Discover how hygiene was maintained in the Middle Ages in Agrigento, including cleaning rituals, body care and myths about medieval dirt. Read more now!
Introduction to Hygiene in the Middle Ages in Agrigento
Even for the people of Agrigento in the Middle Ages, having a beautiful body was important. Men wanted to be muscular, have a full mouth, white and even teeth, a well-shaped chin, a straight neck
The stereotype that people in the Middle Ages were dirty, smelly, infested with parasites, but that wasn’t the case for everyone.
There is no shortage of evidence of attempts to ensure cleanliness.
Cleaning of streets and homes in Agrigento
The streets of the city of Agrigento in the Middle Ages were generally covered in filth and it was difficult to walk due to the dirt that was thrown there and the manure that formed there; the roads were in pretty dire condition
It should be added that the promiscuity in which the people of Agrigento lived, inside their homes. Promiscuity of humans and beasts
Historical Evidence on Body Care
We can write, as many medieval chroniclers do, that their faces were dirty, “very black from smoking, without ever washing; the eyes always full of boogers”; mouths caked with stale dirt; noses dripping mucus; chests covered in dirt and riddled with the bites of parasites, especially lice; indecent nails, also because they never wash their hands.
In a short story, Boccaccio describes Brother Cipolla’s filthy hood, so greasy that it “would have seasoned the cauldron of Altopascio”. Nor must the friars who lived in Agrigento have been different. In one of his sermons from the 1420s, San Bernardino complained that the woman «when she goes to church she goes there adorned, lilaced, garlanded like a Madonna Smiraldina and at home she is like a zambraca”, that is, like a scoundrel.
Hygiene in Rites and Traditions
It seems that the use of the bathroom responded much more to symbolic and even erotic rituals, than to the need to keep the body clean. Thus the knights took a bath after the fight or the tournament; some rich eccentrics dedicated themselves more to personal hygiene than others.
An exceptional measure was the thorough cleaning of the sick upon their admission to hospital.
Teeth and hands
Hands were washed before and after meals, at least at large banquets among the nobility.
Basis (water jugs) and towels were not lacking in the wedding trousseaus of aristocrats or rich bourgeois women.
The Sicilian Biancofìore, heroine of a novel by Boccaccio, washed the body of her Salabaetto “with mascooleate soap and cloves”.
Even the teeth received some treatment: between the 14th and 16th centuries, a tooth powder made of a mixture of rose and violet powder was used, and particular roots boiled in wine or nutmeg flowers were used to combat bad breath.
For perspiration, the body was sprinkled with cardamom and licorice to give off a good smell, nutmeg, clove, cumin, anise, fennel and other spices and fragrances designed to cover the body’s scents. But this among the nobles; nothing of the kind, presumably, happened among ordinary people.
In the Middle Ages, referring to the peasants, we read in a text «such a great stench comes out of a lush salvatichino, dirty, fortino, muffino, zelino, fracidino, with such a lush taste of ditella and of heated feet, with the annoying stench of their mouths, for the many citrus fruits, garlics, onions, leeks and radicchio they eat […] which is not so strong a stomach that from their dishonest licks [zaffate] could be defended.”
Hair and Nail Care: Practices and Products Used
A certain amount of care was also given to the hair: attempts were made to free it from the nuisance of parasites, driving away lice with aconite or other substances. Women used to wear their hair long and gathered in long braids or bizarre hairstyles (“with battlements, with cassari, with towers, with tripe, with pancake, with cutting board”)
For men, however, the hair was worn lengthened or shortened according to the dictates of fashion. Many preferred short hair to leave the neck free. They wore beards and hair so long that they looked more hideous than admirable.
Washing one’s head was a habitual operation, especially for women, and vegetable products were used, which however were mixed with sulphur, to maintain beautiful hair, and the skin was rubbed with brandy or detergents after washing.
Washing could not only be a necessity for the body but even a lascivious pleasure: the confession manuals of the fifteenth century, in fact, advised the priest to investigate whether the woman had dedicated excessive care and time to washing her head. .
Aesthetics and Cosmetics in the Middle Ages of Agrigento
Alongside personal hygiene practices, aesthetic ones must also be considered. Melon seed oil was used against wrinkles; against excess hair, hair removal was done with quicklime, hot needles inserted into the hair bulb and so on.
Countless plant and mineral elements were used to “make up”.
There was no shortage of advice on how to rouge women’s faces and how to then remove make-up, because perhaps the body might not be exactly clean, but the important thing was that the face was always perfect and fascinating.
Conclusion: Myths and Realities about Medieval Hygiene
Despite myths about medieval dirtiness, hygiene and beauty practices were present and varied, especially among the nobility and upper classes. Historical evidence offers us a more complex and detailed picture of hygiene in the Middle Ages in Agrigento.
