In the minds of many people, there are stereotypes regarding the hygiene of the European Middle Ages. The stereotype fits into one phrase: "They were all dirty and washed only by accidentally falling into the river, but in Russia …" - then follows a lengthy description of the culture of Russian baths. Perhaps, these words will cause slight bewilderment to someone, but the average Russian prince of the XII-XIV centuries was no cleaner than a German / French feudal lord. And most of the latter were not dirtier …
Perhaps for some, this information is a revelation, but the bathing craft in that era was very developed and, for the objective reasons described below, was completely lost just after the Renaissance, by the onset of the New Time. The gallant XVIII century is a hundred times more fragrant than the severe XIV.
Let's go through the public domain. For a start - the famous resort areas. Take a look at the coat of arms of Baden (Baden bei Wien), granted to the city by the Holy Empire Emperor Frederick III in 1480.
Man and woman in a bathing tub. Shortly before the appearance of the coat of arms, in 1417, Poggio Braccioli, who accompanied the deprived of the throne Pope John XXIII on a trip to Baden, describes 30 luxurious baths. For commoners, there were two outdoor pools.
We give the floor to Fernand Braudel ("The Structures of Everyday Life: Possible and Impossible"):
- Baths, a long heritage of Rome, were the rule throughout medieval Europe - both private and very numerous public baths, with their baths, steam rooms and loungers for relaxation, or with large swimming pools, with their crowding of naked bodies, men and women interspersed …
People met here as naturally as in church; and these bathing establishments were designed for all classes, so that they were subject to seigniorial duties like mills, forges and drinking establishments.
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As for the well-to-do houses, they all had soap-houses in the basements; there was a steam room and tubs - usually wooden, with hoops stuffed like on barrels. Karl the Bold had a rare luxury item: a silver bathtub, which was taken to the battlefields for him. After the defeat at Granson (1476), she was found in the duke's camp.
Memo di Filipuccio, Marriage Bath, circa 1320 fresco, Municipal Museum of San Gimignano
The report of the Parisian provost (era of Philip IV the Fair, early 1300) mentions 29 public baths in Paris subject to city tax. They worked every day except Sunday.
The fact that the Church looked askance at these establishments is quite natural - since the baths and the adjacent taverns were often used for illegitimate sexual intercourse ****, although, of course, the people were still going to wash there.
G. Boccaccio writes directly about this: "In Naples, when the ninth hour came, Catella, taking her maid with her and not betraying her intention in anything, went to those baths … The room was very dark, which made each of them happy" …
Here is a typical picture of the XIV century - we see a very luxurious establishment "for the noble":
Not only Paris. As of 1340, it is known that there were 9 bathhouses in Nuremberg, 10 in Erfurt, 29 in Vienna, and 12 in Breslau / Wroclaw. Reinmar von Belyau from Sapkowski's Tower of Jesters may well have visited one of them.
The rich preferred to wash at home. There was no plumbing in Paris, and water was delivered for a small fee by street water pumps.
But this is, so to speak, "pozdnyatina", and what happened before? With the most "barbarity"? Here is Eingard, "Life of Charlemagne":
- He also loved to swim in hot springs and achieved great perfection in swimming. It was out of love for hot baths that he built a palace in Aachen and spent all the last years of his life there. For bathing, to the springs, he invited not only sons, but also nobility, friends, and sometimes bodyguards and the entire retinue; it happened that a hundred or more people swam together.
An ordinary private bath, 1356
About soap
There are two versions of the appearance of soap in medieval Europe. One by one, soap has been produced since the 8th century in Naples. According to another, Arab chemists began to make it in Spain and the Middle East from olive oil, lye and aromatic oils (there is a treatise of Al-Razi in 981, which describes the method of obtaining soap), and the crusaders introduced it to Europe.
Then, as if, around 1100, soap production appeared in Spain, England, France - from animal fat. The Encyclopedia Britannica gives later dates - around 1200.
In 1371, a certain Crescans Davin (Sabonerius), started the production of olive oil soap in Marseilles, and it is often referred to as the first European soap. It certainly achieved great fame and commercial success. In the 16th century, Venetian and Castilian soaps were already traded in Europe, and many began to start their own production.
Here is a modern reconstruction of a standard public "soap house" of the XIV-XV centuries, economy class for the poor, budget version: wooden tubs right in the streets, water is boiled in boilers:
Separately, we note that in the "Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco there is a very detailed description of the monastery bath - separate baths, separated by curtains. Berengar drowned in one of these.
A quote from the charter of the Augustinian Order: “Whether you need to go to the bathhouse or to another place, let there be at least two or three of you. He who has the need to leave the monastery must go with the one appointed by the commander."
And here is from the "Valencia Code" of the XIII century:
“Let the men go to the bathhouse together on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, women go on Monday and Wednesday, and Jews go on Friday and Sunday.
Neither man nor woman gives more than one meach at the entrance to the bath; and the servants of both men and women do not give anything, and if men on women's days enter the bath or any of the buildings of the bath, let every ten maravedis pay; also, ten maravedis are paid by the one who will spy in the bath on Women's Day.
Also, if any woman on a man's day enters a bathhouse or is met there at night, and someone insults her or takes by force, then he does not pay any fine and does not become an enemy, but a man who on other days will take a woman by force or dishonor, must be thrown off."
And it’s not a joke at all that in 1045 several important persons, including the Bishop of Würzburg, died in the bathing tub of Persenbeug Castle after the ceiling of the bathhouse collapsed.
Steam bath. XIV century. - So there were steam saunas too.
So, the myth evaporates, along with the steam bath. The High Middle Ages was not at all a kingdom of total filth.
Natural, religious and political conditions also contributed to the disappearance of the bathing business in the post-Renaissance times. The “Little Ice Age”, which lasted until the 18th century, led to massive deforestation and a monstrous shortage of fuel - it was only replaced by coal in the New Time.
And, of course, the Reformation had a huge impact - if the Catholic clergy of the Middle Ages treated baths relatively neutral (and washed themselves - there are mentions of visiting baths even by Roman popes), only banning the joint washing of men and women, then the Protestants banned it altogether - not in a Puritan manner this is.
In 1526, Erasmus of Rotterdam states: "Twenty-five years ago, nothing was as popular in Brabant as public baths: today they no longer exist - the plague taught us to do without them." In Paris, the baths practically disappeared under Louis XIV.
And just in the New Time, Europeans begin to wonder at the Russian public baths and steam rooms, which in the 17th century already noticeably distinguish Eastern Europe from Western Europe. The culture has been lost.
Here's a story.