Tag: history

Book review: ‘Clean, a history of personal hygiene and purity’ by Virginia Smith (2008)

November 9, 2025

This book is often mentioned during online discussions about the history of hygiene, usually by people who haven’t even read it but who blindly believe CheatGPT or Grok because these LLM’s often mention it.So of course I had to go read it.Here’s my review, I’ll go through the book and share some of the most … More Book review: ‘Clean, a history of personal hygiene and purity’ by Virginia Smith (2008)

Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554

September 29, 2025

This is yet another relatively well known image that gets shared quite a lot when people try to convince us that mucky medieval folk were just flinging poo out their windows like it was an Olympic sport, but is that what it really depicts?Let’s have a look. The image comes from ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by … More Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554

Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)

September 29, 2025

The image below is often shared as an example of bad medieval hygiene, specifically to support the idea that emptying a chamber pot out of the window was a normal, generally accepted, common and/or regular occurrence in Medieval Europe.But the truth is a little different. First some of the technical details, the image comes from … More Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)

Book review: ‘Water technology in the Middle Ages’, by Roberta J. Magnusson (2003)

September 21, 2025

This may sound like a boring book but for me, a historian obsessed with debunking the old myth that medieval people were dirty, rarely bathed, etc. it’s quite a fascinating read and I think it has plenty of interesting details in it that most people will find interesting. So as I read the book I … More 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)

August 17, 2025

Medieval Hygiene hasn’t been a serious topic of research for historians till relatively recently, the topic is more related to the daily life of common people, not knights, royals or other famous people, so less interesting for some, but for a long time the old opinions held since Victorian times were just repeated for generations.Luckily … More Book review: ‘Community, Urban Health and Environment in the Late Medieval Low Countries’ by Janna Coomans (2021)

Book review: ‘Urban Women: Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries’ by Andrea Bardyn, Chanelle Delameillieure, Jelle Haemers (2019)

August 4, 2025

For a long time historians have been more interested in the stories of royals, nobles, knights and other important and powerful people, than they have been in the lives of the common folk.But I’ve always cared more about what life was like for people like me, not rich, not powerful, not living in palaces, etc. … More Book review: ‘Urban Women: Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries’ by Andrea Bardyn, Chanelle Delameillieure, Jelle Haemers (2019)

Youtube review: “What Hygiene Was Like During the Black Plague” by ‘Weird history’

July 13, 2025

Let’s review a youtube video. “What Hygiene Was Like During the Black Plague“, made by ‘Weird history‘, a channel with 4.6 million subscribers. This video has 1 million views.First illustration is from 1625… not medieval. The thumbnail: The video is about the “black plague”, but it’s actually about the Black Death.Plague was the disease, Black … More Youtube review: “What Hygiene Was Like During the Black Plague” by ‘Weird history’

Article review: Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In

March 25, 2025

Time to review yet another nonsense online article with no sources or references. “Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In”https://talesofthemiddleages.com/why-medieval-castles-were-filthy-places/ Oh dear.Okay, this is mostly just a rant, a flood of words, me screaming into the void.There are some sources for what I’m saying in the thread I link to … More Article review: Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In