The Setting And Development Of Schools Of Medicine Of Medieval Universities In Europe

This paper mainly studies on the medieval university medical schools in Europe. By comparing representative schools of medicine, and investigating and analyzing relevant facts, it discusses the influence that the setting and development of medical schools of medieval universities had on medicine. Combined with background for the age, then illustrate medical schools were not only educational institutions, but also social institutions, and further expounds the medicine schools are pioneers of schools of medicine of modern universities and a part of social medicine, also had laid the foundation for modern medicine.The main contents include the following three aspects:Part I: This part firstly summarizes the background of the setting and development of medical schools of medieval universities in Europe. It includes medical conditions in Europe before the rise of medieval universities, the birth of universities and mainly factors that influenced the setting of schools of medicine. It demonstrates the setting of schools of medicine due to many kinds of demands of education and society.Part II: This part is the focus of the paper. In all the universities that had a medical school, there were four universities that were leaders and had remarkable reputations on medical education throughout the middle ages. They respectively were the University of Salerno, the University of Montpellier, the University of Bologna and the University of Paris. The four typical medical schools, each had characteristics and advantages. The University of Salerno was the center of the revival of medieval medicine, The University of Montpellier and the University of Bologna had made outstanding contributions to the development of anatomy. In comparison with the University of Montpellier, the autonomy of Bologna was better. Even if the university of Paris was famous for its theology, it did not abandon the study of medicine, which on the other side reflected the medicine and theology were not always in a state of conflict. Besides, it discusses medical schools in other parts of Europe. Further point out that even in the middle ages, which is widely considered to be the dark ages, the medical education and development had not stopped. On the contrary, they made achievements that belonged to that era. And these were all because of the setting and development of the university medical schools.Part III: This part focuses primarily on the influence of medical schools. Through the discussion of the former two parts, combined with the relations between medical practitioners and society in the middle ages, it can be seen that the medieval university medical schools have made contributions to not only medieval medicine, but laid the foundation for modern medicine.Based on medical schools of medieval universities in Europe as the main investigation center, it discusses the medical education and the development of medicine in the middle ages, analyzes the influence that medical schools had and contributions they made. Needless to say, the rapid progress of modern medicine almost obviously thanks to the development of the science of medicine. And the science of medicine happened to lay the foundation in the middle ages. As a result, during the Renaissance, there was the scientific revolution of medicine that promoted the generation of modern medicine. In this paper, by analyzing medical schools of medieval universities in Europe, it provides a historical basis for the modern medical education and medical science.