of the teaching at Salerno and of the
fine development of professional medicine there, would seem to argue
that probably those who came to study medicine here were brought
directly in contact with patients.

As early as the ninth century Salerno was famous for its great
physicians. We know the names of at least two physicians, Joseph and
Joshua, who practised there about the middle of the ninth century.
Ragenifrid, a Lombard by his name, was private physician to Prince
Wyamar of Salerno in the year 900. The fact that he was from North Italy
indicates that already foreigners were being attracted, but more than
this that they were obtaining opportunities unhampered by any
Chauvinism. From early in the tenth century physicians from Salerno were
frequently brought to foreign courts to become the attending physicians
to rulers. Patients of the highest distinction from all over Europe
began to flock to Salerno, and we have the names of many of them. In
the tenth century Bishop Adalberon, when ailing, went there, though he
found no cure for his ills. Abbot Desiderius, however, the great
Benedictine scholar of the time, who afterwards became Pope Victor III,
regained his health at Salerno under the care of the great Constantine
Africanus, who was so much impressed by the gentle kindness and deep
learning and the example of the saintly life of his patient that not
long after he went to Monte Cassino to become a Benedictine under
Desiderius, who was abbot there. Duke Guiscard sent his son Bohemund to
Salerno for the cure of a wound received in battle, which had refused to
heal under the ordinary surgical treatment of the time. William the
Conqueror, early in the eleventh century and while still only the Duke
of Normandy, is said to have passed some time at Salerno for a similar
reason.

The most interesting feature of the medical life at Salerno at this time
is the relations between the clergy and the physicians. In the sketch of
the life of Constantine Africanus, which follows this chapter, there is
some account of the friendship between Abbot Desiderius of Monte Cassino
and Constantine Africanus, and the latter's withdrawal from his
professorship to become a Benedictine. One of the physicians of the
early tenth century who stood high in favor with Prince Gisulf was
raised to the Bishopric of Salerno. This was Alphanus, whom we have
already mentioned as a chronicler, a monk, a poet, a physician, and
finally the Bishop of Saler