Bath, cleanliness and hygiene in the Middle Ages. How to wash in the Middle Ages. Unwashed Europe and pure Rus' Europeans did not wash themselves in the Middle Ages

Yes, in Russia with hygiene at all times there were no such global problems as in Europe, which for this reason was called unwashed. As you know, medieval Europeans neglected personal hygiene, and some were even proud of the fact that they washed only two, or even once, in their lives. Surely you would like to know a little more about how the Europeans observed hygiene and who they called "God's pearls".

Don't steal, don't kill, don't wash

And it would be okay only firewood. The Catholic Church forbade any ablutions except those that take place during baptism (which was supposed to wash a Christian once and for all) and before the wedding. All this, of course, had nothing to do with hygiene. And it was also believed that when the body is immersed in water, especially in hot water, pores open through which water enters the body, which then will not find an exit. Therefore, supposedly the body becomes vulnerable to infections. This is understandable, because everyone washed in the same water - from the cardinal to the cook. So after water procedures, the Europeans really got sick. And strongly.
Louis XIV bathed only twice in his life. And after each he was so sick that the courtiers were preparing a will. The same "record" belongs to Queen Isabella of Castile, who was terribly proud that the water touched her body for the first time - at baptism, and the second - before the wedding.
The Church ordered to take care not of the body, but of the soul, therefore, for the hermits, dirt was a virtue, and nudity was a shame (seeing a body, not only someone else's, but also one's own, is a sin). Therefore, if they washed, then in shirts (this habit will continue until the end of the 19th century).

Lady with a dog

Lice were called "God's pearls" and considered a sign of holiness. The troubadours in love removed the fleas from themselves and put their hearts on the lady, so that the blood, mixed in the stomach of the insect, would unite the hearts of the sweet couple. Despite all their "holiness", insects still got people. That is why everyone carried a flea-catcher or a small dog (in the case of ladies). So, dear girls, when carrying a pocket dog in a pink blanket, remember where the tradition came from.
Lice were disposed of in a different way. They soaked a piece of fur in blood and honey, and then placed it in the hair. Smelling the smell of blood, the insects were supposed to rush to the bait and get stuck in the honey. They also wore silk underwear, which, by the way, became popular precisely because of its “slipperiness”. "God's pearls" could not cling to such a smooth fabric. This is what else! In the hope of being saved from lice, many practiced a more radical method - mercury. It was rubbed into the scalp and sometimes eaten. True, it was primarily people who died from this, not lice.

National unity

In 1911, archaeologists unearthed ancient buildings made of burnt bricks. These were the walls of the fortress of Mohenjo-Daro, the ancient city of the Indus Valley, which arose around 2600 BC. e. Strange openings along the perimeter of buildings turned out to be toilets. The oldest found.
Then the toilets, or latrines, will be with the Romans. Neither in Mohenjo-Daro, nor in the Queen of Waters (Ancient Rome), by the way, they did not assume solitude. Sitting on their "shocks" located opposite each other around the perimeter of the hall (similar to the way seats are arranged in the subway today), the ancient Romans indulged in conversations about stoicism or epigrams of Seneca.

At the end of the 13th century, a law was issued in Paris that, when pouring a chamber pot out of a window, you need to shout: “Beware of water!”

In Medieval Europe, there were no toilets at all. Only the highest nobility. And that is very rare and the most primitive. They say that the French royal court periodically moved from castle to castle, because there was literally nothing to breathe in the old one. Human waste was everywhere: at the doors, on the balconies, in the yards, under the windows. With the quality of medieval food and unsanitary conditions, diarrhea was common - you simply could not run to the toilet.
At the end of the 13th century, a law was issued in Paris that, when pouring a chamber pot out of a window, you need to shout: “Beware of water!”. Even the fashion for wide-brimmed hats appeared only to protect expensive clothes and wigs from what was flying from above. According to the descriptions of many guests of Paris, such as Leonardo da Vinci, there was a terrible stench on the streets of the city. What is there in the city - in Versailles itself! Once there, the people tried not to leave until they met the king. There were no toilets, so “little Venice” did not smell of roses at all. Louis XIV himself, however, had a water closet. The Sun King could sit on it, even receiving guests. To be present at the toilet of high-ranking persons was generally considered “honoris causa” (especially honorable).

