeof Bath'sTale. Evidently she enjoyed great reputation and popularity in the medieval
world.
Trotula, accordingto the medieval traditionsurroundingher name,
was an intriguingfigure. She was reputed to have lived in Salerno,
possibly as the wife and mother of eminent physicians. She was
1. Bernard of Provence, "Commentarium magistri Bernardi Provincialis super
tabulas Salerni," CollectioSalernitana,ed. S. deRenzi (Naples, 1852), 3:269-328.
2. Odericus Vitalis, Historicaecclesiastica,Patrilogiae, series Latina, vol. 188 (Paris,
1818), p. 260.
[Signs:Jounal of Womenin Cultureand Society1975, vol. 1, no. 2]
? 1975 by The Universityof Chicago. All rightsreserved.

537
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538

Stuard

Dame Trot

identifiedas the most respected member of a school of women physicians, or midwives, depending on the narrator's presumptions,who
taughtand participatedin the intellectuallifeof the developing university.She treated patientsfora wide varietyof illsassociated withsexuality and reproduction. Consequently, the Trotula Major, her more
significanttreatise,deals with diseases of parturition,the care of the
and a host of importantpsychologinewborn,female and male fertility,
cal problems related to the sexual lives of patients. The tone of the
manuscriptis remarkable for its humanity.Though most noticeable in
its response to women, it shows a similarlyhumane attitude toward
men's sexuality as well. The second treatise on cosmetology,or skin
disease, is a less significantwork but, like the Trotula Major, contains
numerous practical remedies for both skin disease and appearance.
Again, albeit in a less significantissue, the Trotula Minor reveals a
humane and compassionate attitude toward both disease and the
psychologicalconcern withappearance.
The sixteenthcenturybrought a significantchange in attitude.In
the firstpublished editionsof her still-valuedmanuscripts,some editors
raised the issue of the attributionof the manuscriptsto a woman author
of the eleventhcentury.Their contentionwas thatthe abbreviatedname
attached to the manuscripts(Trot and TT) had been misread,and that
the author was actually Eros, a freeman and physician to Julia, the
daughter of the Emperor Augustus.3Scholarlyopinion divided over the
next few centuries as to the author, raising concurrentlythe issue of
Trotula's veryexistenceas a physicianand professorat the Universityof
Salerno.
Twentieth-centuryscholarship inherited the Trotula manuscripts
and their distinctovertones of a women's issue. Five varyingand frequently conflictingopinions, all of which are sensitiveindicatorsof attitudes toward women of consequence as clearly as they are differing
scholarlyopinions, were offered.The five,statedbriefly,are these: first,
could a woman have figuredamong the authoritiesof eleventh-century
Salerno; in other words, did she exist? If she did exist,could she have
composed the manuscriptsascribed to her by tradition?This raises the
related historicalproblem of whether the manuscriptsdate from the
eleventhcentury.A fourth,closelyconnected,issue is whethera woman
could functionas physicianand professorof medicine in the eleventhcentury world, or whether,by contrast,she was merely a renowned
midwife.If she were identifiedas a midwife,the issue of the manuscripts
was raised anew. Would a midwifewritetheoreticalor practicalworkson
gynecology?Various scholars insistedeitheron the relativeimpracticalityor practicalityof the treatises,complicatingthe problem further.
3. For a review of the early editors of Trotula's works,see Kate Campbell HurdMead, "Trotula," Isis 25 (1930): 349-67.

