SALERNO (known in Roman and mediaeval times as Sa lernum), a small seaport, archiepiscopal see and capital of a prov ince of the same name, about 3o m. S.E. of Naples, Italy, finely situated at the foot of an amphitheatre of hills. Pop. (1931) (town), 63,084 (commune). The modern town is of little commercial impOrtance and its monuments are not of great artis tic or historic value.
The site was of some strategic significance under the Roman Re public and Empire, but the town was of only secondary importance until mediaeval times. It was dismantled by Charlemagne in the 9th century. Later it became the fortified capital of an independ ent principality and the rival of Benevento. During the 9th and loth centuries it was frequently attacked by the Saracens. It was taken in 2076 by the Normans under Robert Guiscard. In 1194 it was sacked by Henry VI., and its development ceased. Salerno revived somewhat in the early 13th century, under Frederick II. (1194-125o), but soon fell into decay. The historic interest of Salerno centres round its medical school, the foundation of which is ascribed to the legendary "four masters"—a Latin, a Greek, a Jew and a Saracen. The legend represents the syncretic cultural influences under which the school arose. In the loth 4nd i centuries the place was a health resort. Under Norman rule the
medical element became organized and was profoundly influenced by the work of Constantine the African (d. 1087, q.v.), secretary to Robert Guiscard who translated medical works from Arabic into Latin. A contemporary who translated medical works from Greek was Alfanus, archbishop of Salerno. A Jewish element was early in evidence. Under Frederick II. lectures in Hebrew were given at Naples, and one of the most important Latin translators from the Arabic, the Jew, Faraj ben Salim (d. c. 1290), worked at Salerno. The decline of the school dates from '224, when Fred erick II. instituted a university at Naples. The very well known doggerel Latin verses on the preservation of health, known as the Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, have been translated into almost every European language. They are addressed to an apocryphal "King of England," usually supposed to be Robert of Normandy, but there is no doubt that the verses are mostly of the 14th century. They are probably, in the main, the work of Arnald of Villanova (1235-1311).
The school is regarded as the earliest university in Europe. It became, in the later middle ages, a place of bogus degrees but survived till 1812, when it was closed by Napoleon.