The first public toilet in Paris appeared only in the 19th century. But it was intended exclusively ... for men. In Russia, public latrines appeared under Peter I. But also only for courtiers. True, both sexes.
And 100 years ago, the Spanish campaign to electrify the country began. It was called simply and clearly - "Toilet". It means "unity" in Spanish. Along with insulators, other faience products were also produced. The very ones whose descendants now stand in every house are toilet bowls. The first toilet with a flush tank was invented at the end of the 16th century by the courtier of the English royal court, John Harington. But the water closet was not popular - because of the high cost and lack of sewerage.

And tooth powder and thick comb

If there were no such benefits of civilization as an elementary toilet and a bath, then there is no need to talk about a toothbrush and deodorant. Although sometimes they used brushes made of branches to brush their teeth. In Kievan Rus - oak, in the Middle East and South Asia - from arak wood. In Europe, cloths were used. And they didn't brush their teeth at all. True, the toothbrush was invented in Europe, or rather, in England. It was invented by William Addison in 1770. But mass production became far from immediately - in the 19th century. At the same time, tooth powder was invented.

And what about toilet paper? Nothing, of course. In ancient Rome, it was replaced by sponges soaked in salt water, which were attached to a long handle. In America - corn cobs, and for Muslims - plain water. In medieval Europe and in Rus', ordinary people used leaves, grass and moss. Know used silk rags.
It is believed that the perfume was invented only to drown out the terrible street stench. Whether this is true or not is not known for certain. But the cosmetic product, which would now be called deodorant, appeared in Europe only in the 1880s. True, back in the 9th century, someone Ziryab suggested using a deodorant (apparently of his own production) in Moorish Iberia (parts of modern France, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar), but no one paid attention to this.
But already in ancient times, people understood: if you remove the hair in the armpit, the smell of sweat will not be so strong. The same goes for washing them. But in Europe, as we have already said, this was not practiced. As for depilation, the hair on the female body did not annoy anyone until the 1920s. Only then did European ladies think for the first time: to shave or not to shave.

We have heard this more than once: “We washed ourselves, but in Europe they used perfumery.” It sounds very cool, and, most importantly, patriotic. It’s clear where everything grows from, centuries-old traditions of cleanliness and hygiene are more important than an attractive “wrapper” of smells. But a shadow of doubt, of course, cannot but arise - after all, if the Europeans really hadn’t “washed themselves” for centuries, would European civilization have been able to develop normally and give us masterpieces? We liked the idea of ​​looking for confirmation or refutation of this myth in European art of the Middle Ages.

Bathing and washing in medieval Europe

The culture of washing in Europe dates back to the ancient Roman tradition, the material evidence of which has survived to this day in the form of the remains of Roman baths. Numerous descriptions testify that a visit to the term was a sign of good form for a Roman aristocrat, but as a tradition not only hygienic - massage services were also offered there, and an elected society gathered there. On certain days, terms became available to people of a simple position.

Baths of Diocletian II in Rome

“This tradition, which the Germans and the tribes that entered Rome with them could not destroy, migrated to the Middle Ages, but with some adjustments. The baths remained - they had all the attributes of the thermae, were divided into sections for the aristocracy and commoners, continued to serve as a meeting place and an interesting pastime, ”as Fernand Braudel testifies in the book“ Structures of Everyday Life ”.

But we digress from a simple statement of fact - the existence of baths in medieval Europe. We are interested in how the change in lifestyle in Europe with the advent of the Middle Ages affected the tradition of washing. In addition, we will try to analyze the reasons that could prevent the observance of hygiene on the scale that has become familiar to us now.

So, the Middle Ages - this is the pressure of the church, this is scholasticism in science, the fires of the Inquisition ... This is the appearance of the aristocracy in a form that was not familiar to Ancient Rome. Throughout Europe, many castles of feudal lords are being built, around which dependent, vassal settlements are formed. Cities acquire walls and craft artels, quarters of masters. Monasteries are growing. How did a European wash during this difficult period?

