Bloodletting, coloured historical artwork. This woodcut is from the medical poem Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum (the Salernitan Rule of Health), which is believed to have been written in the 12th or 13th century, possibly by a man named John of Milan. It is thought that this manuscript was written while John of Milan was head of the highly influential mediaeval medical school Schola Medica Salernitana in Salerno, southern Italy. Over forty different editions had been produced before 1501, and it was translated from Latin to English in 1608 by Sir John Harington.