Medieval hygiene

Michie · Nov 12, 2020

Everyone knows that medieval people were dirty, smelly and largely indifferent to their own filth – or were they? In fact, medieval physicians were well aware of the health benefits of good hygiene, and advice books told readers that keeping clean was the polite thing to do.

Continued below.
Medieval hygiene - Medievalists.net

Darkhorse · Nov 12, 2020

Interesting. I would think "medieval hygiene" to be an oxymoron.

Michie · Nov 12, 2020

Only one section of medieval society actively embraced poor personal hygiene as a way of life: the extremely pious. There were numerous holy men and women who refused to bathe, never brushed their hair, or wore hair shirts swarming with lice – behaviour which their contemporaries greeted with a mix of admiration and revulsion.

*shudder* :sick:

Gnarwhal · Nov 12, 2020

Michie said:
Everyone knows that medieval people were dirty, smelly and largely indifferent to their own filth – or were they? In fact, medieval physicians were well aware of the health benefits of good hygiene, and advice books told readers that keeping clean was the polite thing to do.

Continued below.
Medieval hygiene - Medievalists.net

There's a brief scene in the film Kingdom of Heaven where the band of crusaders are headed back to the Holy Land from France. This is set around the Third Crusade sometime in the late 12th century. They make camp and one of them kneels beside the stream and opens a small wooden box that has some kind of primitive teeth cleaning kit inside. He used a twig to spread some kind of paste across his teeth and gums and press it into the gaps. I just thought that was interesting and at least seemed somewhat historically accurate.

Michie said:
Only one section of medieval society actively embraced poor personal hygiene as a way of life: the extremely pious. There were numerous holy men and women who refused to bathe, never brushed their hair, or wore hair shirts swarming with lice – behaviour which their contemporaries greeted with a mix of admiration and revulsion.

*shudder*

I wonder if they did that out of fear of vanity?

Michie · Nov 12, 2020

Fenwick said:
There's a brief scene in the film Kingdom of Heaven where the band of crusaders are headed back to the Holy Land from France. This is set around the Third Crusade sometime in the late 12th century. They make camp and one of them kneels beside the stream and opens a small wooden box that has some kind of primitive teeth cleaning kit inside. He used a twig to spread some kind of paste across his teeth and gums and press it into the gaps. I just thought that was interesting and at least seemed somewhat historically accurate.

I wonder if they did that out of fear of vanity?

Well it made me think of some of the Catholic saints and the extremes they went to. Eating scabs, etc. I do not know what the mindset was but I’d like to know. Today, it just seems deranged.

Basil the Great · Nov 12, 2020

Michie said:
Everyone knows that medieval people were dirty, smelly and largely indifferent to their own filth – or were they? In fact, medieval physicians were well aware of the health benefits of good hygiene, and advice books told readers that keeping clean was the polite thing to do.

Continued below.
Medieval hygiene - Medievalists.net

I was wondering about this very subject just a few days ago, so I will read the link with much interest.

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Medieval hygiene

Michie

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Darkhorse

just horsing around

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Michie

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Gnarwhal

☩ Broman Catholic ☩

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Michie

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Basil the Great

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