Water and firewood - without them there is no bath

What is needed for a bath? Water and heat to heat the water. Let us imagine a medieval city which, unlike Rome, does not have a water supply system through viaducts from the mountains. Water is taken from the river, and it needs a lot. Even more firewood is needed, because heating water requires a long burning of wood, and boilers for heating were not yet known at that time.

Water and firewood are supplied by people doing their business, an aristocrat or a wealthy city dweller pays for such services, public baths charge high fees for using pools, thus compensating for low prices on public "bath days". The class structure of society already allows you to clearly distinguish between visitors.

Francois Clouet - Lady in the Bath, circa 1571

We are not talking about steam rooms - marble baths do not allow you to use steam, there are pools with heated water. Steam rooms - tiny, wood-lined rooms, appeared in Northern Europe and in Rus' because it is cold there and there is a lot of available fuel (wood). In the center of Europe, they are simply irrelevant. A public bath in the city existed, was available, and the aristocrats could and did use their own "soaps". But before the advent of centralized water supply, washing every day was an incredible luxury.

But for water supply, at least a viaduct is required, and in flat areas - a pump and a storage tank. Before the appearance of a steam engine and an electric motor, there was no question of a pump, before the advent of stainless steel there was no way to store water for a long time, it would “rotten” in a container. That is why the bath was far from accessible to everyone, but at least once a week a person could get into it in a European city.

Public baths in European cities

France. The fresco "Public Bath" (1470) depicts people of both sexes in a vast room with a bath and a table set right in it. It is interesting that there are "rooms" with beds right there ... There is a couple in one of the beds, another couple is clearly heading towards the bed. It is difficult to say how much this atmosphere conveys the atmosphere of “washing”, it all looks more like an orgy by the pool ... However, according to the testimonies and reports of the Parisian authorities, already in 1300 there were about thirty public baths in the city.

Giovanni Boccaccio describes a visit to a Neapolitan bath by young aristocrats as follows:

“In Naples, when the ninth hour came, Catella, taking her maid with her and not changing her intention in any way, went to those baths ... The room was very dark, which each of them was pleased with” ...

A European, a resident of a large city in the Middle Ages, could use the services of public baths, for which funds from the city treasury were allocated. But the pay for this pleasure was not low. At home, washing with hot water in a large container was excluded due to the high cost of firewood, water and lack of flow.

The artist Memo di Filipuccio depicted a man and a woman in a wooden tub on the fresco "The Marriage Bath" (1320). Judging by the atmosphere in the room with draperies, these are not ordinary citizens.

The "Valencian Code" of the 13th century prescribes going to the bath separately, by day, for men and women, highlighting another Saturday for Jews. The document sets the maximum fee for visiting, it is stipulated that it is not charged to servants. Let's pay attention: from the servants. This means that a certain estate or property qualification already exists.

As for the water supply, the Russian journalist Gilyarovsky describes Moscow water carriers already at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, drawing water into their barrels from the “fantal” (fountain) on Theater Square to deliver it to homes. And the same picture was observed before in many European cities. The second problem is stocks. The removal of a huge amount of waste water from the baths required some effort or investment. Therefore, a public bath was not a pleasure for every day. But people washed talking about "unwashed Europe", in contrast to "pure" Rus', of course, there is no reason. A Russian peasant heated a bathhouse once a week, and the nature of the development of Russian cities made it possible to have a bathhouse right in the yard.

Albrecht Durer - Women's Bath, 1505-10

Albrecht Dürer - Men's Bath Bath, 1496-97

Albrecht Dürer's magnificent engraving "Men's Bath" depicts a company of men with beer by an outdoor pool under a wooden canopy, and the engraving "Women's Bath" shows women washing themselves. Both engravings refer to the very time in which, according to the assurances of some of our fellow citizens, "Europe did not wash."

The painting by Hans Bock (1587) depicts public baths in Switzerland - many people, both men and women, spend time in a fenced pool, in the middle of which a large wooden table with drinks floats. Judging by the background of the picture, the pool is open ... Behind - the area. It can be assumed that a bathhouse is depicted here, receiving water from the mountains, possibly from hot springs.

No less interesting is the historical building "Bagno Vignole" in Tuscany (Italy) - there to this day you can swim in hot, naturally heated water saturated with hydrogen sulfide.

