Study & Research European Renaissance and Reformation 1350-1600: Lifestyle and Recreation

Floors, Ceilings, Doors, Windows. The ground floor of the typical late medieval peasant's home might be no more than beaten earth, though by the early-modern era most peasants used lesser quality oakwood as floorboards or inlaid ceramic tiles, which were common in urban dwellings. Wealthier Europeans enjoyed the use of "leaded tiles," which were regular tiles covered with a graphite- based enamel. Ground floors, in peasant homes as well as in the palaces of the rich, were covered with straw in the winter and with herbs and flowers in the summer. Though this covering was theoretically to be changed, it often was not, and new straw or herbs were merely thrown on top of the old, creating, ultimately, a compressed mat of dirt and garbage. Rugs were rare, even in the homes of the wealthy, and certainly few peasants possessed them. Sir Thomas More affirmed his high social and political...
(read more)