Antithesis Christi et Antichristi (Jenský kodexJena Codex), Bohemia ca. 1490-1510 (Praha, Knihovna Národního muzea, IV.B.24, fol. 78v)
About hair washing for women:
"After leaving the bath, let her adorn her hair, and first of all let her wash it with a cleanser such as this. Take ashes of burnt vine, the chaff of barley nodes, and licorice wood (so that it may the more brightly shine), and sowbread... with this cleanser let the woman wash her head. After the washing, let her leave it to dry by itself, and her hair will be golden and shimmering... If the woman wishes to have long and black hair, take a green lizard and, having removed its head and tail, cook it in common oil. Anoint the head with this oil. It makes the hair long and black."
The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. Ed. and trans. Monica H. Green (Philadelphia, 2001).
Jakob von Warte in his bath, an illumination from the Menasse Codex, c. 1300-1330
Badehaus. Konrad Kyeser, Bellifortis, Clm 30150, Tafel 08, Blatt 35v (Ausschnitt).
Balneum Contorellus - 15C manuscript of De Balneis Puteolanis, University of València.
Balneum Tripergulae - detail from miniature of the Code Angelico's De Balneis Puteolanis of Pietro da Eboli.
Banys-sauna
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 8161, f. 8r. Petrus de Ebulo, De balneis puteolanis. Naples, mid-14C
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 8161, f. 19r. Petrus de Ebulo, De balneis puteolanis. Naples, mid-14C
Christine de Pisan Epitre d'Othea Période Vers 1460 Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 49
Codex Schürstab. Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Ms. C 54 (Nürnberg c 1472)
"If, however, the woman is fat and seemingly dropsical, let us mix cow dung with very good wine and with such a mixture we afterward anoint her. Then let her enter a steambath up to the neck, which steambath should be very hot from a fire made of elder [wood], and in it, while she is covered, let her emit a lot of sweat... We also treat fat men in another way. We make for them a grave next to the shore of the sea in the sand, and in the described manner you will anoint them, and when the heat is very great we place them halfway into the grave, halfway covered with hot sand poured over. And there we make them sweat very much. And afterward we wash them very well with the water of the previous bath."
The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine. Ed. and trans. Monica H. Green (Philadelphia, 2001).
De baneis omnia quae extant apud Graecos, latinos, et arabas, tam medicos quam quoscunque ceteram artium probatos scriptores, 1553
Horae ad usum Parisiensem. 1401-1500 Encadrements ou bordures
Illuminated Manuscripts - Bath House
La Vie seigneuriale Le Bain Pays-Bas du Sud, premier quart du XVIe siècle Laine, soie H. 2, 85 m; l. 2, 85 m Acq. , 1852 Cl. 2180
Latona turns four bathers into frogs for muddying the water she wishes to drink mss kb nl
Lujuria Valerius Maximus, translated by Simon de Hesdin and Nicholas de Gonesse, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia. France, N. (Amiens or Hesdin), or Netherlands, S. 3rd quarter of the 15C
Memmo of Filippuccio, the mayor and his wife to the bathroom - fresco from the Palazzo Comunale di San Gimignano (Siena), 14C
Miniature by the Master of the Dresden Prayer Book in Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia , commissioned by Jean Gros, c 1480.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France Français 606 L´Epistre d’Othea by Christine de Pisan
Petrus de Ebulo, De balneis Puteolanis Période XIVe s. (vers 1350-1370) Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 135 [Petrus de Ebulo], De balneis Puteolanis v
Petrus de Ebulo, De balneis Puteolanis Période XIVe s. (vers 1350-1370) Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 135 [Petrus de Ebulo], De balneis Puteolanis
Pilgrims bathing in the Jordan. Guillaume de Boldensele, Liber de quibusdam ultramarinis partibus (trans. of Jean le Long). Paris, c.1410-1412.