Sauna in the castle and palace - a huge luxury

An aristocrat could afford his own soap dish, like Charles the Bold, who carried a silver bathtub with him. It was made of silver, since it was believed that this metal disinfects water. In the castle of a medieval aristocrat there was a soap room, but far from being publicly available, moreover, it was expensive to use.

Albrecht Altdorfer - Bathing Susanna (detail), 1526

The main tower of the castle - donjon - dominated the walls. The water sources in such a complex were a real strategic resource, because during the siege, the enemy poisoned the wells and blocked the channels. The castle was built on a dominant height, which means that the water was either raised by a gate from the river, or taken from its own well in the yard. Delivery of fuel to such a castle was an expensive pleasure, heating water during heating by fireplaces was a huge problem, because in the direct chimney of the fireplace up to 80 percent of the heat simply "flies into the chimney". An aristocrat in a castle could afford a bath no more than once a week, and even then under favorable circumstances.

The situation was no better in the palaces, which in essence were the same castles, only with a large number of people - from courtiers to servants. It was very difficult to wash such a mass of people with available water and fuel. Huge stoves for heating water could not be constantly heated in the palace.

A certain luxury could be afforded by aristocrats who traveled to mountain resorts with thermal waters - to Baden, the coat of arms of which depicts a couple bathing in a rather cramped wooden bath. The coat of arms was granted to the city by the Emperor of the Holy Empire Frederick III in 1480. But note that the bath in the image is wooden, it's just a tub, and that's why - the stone container cooled the water very quickly. In 1417, according to Poggio Braccoli, who accompanied Pope John XXIII, Baden had three dozen public baths. The city, located in the area of ​​thermal springs, from where water came through a system of simple clay pipes, could afford such a luxury.

Charlemagne, according to Eingard, liked to spend time in the hot springs of Aachen, where he built a palace for himself.

Washing was always worth the money ...

A certain role in the oppression of the "soap business" in Europe was played by the church, which very negatively perceived the gathering of naked people in any circumstances. And after the next invasion of the plague, the bath business suffered greatly, as public baths became places for the spread of infection, as evidenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam (1526): “Twenty-five years ago, nothing was as popular in Brabant as public baths: today they are already no - the plague has taught us to do without them.

The appearance of modern soap is a moot point, but there is evidence of Crescans Davin Sabonerius, who in 1371 began the production of this product based on olive oil. Subsequently, soap was available to wealthy people, and commoners made do with vinegar and ash.

Spoiler - washed. The conventional wisdom about unscrupulous Europe is more likely to belong to the 17th-18th centuries. From the Roman Empire, the "Dark Ages" (VI-IX centuries) and the early Middle Ages inherited the terms used by the nobility, and hot springs, which were equipped in public baths. Baths were recommended to be visited even by monks, who then tried to adhere to asceticism in everything, including hygiene.

The book of the historian Andrey Martyanov "Walks in the Middle Ages. War, plague, inquisition" (publishing house "The Fifth Rome", 2017) describes the system of baths at that time:

“Another stereotype says: The Middle Ages was the realm of pitch mud, famous for its total lack of hygiene, and an abstract noble knight bathed once in his life, and then accidentally fell into the river.

We will have to upset the carriers of this myth: the average Russian prince of the XII-XIV centuries was no cleaner than a German or French feudal lord. And the latter were not dirtier. The bathing craft in that era was highly developed and, for objective reasons, was completely lost just after the Renaissance, by the onset of the New Age. The gallant XVIII century is a hundred times more odorous than the severe XIV century. It’s amazing, but you can personally get acquainted with the medieval culture of hygiene right now, it’s enough to come to such an archaic country as Iceland, where the traditions of bathing in natural springs and home baths have been sacredly kept for nearly a thousand and two hundred years, since the settlement of this North Atlantic island by the Vikings.

Dark Ages

The Lombards who conquered Italy not only used the Roman baths, but also committed atrocities in them. A story has come down to us about how the Lombard leader Hilmichius in 572 was poisoned by his own wife Rosemund in Verona at the instigation of the Byzantine exarch Longinus. There are some scandalous details:

“Here, Prefect Longinus began to ask Rosemund to kill Hilmichius and marry Longinus himself. Following this advice, she diluted the poison and after the bath brought him a goblet. so they both died." (Fredegar. Chronicles of long-haired kings. About the kingdom of the Lombards.)

