Saint Alfanus I or Alfano I was the Archbishop of Salerno from 1058 to his death. He was famed as a translator, writer, theologian, and medical doctor in the eleventh century. He was a physician before he became archbishop, one of the earliest great doctors of the Schola Medica Salernitana.
As a translator, Alfanus was well-versed in both Latin and Arabic and he translated many manuscripts from the latter into the former. His interest in medicine and the translation of Arabic treatises on the subject led him to invite Constantine the African from Carthage to Salerno to assist him. Constantine brought with him a library of Arabic medical texts which he commenced to translate into Latin.
In 1076, Robert Guiscard laid the foundations for the new Salerno Cathedral. In Alfanus' later days as archbishop, he sheltered the exiled reformer, Pope Gregory VII, who died in Salerno. Wikipedia
“Medicine was so advanced in Salerno that there was no place for illness.”
Tum medicinali tantum florebat in arte, posset ut hic nullus languor hobere locum
Alfano I, Archbishop of Salerno
http://www.comune.salerno.it/la_salerno_turistica/default_en.asp?page=/la_salerno_turistica/la_storia/scuola_medica_en.asp. <br class="br">Attributed
“…for the teaching of this kind I will devote myself to translating what is said more fully by many authors, and especially those whom mother Greece educated, whilst the Latins were oppressed by lack,... of knowledge.”
...ad doctrinam huiusmodi copiosius a perpluribus dicta auctoribus, et praecipue ab his quos mater educavit Graecia, Latinorum cogente penuria, . . . transferenda conferam
Alfano I, Archbishop of Salerno
From the preface to his translation http://www.sal.tohoku.ac.jp/phil/DIDASCALIA/2CHBURNE.PDF of the Premnon phisicon of Nemesius.
