Abella

For other uses, see Abella (disambiguation).
Abella
Bornc. 1380
Other names
  • Abella of Salerno
  • Abella of Castellomata
Alma materSalerno School of Medicine
Known forMulieres Salernitanae
Medical career
FieldPhysician
InstitutionsSalerno School of Medicine
Sub-specialtiesEmbryology

Abella, often known as Abella of Salerno or Abella of Castellomata, was a physician in the mid fourteenth century.[1] Abella studied and taught at the Salerno School of Medicine.[1] Abella is believed to have been born around 1380, but the exact time of her birth and death is unclear.[2] Abella lectured on standard medical practices, bile, and women's health and nature at the medical school in Salerno.[1] Abella, along with Rebecca de Guarna, specialized in the area of embryology.[3] She published two treatises: De atrabile (On Black Bile) and De natura seminis humani (on the Nature of the Seminal Fluid), neither of which survive today.[4] In Salvatore De Renzi's nineteenth-century study of the Salerno School of Medicine, Abella is one of four women (along with Rebecca de Guarna, Mercuriade, and Constance Calenda) mentioned who were known to practice medicine, lecture on medicine, and wrote treatises.[4] These attributes placed Abella into a group of women known as the Mulieres Salernitanae, or women of Salerno.[5]

  1. ^ a b c Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; Harvey, Joy Dorothy (July 2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Taylor & Francis US. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-415-92038-4.
  2. ^ Proffitt, Pamela (1999). Notable Women Scientists. Detroit: Gale Group. p. 1. ISBN 978-0787639006.
  3. ^ Herbermann, Charles George (1912). The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. New York: Robert Appleton Company. ISBN 9780243487400.
  4. ^ a b Green, Monica (1989). "Women's Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe". Signs. 14 (2): 434–473. doi:10.1086/494516. ISSN 0097-9740. JSTOR 3174557. PMID 11618104.
  5. ^ Della Monica, Matteo; Mauri, Roberto; Scarano, Francesca; Lonardo, Fortunato; Scarano, Gioacchino (2013). "The Salernitan school of medicine: Women, men, and children. A syndromological review of the oldest medical school in the western world". American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A. 161 (4): 809–816. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.35742. ISSN 1552-4833. PMID 23444346.