The baths in the city of Verona are excellent, and they are used by the barbarians. But St. Gregory of Tours reports in the third book of the "History of the Franks" about no less piquant events concerning the niece of the king of the Franks Clovis Amalasvinta at the end of the 5th century:

“But when he found out what this harlot had done, how she became a mother-killer because of the servant whom she took as her husband, he heated a hot bathhouse and ordered her to be locked there together with one maid. As soon as she entered the bathhouse filled with hot steam She fell dead on the floor and died."

Again, Gregory of Tours, this time about the monastery of St. Radegunde in Poitiers, VI century: "The new building of the bathhouse smelled strongly of lime, and in order not to damage their health, the nuns did not bathe in it. Therefore, Madame Radegunde ordered the monastery servants to openly use this bathhouse until the bath was in the use of the servants throughout Lent and until Trinity.

From which an unambiguous conclusion is drawn - in the Merovingian Gaul of the era of the Dark Ages, they not only used public baths, but also built new ones. This particular bath was kept at the abbey and was intended for nuns, but until the unpleasant smell disappeared, servants - that is, the common people - could bathe there.

Fast forward across the English Channel and give the floor to Bade, the Venerable Benedictine monk and chronicler who lived in Northumbria in the 8th century at Wyrmouth and Jarrow Abbey and wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the Angles. The entry dates from approximately the end of the 720s:

"There are salty springs in this land, there are also hot ones, the water of which is used in hot baths, where they wash themselves separately, according to sex and age. This water becomes warm, flowing through various metals, and not only heats up, but even boils."

Bada the Venerable does not confuse anything - hot and salty springs in the modern city of Bath, Somerset are meant. During Roman times there was already a spa called Aquae Salis, and the tradition of bathing continued after the evacuation of the legions from Britain. By the High Middle Ages, it did not disappear, quite the opposite - in the 11th century, Bath (Saxon Hat Bathun, "hot bath") becomes a bishopric, and the first appointed bishop, John of Tours, a Frenchman by birth, immediately becomes interested in such a miracle of nature. As a result, around 1120, at the expense of the Church, John builds three new public baths to replace the Roman baths that have collapsed over the centuries, visits them with pleasure, recommending bathing to the clergy along the way.

Early Middle Ages

In 1138, the anonymous chronicle Gesta Stephani ("Acts of Stephen"), which tells about the reign of the English king Stephen (Etienne) I de Blois, reports:

"Here water flows through hidden channels, warmed not by the labors and efforts of human hands, but from the depths of the earth. It fills a vessel located in the middle of beautiful rooms with arches, allowing the citizens to take lovely warm baths that bring health, which delight the eye. From all parts of England sick people flock here to wash away their illnesses with healing water."

Bath baths operate throughout the Middle Ages, no one forbids or closes them, including later eras and the very conservative Cromwell puritans. In modern times, the waters of Bath become famous for the miraculous healing of Queen Mary of Modena from infertility, they were visited by William Shakespeare, who described the springs in sonnets 153 and 154.

Now let us speak to Einhard, a remarkable personality no less than Shakespeare, especially if we take into account the era and the environment in which his life proceeded. From about the beginning of the 790s, he labored at the court of the king, and then the emperor of the Franks, Charlemagne, was a member of the intellectual circle created in Aachen by Alcuin, and was one of the prominent figures of the "Carolingian Renaissance". Einhard's love of ancient literature led him to write Vita Karoli Magni ("The Life of Charlemagne").

Aachen, in ancient times the town of Aquisgranum in the province of Belgica, standing on the strategic Roman highway from Lugdunum (Lyon) to Colonia Claudia (Cologne), in Roman times was nothing worthy of attention. With one exception - there were hot springs, about the same as in Bath. But then Charlemagne appears and arranges a winter residence of 20 hectares in Aachen, erecting here a grandiose palace-palatinate with a cathedral, a columned atrium, a courtroom and, of course, superbly equipped baths right in the courtyard. Einhard did not fail to write about this in the 22nd chapter of the biography of the leader of the Franks:

“He also loved to bathe in hot springs and achieved great perfection in swimming. It was out of love for hot baths that he built a palace in Aachen and spent all the last years of his life there. and sometimes bodyguards and the whole retinue; it happened that a hundred or more people bathed together.

