fl. c. 1097

One of the most famous physicians and teachers at Salerno, Italy, Europe's first medical school, Trotula headed the gynecology and obstetrics department and was a respected practitioner. Trotula was the earliest woman physician to write an influential medical work, De Mulierum Passionibus (Of the diseases of women). This book, traditionally attributed to her, may have been a later compilation of her work; it was regarded as an authoritative text in Italy up to the sixteenth century.