In The Visitors (Jean-Marie Poiré, 1993), Jean Reno and Christian Clavier were two medieval knights who, due to the hole in time, fell into the 20th century and suffered a culture shock. The inhabitants of today's Paris were no less shocked when they encountered some medieval gentlemen who smelled requetemal.
But those are things from cinema, or perhaps, prejudices assumed generation after generation, because in the Middle Ages it didn't smell worse than now, but rather different. And because the people who lived between the 5th and 15th centuries were not as dirty as they are presented. They washed themselves daily, washed their hair, changed their clothes, did their laundry, cleaned their teeth, shaved and perfumed themselves, used homemade or industrial soap, made bleach, had sewers and recycled excrement.
The historian Javier Traité and the entomologist and writer Consuelo Sanz de Bremond explain it in great detail in The Smell of the Middle Ages (Ático de los Libros), an exhaustive work – on sale next the 20th – where the authors scan Hygienic customs in medieval Europe.
The charters of the cities, the chronicles of the kings, the medical manuscripts, the courtly poetry or the humorous stories of the time, among other sources, and four years of work have served Traité and Sanz to draw the map of the customs of cleaning of the Middle Ages.
The first question is required. What did the Middle Ages smell like? “Smoke,” the authors agree. “By firewood if you prefer, because the fireplaces in the houses were constantly lit to cook and heat the houses.” It also smelled of excrement, because “horses, mules and donkeys walked through the streets, which were not paved, and left their feces.”
Despite this, the widespread idea of the medieval city full of garbage and rats in which parishioners emptied their chamber pots out the window shouting “water goes” is also false. “The cities had latrines and sewers for minor water and if someone thought of throwing pee off the balcony, they would most likely be fined.”
Human feces were accumulated in “black pits” and, along with animal feces, were collected in cars or boats because “they were a very valuable asset, which served as manure for the fields.” The stench did not come from either humans or livestock, “it spread through the cities with the ceramic industry and also with the meat trade, which caused an unbearable stench, but soon regulations were introduced to alleviate it and the slaughter was forced. outside the walls.”
A city much cleaner than it has been painted can be the ideal place to go on a date in good condition.
“The cities had bathrooms with hot and cold water where you could go with towels or rent them there. Use of the facilities was free for those who could not pay. In addition, there were fountains and rivers, places where people went with buckets that they took home. Men and women washed themselves daily with water and with a cloth they washed their armpits, private parts and, above all, their feet, which were what got the most dirty due to the lack of paving.
Second step. The outfit. “In the Middle Ages, men and women wore a linen or cotton undershirt, which collected sweat. Everyone, rich or poor, had at least two. They aired them every day and washed them at least once a week. In addition, clothing and bedding were washed by placing a cloth over a vat of very hot water and pouring ash on top. That's how bleach was made and that's where 'doing the laundry' comes from.”
“She protected herself with headdresses or hats and combed her hair every day to remove grease, dust and dead hair. In addition, he washed himself with water from time to time.”
“Women shaved their legs, armpits and pubes. They used tweezers or shaved, but they also had depilatories based on, for example, lime, marshmallow, bat blood or goat bile. It is possible that men also shaved their hair.”
“In the Middle Ages there were recipes to whiten the skin and remove spots and powders to color the cheeks and lips.”
Furthermore, the date could take place in an atmosphere of good manners, because “there were rules of composure at the table that included washing your hands before and after the meal, not speaking with your mouth full, and wiping your lips before drinking.” ”.
The problem of periods could always arise and for that the solution was more rudimentary: “The women did not wear panties and when they had menstruation they used cloth attached to the hips as a diaper with a kind of cloth or moss compresses, although it is "It is possible that during the period they stayed at home."
