SJLahey ,
@SJLahey@mastodon.social avatar

Rub-a-dub-dub! Bath-time in a 15th-century copy of Régime du corps, a personal guide to home composed by the physician Aldobrandino of Siena in 1256.
@bookhistodons @medievodons

Detail of a medieval manuscript leaf: folio 14 verso in Cambridge, University Library, manuscript Ii.5.11, photographed on a slight angle from the lower left fore-edge. It shows 12 lines of medieval French text copied in a bold hand with black ink. Lines 4 to 8 are indented to make space for a rectangle of pink and white swirls bordered in gold leaf. Sprays of pink thistles and spiky ivy leaves, in gold, extend from the border into the page’s margin. Within the rectangle rests a decorated initial ‘P’, rendered in blue and gold. The initial is infilled with a tiny depiction of a long wooden tub under a scarlet canopy. Inside the tub sits a bathing man, facing us, hands resting on the tub’s side. Placed nearby is a small table draped with a white cloth, and bearing a bar of yellow soap and a small white cup. Immersed in the dark, placid water, the bathing man contemplates these items meditatively, perhaps deciding what to wash next.
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    • anarchic_teapot ,
    @anarchic_teapot@lingo.lol avatar

    @SJLahey @bookhistodons @medievodons The opening words are a bit grim. Clearly the good doctor was fond of Stern Warnings.

    RichardIIICa ,
    @RichardIIICa@mstdn.social avatar

    @SJLahey @bookhistodons @medievodons When Edward IV welcomed Louis, Lord of Gruthuuse , he sent his close friend (and Lord Chamberlain) Wm Hastings to entertain him. That included bathing at the same time - in 2 tubs next to each other. 'And when they had been in their baths as long as was their pleasure, they had… green gingers, divers syrups, comfits,and ipocras’ (The Chronicles of the White Rose of York: A Series of Historical Fragments by John Giles)

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