Rebecca Guarna (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1200), was an Italian

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

and author. She is one of a number of female physicians known from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. She was one of the women known as the " ladies of Salerno". Rebecca Guarna was a member of the same Salernitan family as the famous Romuald Guarna, priest, physician and historian. She studied at the

University of Salerno The University of Salerno () (in acronym UNISA) is a university located in Fisciano and in Baronissi, Italy. Its main campus is located in Fisciano while the Faculty of Medicine is located in Baronissi. It is organized in ten faculties. H ...

and belonged to the minority of female students of her time period. She was the author of ''De Urinis'' (on Urine), ''De febribus'' (on Fever) and ''De embrione'' (on the embryo): her treatise ''De Urinis'' treated the method of diagnosing illness by urine sample.L. Whaley:
Women and the Practice of Medical Care in Early Modern Europe, 1400-1800
'

References

Walsh JJ. 'Medieval Women Physicians' in ''Old Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of the Students and Teachers of the Sciences Related to Medicine During the Middle Ages'', ch. 8, (Fordham University Press; 1911)
Year of birth missing Year of death missing Medieval women physicians 13th-century Italian physicians 13th-century Italian women Italian medical writers Women of Salerno 13th-century women writers 13th-century writers in Latin 13th-century Italian writers Medieval surgeons {{Italy-med-bio-stub

References

Further reading