University of Salerno

Having obtained its first legal recognition in the Constitutions of Melfi (1231) and the title of Studium in the time of Conrad II, the Salerno medical school received its first statute from Charles of Anjou (1280). Later, Queen Jeanne formally recognised the legal value of the certification given to graduating doctors (1359), thus breaking the monopoly held until then by the Study of Naples, set up by Frederick II in 1224.

As time went on the Salerno medical school had its highs and lows, linked to the fortunes of the Kingdom of Naples, until 1811 when Joachim Murat, intent on reorganizing public education in the Neopolitan realm, decided to close the University of Salerno and turn it into a “Real Liceo.” These high schools were really proper university schools located in the largest cities of the realm and all dependent on the University of Naples. With the Bourbon Restoration of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, this university system remained practically intact, and indeed, immediately after the Restoration, with a decree on 14 January 1817, King Ferdinand I of Bourbon established that in Salerno, as in Bari, Aquilla and Catanzaro, the “Reali Licei” would teach law and notary work, anatomy and physiology, surgery and obstetrics, chemistry and pharmacy, legal medicine and other sciences.