And if "a hundred or more people" could fit in the pools, then one can imagine the scale of the structure. Aachen still has 38 hot springs and remains one of the most popular spas in Germany.

Charlemagne also visited the thermal waters in Plombiere-les-Bains, in the Vosges - again, the springs have been known since the time of Roman Gaul, the baths were renovated and rebuilt throughout the Middle Ages and were a favorite vacation spot of the Dukes of Lorraine and the Dukes of Guise. France is generally lucky with hot springs, they are in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Vosges, on the Mediterranean coast, in Aquitaine, on the Rhone. The zealous Romans instantly adapted the natural heat to their needs and built baths with pools, many of which were inherited or restored in the Middle Ages.

Late Middle Ages

In order to assess the appearance and customs of the inhabitants of Baden in 1417, we give an extensive quote about the baths of Baden:

The hotels have many built-in baths, designed exclusively for its guests. The number of these baths, intended both for individual and for general use, usually reaches thirty. Of these, two baths intended for public use are open on both sides, and plebeians and other small people are supposed to dive in them. These simple pools are crowded with men, women, young boys and girls, representing a collection of local commoners.

Baths, located in private hotels, are kept in much greater cleanliness and decency. The rooms for each floor are also divided by wooden partitions, the impenetrability of which is again broken by windows cut into them, allowing bathers and bathers to enjoy light snacks together, chatting and stroking each other at ease, which seems to be their favorite pastime.
(Letter from Poggio Bracciolini to his friend Niccolo Niccoli regarding the Baden baths, 1417)

Conclusions about the freedom of morals in the baths can be drawn independently - and after all, among these people, who behave much more relaxed than our contemporaries in a similar situation, inquisitors with torches do not run around, threatening to immediately burn everyone and everyone for such debauchery and obscene behavior! Moreover, in the same letter, Poggio remarks in passing:

"Monks, abbots, priests also come here, who, however, behave much more cheekily than other men. It seems that they throw off their sacred vows along with the cassock and do not experience the slightest embarrassment, bathing with women and after behind them, coloring their hair with bows of silk ribbons.

More in the Interpreter's Blog about life in the Middle Ages.

By popular demand, I continue the topic "History of soap" and this time the story will be about the fate of soap during the Middle Ages. I hope this article will be interesting and useful to many, and everyone will learn something new from it :))
So, let's begin.... ;)

Cleanliness was not very popular in Europe in the Middle Ages. The reason for this was that soap was produced in limited quantities: first, small handicraft workshops, then pharmacists. The price for it was so high that it was not always affordable even for those in power. For example, the Queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile, used soap only twice in her life (!): at birth and on the eve of her wedding. And that sounds really sad...

It’s funny from the point of view of hygiene, the morning of the French king Louis XIV began :) He rubbed his eyes with the tips of his fingers soaked in water, this was the end of his water procedures :) The Russian ambassadors who were at the court of this king wrote in their messages that their majesty “stinks like a wild animal." The very ambassadors of the courtiers of all European courts were disliked for their “wild” habit of indecently often (once a month! :)) bathing.

IN in those days, even kings bathed in an ordinary wooden barrel, and so that warm water would not be wasted, after the monarch, the rest of the retinue climbed into it. This very unpleasantly struck the Russian princess Anna, who became the French queen. She was not only the most literate person at court, but also the only one who had the good habit of bathing regularly.

The fashion for cleanliness began to be revived by medieval knights who visited the Arab countries with the Crusades. Their favorite gifts for their women are the famous soap balls from Damascus.

The knights themselves, who spent many hours in the saddle and battles, never washed themselves, which made an indelible unpleasant impression on the Arabs and Byzantines.

The knights who returned to Europe tried to introduce the custom of washing into their lives in their homeland, but the church stopped this idea by issuing a ban, as it saw a source of debauchery and infection in the baths. Baths in those days were common, women and men washed together, which the church considered a great sin. It is a pity that her servants did not divide bathing days into women's and men's ... Such a way out of the situation could have prevented the invasion of a real infection and the great disasters that befell Europe.

