Rosalie's Medieval Woman

Medieval baths & bathing
BATHS - BATHING - BATHHOUSES - BATH ATTENDENTS

The general standard of medieval cleanliness was considerably higher than Hollywood movies would have us believe. The poorer person was just as concerned with personal hygiene and cleanliness as the wealthy, perhaps more so.

A person who worked with animals or out in the fields all day would be more in need to wash their hands and face before a meal than a person who had not worked at manual labour. A lack of money and possessions did not preclude the lowest classes from basic good hygiene.

Baths
What did a medieval bath look like? Where did the water come from? more to come

Bathing

The Tacuinum sanitatis of Liege, folio 76, writes of the virtues of bathing with Water of A Pleasurable Warmth:

Nature: Warm and humid in the second degree.
Optimum: The kind that opens the pores with moderate heat or with a fever.
Usefulness: For bodies with open pores; furthermore, it lowers the temperature.
Dangers: for intestinal flow.
Neutralisation of the dangers: With astringent drinks.

Pictured above at the right is a stained glass window section from the Labours of the Month, June dated at the 15th century from Brandison Hall in Norfolk. It shows a woman bathing in a large, canopied wooden tub. Bathing was a part of the daily ritual.

The peasant or lower class might swim or bathe in streams or wash from a small basin and jug, whilst the wealthier would attend public baths if they did not have one at their residence.

Pictured at left, is a detail from a 14th century illuminated manuscript, Tacuinum Sanitatis showing the benefits of Hot Water; two women washing the lower legs in a shallow basin of water; the kirtle drawn back up to the thighs. Hot water was highly recommended to combat coldness in the limbs.

Due to the way medieval people utilised their household space, a separate room was not usually set aside for the purpose of bathing alone. The wooden tub would be brought to the room where it was required along with the heated water and fragrant oils or soaps.

Parkinson recommended the addition of thyme, Thymus species, for baths and strewing for its refreshing and sweet-smelling qualities. Pictured at right is a detail from an illumination of Mary being bathed by her servant from The Hague, KB, 76 F 21 fol. 15r. A curtain provides privacy. Her clothes are hung on a pole nearby.

In the 14th century Boccaccio's the Decameron we read about bathing-

Without permitting anyone else to lay a hand on him, the lady herself washed Salabaetto all over with soap scented with musk and cloves. She then had herself washed and rubbed down by the slaves. This done, the slaves brought two fine and very white sheets, so scented with roses that they seemed like roses; the slaves wrapped Salabaetto in one and the lady in the other and then carried them both on their shoulders to the bed.

They then took from the basket silver vases of great beauty, some of which were filled with rose water, some with orange water, some with jasmine water, and some with lemon water, which they sprinkled upon them. After which they refreshed themselves with boxes of sweetmeats and the finest wines.

Bath houses
Types of bath house

Baths or stewes were almost a popular pastime for the townsperson or noble. Scented bathes might also include music, a meal or refreshment served on a tray which reached from one side of the tub to the other. Stewes were notorious for the other kinds of entertainment which could be purchased from women of dubious morals. Prostitutes.

Bathers would be attended by men and women who would supply the patron's needs. Although patrons bathed nude, headwear was still worn to preserve modesty.

The church, whilst favouring cleanliness of mind, body and spirit were very quick to denounce public stewes as dens of iniquity and moral looseness, which it seems, they often were.

The Paris Bathhouse Keepers Guild had strict rules to follow. These included rules for those not just washing, but hiring the services of a prostitute while they were there. The general rules for baths and steam baths, those who owned them and those who attended. These included:

Whoever wishes to be a bathhouse-keeper in the city of Paris may freely do so, provided he works according to the usage and customs of the trade, made by agreement of the commune, as follow.

Be it known that no man or woman may cry or have cried their baths until it is day, because of the dangers which can threaten those who rise at the cry, to go to the baths.

No man or woman may heat up their baths on Sunday, or on a feast day which the commune of the city keeps.

And every person should pay, for a steam-bath, two deniers; and if he bathes, he should pay four deniers.

And because at some times wood and coal are more expensive than at others, if anyone suffers, a suitable price shall be set by the provost of Paris, through the discussion of the good people of the aforesaid trade, according to the situation of the times.

The male and female bathhouse-keepers have sworn and promised before us to uphold these things firmly and consistently, and not to go against them.

Anyone who infringes any of the above regulations of the aforesaid trade must make amends with ten Parisian sous, of which six go to the king, and the other four go to the masters who oversee the trade, for their pains.

The aforesaid trade shall have three good men of the trade, elected by us unanimously or by a majority, who shall swear before the provost of Paris or his representative that they will oversee the trade well and truly, and that they will make known to the provost of Paris or his representative all the infringements that they know of or discover, and the provost shall remove and change them as often as he wishes.

Those for a more personal encounter in the baths, regulations stipulated that:

No man or woman of the aforesaid trade may maintain in their houses or baths either prostitutes of the day or night, or lepers, or vagabonds, or other infamous people of the night.

Of course, we all know, buy contemporary word and depictions in art, that this was roundly ignored.

Bath attendants
Enjoying your bathing experience. more to follow

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