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Winter1975

Signs

539

Establishingauthorityfor treatisesextant in numerous manuscript

copies usually presents the historianin the most flatteringlight. This,
one of the most scientificof the historian'sendeavors, involvestextual,
word, and script analysis worked by rules of logic laid down in the
Renaissance and honed and perfectedover the centuries. If the issue
were merely dating Trotula's manuscripts,few difficultieswould have
arisen. Castiglioni has stated that there is littledoubt that the manuscriptsare productsof thirteenth-century
copyingand revision.4But, of
course, this does not in any way prove that the manuscriptswere not
based on eleventh-century
treatises,since it was common practicein the
Middle
to
High
Ages change and adapt known and authoritativeworks
while maintainingtheirclaim to ancient authority.
Historiansof medicine showed greatinterestin all medieval Salernitan manuscripts.Consequently,prominentscholarsin the field-George
Sarton, Charles Singer, Karl Sudhoff and his pupils, Lynn Thorndike,
and finallyArturo Castiglioni-all offeredopinions. Charles Singer, in
an essay published in 1924, stated what he obviouslythoughtto be the
definitiveopinion on the Trotula manuscripts.Because of their explict
sexual content, he saw the manuscripts as having something of the
"peeping tom" about them, so "they were naturally mothered on a
woman." His conclusion was thata male physiciannamed Trottus wrote
them and that it is the manuscriptitselfwhich is "Trotula," that is, his
product.5Charles Singer revealed here more of his own private sentimentsconcerningsexual attributionthan scholarship,but his best salvo,
a ratherderisive humor, was saved forlast. He stated,"The situationis
not devoid of humor and thus fades into nothingnessthe firstwoman
professorwhose lifea learned medical historianonce essayed to write!"6
Karl Sudhoff and his school shared Singer's skepticism about
Trotula. Rather than dispute her very existence, given the historical
referencesto her, theyredefinedher as a midwifewho, given the lowly
nature of her calling,would be unable to constructthe theoreticalargumentsof the Trotula Major. They noted a lack of practicaldescriptionof
the processof parturition,althoughtheyfailedto statewhya manuscript
describingdisease processes should emphasize the natural, that is nonmorphological,process of childbirth.The treatisedoes consider diseases
related to childbirth.Karl Sudhoff handled the name Trotula quite
differentlyfromCharles Singer. He stated that Trotula was a common
303.

4. Arturo Castiglioni,A Historyof Medicine(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941), p.

5. Charles and Dorothea Singer, "The Origin of the Medical School of Salerno," in
Essaysin theHistoryofMedicine,ed. Charles Singer and Henry E. Sigerist(Zurich, 1924), p.
129. Both George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike followed his opinion, popularizing it and
gaining it general acceptance in scholarlycircles. One wonders about Dorothea Singer's
opinion.

6. Ibid.

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540

Stuard

Dame Trot

name forall womankindin the eleventhcentury,and thatwas whyit was

attached to the manuscript.7
A philologist,George Hamilton,triedhis hand in the matterand on
the basis of internal evidence in the "Passionibus mulierum" decided
that there was insufficient
evidence to attributeit to an authorityother
than Trotula. Nevertheless,he feltsome discomfortin awardingauthorship and concomitantstatusas a physicianto Trotula fora treatisewhose
"popularitywas due to its pornographiccharacter"; so he, like Charles
Singer, had recourse to deprecating humor, calling Trotula "the
medieval Lydia Pinkham."8
Because we tend to assume that radical feminismwas only introduced into historicalscholarshipby the late sixties,we underratea generation of women scholars. Two women historians of medicine,
Elizabeth Mason-Hohl and Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead, defended
Trotula of Salerno in the era priorto World War II. They were combative in the extreme,heaping termssuch as "German pedantry"on Karl
Sudhoff and his school and outraged that Trotula of Salerno, whom
they heightened into an early feminist,be doubted. Elizabeth MasonHohl translatedthe "Passionibus mulierum,"and in the inaugural address of the American Medical Women's Associationin June, 1940, defended Trotula.9 Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead reviewedthe Trotula literature for Isis, coming out resoundinglyfor her existence.10Both have
respect for the Trotula Major's handling of sexual psychology,seeing
Trotula in almost heroic termsas a defender of womankind. For this
reason theirwritingis much closer to the radical historiography
of more
recentfeminists,and theirbeliefin thejustice of theircause is equally as
firm.
Yet, in a certainsense, theydid Trotula a disfavor.Insulted,as well
theymightbe, by the derisivehumor turned upon Trotula, her defenders attemptedto salvage the entire corpus of the Trotula traditionas
fact.This is certainlytrue of Elizabeth Mason-Hohl's inaugural address,
and it was equally certain that such an approach, a scholarlyoverkill,
would failin itsprime purpose-the resurrectingof a prominentwoman
figure in the estimate of the male-dominated scholarlyworld of the
twentiethcentury.
7. Karl Sudhoff,"Die Salernitaner
Handschrift
der
in Breslau,"Archiwfiur
Geschichte
Medizin12 (1920): 101 ff.;ConradHiersemann,
DieAbschnitte
ausderPractica
desTrottus
in
derSalernitanishen
Sammelhandschrift
"De aegritudinum
curatione"
(Leipzig, 1921); Karl
Sudhoff,
EssaysintheHistory
(New York,1926),p. 243.
ofMedicine
8. GeorgeHamilton,"Trotula,"Modern
4 (1906): 377-80.
Philology
9. ElizabethMason-Hohl,"Trotula-EleventhCenturyGynecologist:
InauguralAddressof the AmericanMedicalWomen'sAssociation,
in Medicine,
June 1940,"Women
TheDiseases
A Translapamphletno. 70 (October1940);ElizabethMason-Hohl,
ofWomen:
tionofPassionibus
mulierum
curandorum
(Los Angeles:WardRitchiePress,1940).
10. Hurd-Mead,pp. 349-67.