XIV century became one of the most terrible in the history of mankind. A terrible plague epidemic that began in the East (in India and China) spread throughout Europe. It claimed half the population of Italy and England, while Germany, France and Spain lost more than a third of their inhabitants. The epidemic bypassed only Russia, due to the fact that the country had a widespread custom to regularly wash in the bath.

Soap in those days was still very expensive, so the Russian people had their own means for washing. In addition to lye (wood ash steamed in boiling water), the Russians used clay, thin oatmeal dough, wheat bran, herbal infusions, and even kvass thick. All of these products are great for cleansing and good for the skin.

Russian craftsmen inherited the secrets of soap making from Byzantium and went their own way. Massive deforestation began in many forests for the production of potash, which became one of the export products and brought a good income. In 1659, the "potash business" was transferred under the royal jurisdiction.

Potash was made in this way: they cut down trees, burned them in the forest, brewed ashes, thus obtaining lye, and evaporated it. This trade, as a rule, was carried out by entire villages, which were also called "potash".

For themselves, soap was brewed in small quantities, using only natural products, such as beef, lamb and lard. In those days, there was a saying in use: "There was fat, there was soap." This soap was very high quality, but, unfortunately, very expensive.

The first cheap soap, which cost one penny, was produced in Russia by the Frenchman Heinrich Brocard.

Meanwhile, plague-ridden Europe began to recover. Production began to revive, and with it soap making. In 1662, the first patent for the production of soap was issued in England, and gradually its production was transformed into an industrial sector, which was patronized by the French state.
Now scientists are engaged in the production of soap. In 1790, the French physicist Nicholas Leblanc (1742-1806) discovered a method for obtaining soda ash (sodium carbonate Na2CO3) from salt (sodium chloride NaCl) (after treating it with sulfuric acid), which made it possible to reduce the cost of soap production and make it accessible to the majority of the population. The soda process developed by Leblanc was widely used in the 19th century. The resulting product completely replaced potash.

There are stereotypes in the minds of many people regarding the hygiene of the European Middle Ages. The stereotype fits into one phrase: “They were all dirty and washed only by accidentally falling into the river, but in Rus' ...” - then follows a lengthy description of the culture of Russian baths. Maybe for someone these words will cause slight bewilderment, but the average Russian prince of the XII-XIV centuries was no cleaner than a German / French feudal lord. And the latter, for the most part, were not dirtier ...

Perhaps for some, this information is a revelation, but the bathing craft in that era was very developed and, for objective reasons described below, it turned out to be completely lost just after the Renaissance, by the onset of the New Age. The gallant XVIII century is a hundred times more odorous than the severe XIV.

Let's go through public information. For starters, the well-known resort areas. Take a look at the coat of arms of Baden (Baden bei Wien), granted to the city by Holy Emperor Frederick III in 1480.

A man and a woman in a tub. Shortly before the appearance of the coat of arms, in 1417, Poggio Braccoli, who accompanied the dethroned Pope John XXIII on a trip to Baden, gives a description of 30 luxurious baths. There were two outdoor swimming pools for commoners.

We give the floor to Fernand Braudel (“The Structures of Everyday Life: the Possible and the Impossible”):

- Baths, a long legacy of Rome, were the rule throughout medieval Europe - both private and very numerous public baths, with their baths, steam rooms and loungers for relaxation, or with large pools, with their crowding of naked bodies, male and female interspersed .

People met here as naturally as in the church; and these bathing establishments were designed for all classes, so that they were subjected to senior duties like mills, smithies and drinking establishments.

As for wealthy houses, they all had "soaps" in the basement; there were a steam room and tubs - usually wooden, with hoops stuffed like on barrels. Charles the Bold had a rare luxury item: a silver bathtub, which he carried around the battlefields. After the defeat at Granson (1476), she was found in the ducal camp.

Memo di Filippuccio, Marriage Bath, circa 1320 fresco, Municipal Museum of San Gimignano

In the report of the Parisian Prevost (the era of Philip IV the Fair, early 1300s), 29 public baths in Paris are mentioned, subject to city tax. They worked every day except Sunday.

The fact that the Church looked askance at these establishments is quite natural - since the bathhouses and the taverns adjacent to them were often used for extramarital sexual ****, although, of course, the people were still going to wash there.

