Court Physicians and Universities

Abstract

Medicine in the setting of the royal courts of Europe form Renaissance to the Enlightment has been recently discussed, but Italian court medicine has been so far very largely neglected. In this article central problems are the relations between court medicine and academic medicine and the social status of the court physician in fourteenth century. Both problems are investigated in two Italian courts: the Visconti court in Milan and Pavia and the Aragonese court in Sicily. The list of the Visconti physicians and astrologers attests that they had all been celebrated university professors and that their condition as personal physicians to Galezzo and Gian Galeazzo was far superior to the acdemic on in honour and salaries. Their role could also be representative and political. This was expecially the case of Ruggero de Camma, who was chosen as personal physician to the Aragonese king Martino II and appointed by him as first protomedico for political reasons.