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Could you just sign this for me John? Doctors, charters and occupational identity in early medieval northern and central Italy

Despite intensive study of the texts and manuscripts that have been attributed to the medical ‘schola’ in late antique Ravenna, there has been no systematic investigation of the evidence for doctors active north of Rome c.500–900 AD. This article examines how other medical practitioners fade into the background in the early medieval source material, whereas, thanks largely to surviving charters, elite practitioners – the medici– remain visible. The careers of three contrasting doctors – a learned medicus in Ravenna, a royal Lombard doctor, and the cleric Iohannes of Lucca – are analysed. I argue that the very process of signing charters could strengthen their occupational identity.