J. Boccaccio writes about this directly: “ In Naples, when the ninth hour came, Catella, taking her maid with her and not changing her intention in anything, went to those baths ... The room was very dark, with which each of them was pleased».

Here is a typical picture of the XIV century - we see a very luxurious institution "for the noble":

Not only Paris. As of 1340, it is known that there were 9 baths in Nuremberg, 10 in Erfurt, 29 in Vienna, 12 in Breslau/Wroclaw.

The rich preferred to wash at home. There was no running water in Paris, and street water carriers delivered water for a small fee.

But this, so to speak, is “late”, but what about earlier? With the most that neither is "barbarism"? Here is Eingard, "Biography of Charlemagne":

- He also loved to bathe in hot springs and achieved great perfection in swimming. It was out of love for hot baths that he built a palace in Aachen and spent all the last years of his life there. For bathing, to the springs, he invited not only his sons, but also to know, friends, and sometimes bodyguards and the whole retinue; it happened that a hundred or more people bathed together.

Ordinary private bath, 1356

About soap

There are two versions of the appearance of soap in medieval Europe. According to one, soap has been produced since the 8th century in Naples. According to another, Arab chemists began to make it in Spain and the Middle East from olive oil, lye and aromatic oils (there is a treatise by Al-Razi of 981, which describes a method for making soap), and the Crusaders introduced it to Europe.

Then, as if, around 1100, soap production appeared in Spain, England, France - from animal fat. The Encyclopædia Britannica gives later dates, around 1200.

In 1371, a certain Crescans Davin (Sabonerius), started the production of olive oil soap in Marseille, and is often cited as the first European soap. It then definitely achieved great fame and commercial success. In the 16th century, Venetian and Castile soaps were already being traded in Europe, and many began to start their own production.

Here is a modern reconstruction of a standard public "soap" of the XIV-XV centuries, an economy class for the poor, a budget version: wooden tubs right on the streets, water is boiled in boilers:

Separately, we note that in the "Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco there is a very detailed description of the monastery baths - separate baths, separated by curtains. Berengar drowned in one of these.

A quote from the charter of the Augustinian Order: “Whether you need to go to the bathhouse, or to another place, let there be at least two or three of you. He who has the need to leave the monastery must go with the one appointed by the ruler.”

And here is from the Valencian Codex of the 13th century:

« Let the men go to the bath together on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the women go on Monday and Wednesday, and the Jews go on Friday and Sunday.

Neither a man nor a woman gives more than one meah when entering the bath; and the servants of both men and women give nothing, and if men on women's days enter the bath or any of the buildings of the bath, let every ten maravedi pay; also pays ten maravedi whoever peeps in the bathhouse on women's day.

Also if any woman on a man's day enters the bathhouse or is met there at night, and someone offends her or takes her by force, then he does not pay any fine and does not become an enemy, but a person who on other days takes a woman by force or dishonor, it must be thrown off. ”

And the story is no joke at all, how in 1045 several important people, including the Bishop of Würzburg, died in the bathing tub of Persenbeug Castle after the ceiling of the bath collapsed.

Steam bath. 14th century — So there were also steam saunas.

So, the myth evaporates, along with the bath steam. The High Middle Ages was not at all a kingdom of total filth.

The disappearance of bathing in post-Renaissance times was facilitated by both natural and religious-political conditions. The “Little Ice Age”, which lasted until the 18th century, led to massive deforestation and a monstrous shortage of fuel - it was only possible to replace it with coal in the New Age.

And, of course, the Reformation had a huge impact - if the Catholic clergy of the Middle Ages treated the baths relatively neutrally (and washed themselves - there are references to visiting the baths even by the Popes), only forbidding the joint washing of men and women, then the Protestants banned them altogether - not in a puritanical This.

In 1526, Erasmus of Rotterdam states: "Twenty-five years ago, nothing was as popular in Brabant as public baths: today they are gone - the plague taught us to do without them". In Paris, the baths practically disappeared under Louis XIV.

And just in the New Time, Europeans begin to be surprised at Russian public baths and steam rooms, which in the 17th century already noticeably distinguish Eastern Europe from Western. The culture has been lost.

Here is such a story.