Abella

14th century physician of Salerno

Abella, often known as Abella of Salerno or Abella of Castellomata, was a physician in the mid fourteenth century. Abella studied and taught at the Salerno School of Medicine. Abella lectured on standard medical practices, bile, and women's health and nature at the medical school in Salerno. She published two treatises: De atrabile (On Black Bile) and De natura seminis humani (on the Nature of the Seminal Fluid), neither of which survive today. In Salvatore De Renzi's nineteenth century study of the Salerno School of Medicine, Abella is one of four women (along with Rebecca de Guarna, Mercuriade, and Constance Calenda) mentioned who were known to practice medicine, lecture on medicine, and wrote treatises.

Abella is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece, The Dinner Party. Abella is represented as one of the nine hundred and ninety nine names included in the Heritage Floor. It is meant to represent the number of women who struggled into prominence to essentially have their names erased and/or forgotten. This resulted in a group of women known as Mulieres Salernitanae [it], meaning women of Salerno or Salernitan wives. The heavy influence of the family helped confirm the vital ties between the papal court and the Salerno School of Medicine. A significant member of this family was Giovanni of Castellomata, who held the title of medicus papae, or “doctor of the pope” to Pope Innocent III. The relationship between Abella and Giovanni of Castellomata is unclear.