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Winter1975

Signs

541

Despite their efforts,Arturo Castigilioni dismissed "De ornatu

mulierum,"or the Trotula Minor,on the grounds thatitwas writtenat a
much later period than the eleventh centuryand stated that the "Passionibus mulierum,"or Trotula Major, was a later compilation as well,
but one which might well be based on an eleventh-centuryoriginal.
However, while he could not definitivelyattributethe manuscript to
Trotula, he feltit was "sufficientto note ... the existenceof thisexpert
medical woman and of other women who practicedmedicine ... in the
most ancient Salernitantradition."1'The issue reststoday on a cautious
positive;Trotula does seem to have existed,and she may (just may) have
writtenone major medical treatise.
The historicalargument,in the end, tells us littleabout Trotula of
Salerno. What it does reveal, and verysensitively,is the attitudetoward
women authoritiesin a fieldas respectedand professionallyorganized as
medicine. The Middle Ages had littletrouble accepting the possibility
that Trotula was a physician;the Renaissance found it an increasingly
difficultconcept. This remained true in scholarlycircles untilthe twentiethcentury.For women-once again, physiciansand women scholars
writingin her defense-Trotula was again conceivable in the role which
she had played in medieval tradition. But, of course, skepticismstill
exists,and the historiographicaldifficultiessurrounding her work are
the
intense.If the pro-Trotulaliteratureis somewhatnondiscriminating,
anti-Trotula literature is marked by specious arguments. Textual
analysismay be well suited to dating manuscripts,but when it has been
used, as it was in Trotula's case, to make an attributionaccording to sex,
it has fallen into the snares of personal presumption and preference.
The veryrules which give textualcriticismits authorityare nullifiedby
the attemptto determinethe sex of the author, since theyreston arguments related to secondary sex characteristicsor attitudeswhich vary
over timeand are highlyspecificto the social contextof theirown day.
A complicatingfactoris the explicit sexual content of the Trotula
Major. The humor used against Trotula by modern male scholars reattitudetoveals theirdiscomfortwiththe contentand straightforward
ward sexualityin the treatise.By contrast,the medieval audience took
this in its stride.When such an authorityas the ecclesiasticand celibate
Thomas Aquinas could speak withcandor and in detail on mattersrelating to sexuality,there would be littlewonder at a gynecologicaltreatise
Trotula's existence.Her
Here may lie a keyto verifying
being forthright.
own age found it not inappropriate that she could exist and write a
treatise on the diseases of women. Social history,the study of the
medieval social context,is likelyto hold the ultimateanswer to Trotula's
claim for existence. Could eleventh-centurySalerno accommodate a
11. Castiglioni,p. 303.

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542

Stuard

Dame Trot

woman as a professorand physician?There is some positiveevidence in

this respect. Monastic centers,before the Gregorian reformof the late
eleventhcentury,encouraged women in the pursuitof learning.Salerno
was influencedbythe greatmonastichouses in itsenvirons.Therefore,a
woman in the role of an expert and a professormay not have appeared
unseemly. Beyond this,verificationdepends upon deepening our understandingof the social positionof women in medieval societyin general and in Trotula's own urban environment,Salerno, in particular.
Here lies the fieldof studywhichcan turna futileand oftenacrimonious
debate into true understanding.
There is some valuable textual evidence withinthe Trotula Major
itselfthatcan add perspectiveon the problem.The Prologue, thatintroduction which gave the treatiseitsclaim to ancient authorityand therefore was least likelyto be tampered withby latercopiers,compilers,and
editors,statesthe author's intentclearly.For the moment,let her have
the finalword on the issue:
Prologue, De Passionibus mulierum
Since women are by nature weaker than men, it is reasonable
that sicknessesmore often abound in them especiallyaround the
organs involved in the workof nature. Since these organs happen
to be in a retiredlocation,women on account of theirmodesty,and
the fragilityand delicacy of the state of these parts, dare not to
reveal the difficultiesof theirsicknessesto a male doctor. Wherefore I, pityingtheirmisfortunes,and at the instigationof a certain
matron, began to study carefullythe sicknesses which most frequently trouble the female sex.12
StateUniversity
ofNew Yorkat Brockport
12. Trotula's view thatwomen are by natureweaker than men is not surprisingwhen
one considers that she was concerned withobstetricalproblems in an age of enormously
high mortalityrates in pregnancyand childbirth.

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