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Gilbert the Englishman [Gilbertus Anglicus, Gilbertus de Aquila, Gilbert de l'Egle] was the author of Compendium Medicinae, an important medical and surgical work of the Middle Ages. It was originally written in Latin with excerpts translated into New High German, Hebrew, Catalan and Middle English. Little is known for certain about Gilbert's life, and he has been confused with other contemporaries of the same, or similar, name. He is likely to have been the Gilbert del Egle, physician, who witnessed a charter of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1205. He is also likely to have been the Magister Gillbertus del Egle who attended the Archbishop on his deathbed. Other sources suggest that at about that time Gilbert was in the service of Robert de Breteuil, Earl of Leicester (d 1204). He is also thought to have received an ecclesiastical income and may have witnessed a charter as King John's physician, c 1207. The composition of the Compendium, which from his use of Arabic sources indicates he cannot have completed before c 1230-1240, suggests he may have attended a more sophisticated centre of medical and philosophical learning, eg Paris, Montpellier, Salerno, than could be found in England at that time. Gilbert's very early reference of Averroes (Abû 'l-Walîd Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd), as well as his association with Gilles de Corbeil and Richard of Wendover, point to his presence at Montpellier. Gilbert's Compendium covers all aspects of medicine and surgery as well as some of religious healing and the use of prayers and charms. It is divided into seven books dealing with fevers, the head, sense organs, organs of respiration, organs of digestion, the humours and in the last book diseases of women as well as advice for travellers, how to light fires and antidotes to poisons.
Trotula of Salerno lived in the 11th or 12th century in Salerno, Southern Italy. She is thought to have occupied the chair of medicine at the School of Salerno. Trotula was one of the most famous physicians of that time, with her main interests in alleviating the suffering of women. Her most notable medical works were Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum (The Diseases of Women), known as Trotula Major, and De Ornatu Mulierum known as Trotula Minor. Trotula Major contains information about menses, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and general diseases and their treatments. Remedies usually consist of herbs, spices, and oils. The identity of Trotula of Salerno has caused some controversy, with some scholars disputing her existence, or that she was a woman.