In stead of sending a link to old threads on social media every time someone posts nonsense about medieval hygiene, I’ve decided to just collect a whole bunch of links here on this page.
Yes, a lot of people still believe that Medieval Europeans rarely or never bathed, didn’t have soap, were scared of water, lived up to their necks in faeces that they had thrown into the streets from their windows, shared their bedrooms with cattle, etc.
The truth is very different.
When I bump into someone who still believes those things online I share the following links, I thought it might be handy to have them all in one place.
It will almost all be about hygiene or hygiene related subjects in Medieval Europe, but here & there I may share something from a bit earlier or later.
Feel free to suggest new links/articles/videos, etc. to add or inform me about ones that are broken, no longer accurate, etc.
Articles:
- Medieval Myths Bingo, by Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse
- Did medieval people share their homes with cattle?
- Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554
- Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)
- The curious claims about Elizabeth I’s bathing habits
- Anti-pollution Measures & the Common Good in Medieval Paris.
- Did people in the Middle Ages take baths? Article by Medievalists.net
- The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think, by historyextra.com
- Did People in Medieval Times Really Not Bathe? By Daven Hiskey
- I assure you, medieval people bathed, by Eleanor Janega
- The Great Sanitary Awakening Questioned. Is There a Solid Argument in Favour of the ‘Filthy Medieval City’ Hypothesis? By Roos van Oosten
- Mythe van de vuilnisbelt by Henk ‘t Jong.
Interesting links:
- Pinterest collection of hygiene related images
- List of medieval towns, villages & cities with bathhouses
- List of medieval towns/villages/cities with water supply systems
Books:
- Book review: ‘Life in Medieval Europe, fact and fiction’ by Danièle Cybulskie (2021)
- Book review: ‘Von der Badstube zum Badekabinett’ by Daniela Rösing (2014)
- Book review: ‘Clean, a history of personal hygiene and purity’ by Virginia Smith (2008)
- Book review: ‘Water technology in the Middle Ages’, by Roberta J. Magnusson (2003)
- Book review: ‘Community, Urban Health and Environment in the Late Medieval Low Countries’ by Janna Coomans (2021)
- Book review: ‘Het middeleeuwse openbare badhuis’ by Fabiola van Dam (2020)
- Book review: ‘Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities’ by Carole Rawcliffe (2013)
Social Media threads:
Old sources & references:
- Early English Meals and Manners by Frederick James Furnivall, 1864
- Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, 11-13th Century AD.
Videos:
Baths of Bliss in the Middle Ages: Fact and Fiction’. Professor Elizabeth Archibald delivers her inaugural lecture about bathing & hygiene in medieval Europe:
A day in a late medieval bathhouse:
Carole Rawcliffe, FSA, ‘Less Mudslinging and More Facts: A New Approach to Public Health in Late Medieval English Towns’:
History Anew demonstrates boiling water using hot rocks – medieval Scandinavian style:
Soap and washing: Did they have soap in medieval times? Video by Modern History TV:
Fake History Hunter 