ABSTRACT
Medieval medicine has been described as everything from a pathological aberration to the dawn of a new chapter in the evolution of the medical profession. In any case, the Middle Ages served as a stage for many remarkable scholars, doctors, and diseases. The transition from Greco-Roman culture to medieval Christianity transformed the status of the healing art. The Hippocratic tradition based on love of the art, intellectual curiosity, glorification of the human body, and the passionate pursuit of physical wellbeing were foreign to the spirit of medieval Christianity. One of the major innovations of the Middle Age was the establishment of formal medical education. Medieval universities included the four standard faculties: theology, philosophy, law, and medicine. While the rise of the university as a center for training physicians is an important aspect of the history of medieval medicine, monasteries, with their libraries, infirmaries, and herbal gardens, were also important centers of medical study and practice.
