Medieval France
. Standards of personal and communal health were often minimal in rural settings; they evolved most markedly at such model monasteries as Cluny and, later, under the pressures of urbanization. Their elaboration is documented by prescriptions for good living, descriptive vignettes in poetry and prose, fanciful illuminations in manuscripts, and pragmatic ordinances in archives. Throughout, Mediterranean mainsprings of hygienics were supplemented by local notions, and folk wisdom fused with learned medicine. Preservative and preventive concerns ranged from infancy to old age, from diet to environment, and from homebound routines to distant journeys.
A famous vernacular guide, the Régime du corps, accompanied Countess Béatrice de Provence in 1256 on her visit to four queens, her daughters. It shows how private hygiene depended on social standing. For courtiers and prosperous bourgeois, aesthetics tended to prevail over genuine hygienics. For example, the shift from whole grains to white bread was more pronounced in France than elsewhere north of the Alps, but mostly because members of the elite found white bread aesthetically more pleasing and something of a status symbol, rather than for the medically sounder reason that rye bread, widely consumed by peasants, made them more prone to ergotism. Similarly, the upper classes avoided garlic, despite its health benefits (it was legendary as a prophylactic), because it was associated with the poor. Their attitudes toward soap and clothing were similarly inspired. Readily available “Gallic” soap was spurned for exotic soaps from Outremer, because these contained oils rather than tallow. The shape, volume, and variety of clothing were often more important than comfort or cleanliness. Nevertheless, frequent changing of clothes was deemed important, and bathing was less rare than is often assumed. Fetor, skin diseases, and parasites were viewed as traits of those who were not only poor but lazy.
Bathhouses, or “stews,” were popular enough to number at least twenty-six in Paris under Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223).
Royal control was maintained by licensing, but it could extend further, as when Louis X (r. 1314–16) ordered new étuves built in Provins to keep up with the growing population. The steady influx of newcomers, the persistence of rural lifestyles, and overcrowding caused health hazards that were not addressed systematically. However, the layout of most towns shows that crafts with noxious byproducts, such as tanning and metallurgy, were kept at the edge of habitation. Sewers were installed before 1250 in Paris, and municipal governments enforced poli cies for refuse removal and sanitation, including the daily flushing of butchers’ and fishmongers’ quarters. By the end of the 15th century, authorities began to charge medical experts with inspections of water and food supplies, assessments of the need to quarantine, and public-health services for the poor.
Luke Demaitre
[See also: DISEASES; HOSPITALS; MEDICAL TEXTS; MENTAL HEALTH]
Alebrant (Aldebrandin de Sienne). Le régime du corps, ed. L. Landouzy and R.Pépin. Paris: Champion, 1911.
Jarry, Daniel. “Diététique et hygiène aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles.” Languedoc médical 41(1958):5–24.
Loewe, R. “Handwashing and the Eyesight in the Regimen sanitatis.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine 30(1956): 100–08.
Thorndike, Lynn. “Sanitation, Baths, and Street Cleaning in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.” Speculum 3(1929):192–203.
Vigarello, Georges. Concepts of Cleanliness: Changing Attitudes in France Since the Middle Ages, trans. Jean Birrell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
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