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.
Medieval people washed daily, bathed weekly or more and loved visiting bathhouses.
When I bump into someone who still believes those things I share the following links with them, 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.
It’s fascinating how many medieval texts tell mothers to bathe babies & toddlers daily, even though these tiny humans were the most fragile…
Feel free to suggest new links/articles/videos, etc. to add or inform me about ones that are broken, no longer accurate, etc.
Articles written by me:
- Medieval Myths Bingo
- The history of soap
- Drinking water in the Middle Ages
- Did medieval people share their homes with cattle?
- Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554
- The curious claims about Elizabeth I’s bathing habits
- Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)
- List of medieval towns/villages/cities with water supply systems
- List of medieval towns, villages & cities with bathhouses
- List of medieval towns/villages/cities with sewer systems
Articles written by others:
- 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.
Books about medieval Hygiene:
- Book review: ‘Von der Badstube zum Badekabinett’ by Daniela Rösing (2014)
- 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)
- Book review: ‘The medieval pig’ by Dolly Jørgensen
Books mentioning medieval Hygiene:
- Book review: ‘The ties that bound, peasant families in medieval England’, by Barbara A. Hanawalt (1986)
- Book review: Land of thieves, by Janna Coomans (2025)
- Book review: ‘Life in Medieval Europe, fact and fiction’ by Danièle Cybulskie (2021)
- Book review: ‘Clean, a history of personal hygiene and purity’ by Virginia Smith (2008)
- Book review: ‘Urban Women: Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries’ by Andrea Bardyn, Chanelle Delameillieure, Jelle Haemers (2019)
Medieval art depicting hygiene:
- My modest image collection on Pinterest
- Art review: Bathing scene from the Hausbuch von Schloss Wolfegg (c. 1480)
- Art review: Dutch bathhouse scene, unknown artist (1500s)
Social Media threads:
Old sources & references:
- Early English Meals and Manners by Frederick James Furnivall, 1864
- Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum, 11-13th Century AD.
Podcasts:
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:
And because I know lots of people are confused about European hygiene in general, here a few extra links you may find interesting on this subject:
History of personal hygiene in Europe
The curious claims about Elizabeth I’s bathing habits
The curious claims about James VI & I’s bathing habits
John Gabriël Stedman and his misunderstood distaste for bathing
Finally just a bunch of fun and interesting images:
In this bathhouse setting we see all the different kinds of washing, & bathing, it includes health advice.
The book explains that cold & warm water both have different risks but also advantages.
Cold water closes the pores, warm water eases pain, etc.
It’s clear that physicians didn’t shout “water bad, it will make you sick, never bathe!” but simply had often quite sophisticated ideas about how water should be used, not that it should be avoided.
From left to right: fountain water, rain water, ice & snow, water mixed with snow, warm water, salted water & alum water.
Fake History Hunter 