Circa 1240 - 1311
Physician

Health Regimens. Arnald de Villanova is best known for his practical health guides, or regimens, which exerted a strong influence on the Western medical tradition in the later Middle Ages.

Medical Education and Practice. A medical student from Valencia, Arnald was studying at the University of Montpelier in France by about 1260. In 1281 he became the personal physician to Peter III and Alfonso III of Aragon (in modern Spain) and remained there until 1291. He then became a master at Montpelier, where he was fundamental in establishing Scholastic medical studies. Despite his rather unorthodox theological views, Arnald's considerable skills as a physician kept him in good graces with both university authorities and the Vatican. The health regimens he wrote for various royal patrons in the early fourteenth century cover a wide variety of subjects from diet and exercise to childbirth and gallstones, and his...