Recueil des oeuvres de Christine de Pisan (1363-1431) 1401-1500
The Hague, KB, 76 G 8 fol. 93r, David sees Bathsheba bathing
Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Cod. Pal. germ. 291, detail of fol. 043v. Konrad von Eichstätt. Regel der Gesundheit. Bavaria, after 1477.
Venus Bathing. Martin le Franc, Le Champion des Dames (1440) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français 12476, detail of f. 10r
Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, 3525, f.84v. Watriquet de Couvin, Dits. 14th century.
Pietro da Eboli (XIII secolo) De Balneis Puteolanis. Miniatura del Codice Angelico Ms. 1474 (Biblioteca Angelica di Roma)
Codices vindobonenses 2759-2764 in the Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, in Vienna, Austria.
Codices vindobonenses 2759-2764 in the Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, in Vienna, Austria.
Couldrette, Roman de Mélusine, Flanders 15th century (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de FranceFrançais 24383, fol. 19r)
The Hague, KB, 76 F 21 fol. 15r Mary in bath Fol. 15r: miniature
Illuminated Manuscripts - Bathing
Biblioteca Nacional de España, Cod. Vitr. 24-3, detail of f. 10v. Libro de horas de Carlos V. Paris (workshop of Jean Poyer?), late 15th/early 16th century.
Illuminated Manuscripts - Bathing
Illuminated Manuscripts - Bathing
Illuminated Manuscripts - Bathing
London, British Library, Add. 17987, folio 111v. Man and woman in tub
Codices vindobonenses 2759-2764 in the Osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, in Vienna, Austria.
"You shall finde it wonderfull expedient, if you bath your head foure times in the yeare, and that with hot lee made of ashes. After which, you must cause one presently to poure two or three gallons of cold fountain water upon your head. Then let your head be dryed with cold towels. Which sodaine pouring downe of cold water, although it doth mightily terrifie you, yet nevertheles, it is very good, for therby the naturall heate is stirred within the body, baldnesse is kept backe, and the memory is quickened. In like manner, washing of hands often, doth much availe the eyesight." William Vaughan, Approved Directions for Health (1612)
Kamal ad-din Behzad, (Iranian painter, 1450-1535) Gentlemen Bathing
Kamal ad-din Behzad, (Iranian painter, 1450-1535) Women Bathing
Bany màgic de Medea, 1338-1344 "every one full of flowers and sweet green herbs...Have a basin full of hot fresh herbs and wash (her) body with a soft sponge, rinse (her) with fair warm rose-water, and throw it over (her).
For aches & pains, "it is good to boil various herbs like camomile, breweswort, mallow and brown fennel and add them to the bath." John Russell’s Book of Nurture 1400s
See:
Did people in the Middle Ages take baths? Medievalists.net April 13, 2013
Archibald, Elizabeth, “Did Knights Have Baths? The Absence of Bathing in Middle English Romance,” Cultural Encounters In The Romance Of Medieval England, edited by Corinne Saunders (Boydell, 2005)
Caskey, Jill, “Steam and “Sanitas” in the Domestic Realm: Baths and Bathing in Southern Italy in the Middle Ages,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1999)
Harvey, Barbara, Living and Dying in England, 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience (Clarendon Press, 1993)
Holmes, Urban Tigner, Daily Life in the Twelfth-Century (University of Wisconsin Press, 1952)
Lucas, A.T., “Washing and Bathing in Ancient Ireland,” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 95, No. 1/2 (1965)
Newman, Paul B., Daily Life in the Middle Ages (McFarland and Co., 2001)
Smith, Virginia, Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity (Oxford University Press, 2007)
van Dam, Fabiola I., “Permeable Boundaries: Bodies, Bathing and FLuxes, 1135-1333,” Medicine and Space: Body, Surroundings and Borders in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, ed. Patricia Baker (Brill, 2012)
van Winter, Johanna Maria, “Medieval Opinions about Food and Drinking in Connection with Bathing,” Spices and Comfits: Collected Papers on Medieval Food (Prospect Books, 2007)