The Trotula is one of the best sources of information about
'conditions' for women in the middle ages. It is thought by
historians that The Trotula originated during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries in Salerno, Italy. Salerno was the leading
centre for medical learning in medieval Europe. Its opening
lines give us a flavour of the thought processes that permeated
the medieval mind When God the creator of the universe in the
first establishment of the world differentiated the individual
natures of things each according to its land, he endowed human
nature above all things in a singular dignity, giving to it
above the condition of animals freedom of reason and intellect.
|A view of the medieval world| The writer points out that the
sexes owned the following qualities- males were hot and dry and
women were cold and humid. Women were weaker. The hot and dry
male was stronger and thus could pour his 'duty' into a woman
via his seed. The moist and wet and weaker woman was a conduit
placed to receive his seed and