Bathing - In Gardens & the Countryside - Illuminated Manuscripts.

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."  From  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)

Bathing - In Gardens & the Countryside - Illuminated Manuscripts.

 Couldrette, Roman de Mélusine, Flanders 15th century (Paris,  Bibliothèque nationale de FranceFrançais 24383, fol. 19r)

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)

Bathing - In Gardens & the Countryside - Illuminated Manuscripts.

Codex Schürstab. Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, Ms. C 54 (Nürnberg c 1472)

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)

Bathing - In Gardens & the Countryside - Illuminated Manuscripts.

Jakob von Warte in his bath, an illumination from the Menasse Codex, c. 1300-1330

Herbs & flowers floating in a scented bath water often were used as deodorants. An infusion of bay leaves and hyssop was used in the bath. It was believed that a preparation of sage salvia officinalis was used to stop perspiration. Dioscorides suggests sage as a disinfectant and astringent writing that: "it will make a man's body clean; therefore who that useth to eat of this herb or drink it, it is marvel that any inconvenience should grieve them that use it."

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)

Takes a Parable to see a 1490 Farmer sowing seeds while the birds eat them

Woodcut to "Auslegung des Leben Jesu Christi" printed by Günther Zainer, incunabulum by Zainer, Augsburg, Germany, circa 1490

15C Chivalry & The Garden - Walled Garden or Locus Amoenus - Illuminated Manuscripts

Guillaume de Lorris (um 1205-1240) und Jean de Meun (ca. 1240-1305) Roman de la Rose. Brügge, ca. 1490-1500. British Library, Harley 4425, fol. 184v. 

The Roman de la Rose ("Romance of the Rose") is a medieval French poem written as an allegorical dream vision as courtly literature. The poet hopes to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the name of the lady, and as a symbol of female sexuality in general. Similarly the other characters' names function both as regular names and as abstractions illustrating the various factors that are involved in a love affair. The poem was written in 2 stages. The first 4058 lines, written by Guillaume de Lorris circa 1230, describe the attempts of a courtier to woo his beloved. 

Much of the story is set in a walled garden or locus amoenus, one of the traditional settings and forms of chivalric literature. A locus amoenus usually has 3 basic elements: trees, grass, and water. Often, the garden will be in a remote or walled situation and function as a landscape of the mind. This garden can also be used to highlight the differences between urban and rural life or be a place of refuge from the processes of time and mortality. In some works, such gardens also have overtones of the regenerative powers of human sexuality marked out by flowers, springtime, and goddesses of love and fertility. 

Around 1275, Jean de Meun composed an additional 17,724 lines for the Roman de la Rose, in which allegorical personages (Reason, Genius, and so on) hold forth on love in the tradition of the Code of Chivalry.

Love in the Garden - Illuminated Manuscripts

14C-15C Manuscripts Gathering Branches  The Hague, KB, 76 F 2

1500s Bavarian German - Garden of Love & Earthly Delights

1531 Illustration to Cicero, 'Officia'  Augsburg, by Hans Weiditz (German artist, c1500-c1536)  Published by Heinrich Steiner (fl.1530).  Here is another one of those secluded gardens, or  ‘Hortus Conclusus.’ In manor houses, these enclosed spaces often represented a garden of earthly delights. Enclosed within wattle fences, with grass treated as a flowery mead planted with low growing wild flowers & herbs. Birds & visitors filled the air with music.

1500s Garden of Love & Earthly Delights - 16C German

Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542-1601) Merrymaking in a Garden.

1500s Garden of Love & Earthly Delights - 16C

1515 Leonhard Beck (German 1475-80-1542) Book Illustration

In this illustration, the young Weisskunig & his wife are depicted trying to learn one another's language.  The newly married couple sit on a bench in a garden in front a low garden wall decorated with an ornamental frieze.  On the far left is a large gate & at the back, the garden is enclosed by buildings. In the garden another 3 couples walking around trees & a fountain.  A trellis placed in a pot sits against a wall of the garden.

1500s Garden of Love & Earthly Delights - 16C German

1520 Fernando de Rojas, 'Ain Hipsche Tragedia von zwaien liebhabenden mentschen ainem Ritter Calixtus und ainer Edlen junckfrawen Melibia genannt', Augsburg Grimm and Wirsung Here lady & gentleman communicate with a little music in a walled garden, as the moon shines down on them.

1600s Garden of Love & Earthly Delights - 1546 A Party in the Garden...

1546 Detail The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder (German Northern Renaissance Painter, 1472-1553)

1546 Detail  The Fountain of Youth by Lucas Cranach the Elder (German Northern Renaissance Painter, 1472-1553)

Courtly Love takes aim in the Garden - Illuminated Manuscripts

 c 1487-95 Artist Unknown British Library, London, Harley 4425   f. 42   Amour and the Lover

Phoebe, sitting on a rainbow with bow and arrow, looks upon people below her, Epitre d'Othea, by Christine of Pizan -- Cod. Bodmer 49, 24r

c 1487-95 Artist Unknown Harley MS 4425 f 22 British Library, London, England The God of Love Aiming at the Lover

 c 1487-95 Artist Unknown British Library, London, Harley 4425 Amour (Love), with bow and arrows, awaiting the right moment to strike the Lover.

The God of Love Aiming at the Lover (detail) from The Romance of the Rose, about 1405. The J. Paul Getty Museum

15C Garden offering Choices of Lifestyles

The Nature Garden of Conty Évrard. The Book of Chess Lovers. Evrard Conty, Cognac, c 1496-1499. BNF, Manuscripts, French 143, f. 198 v o.

The Book of Chess Lovers, as is the famous manuscript Roman de la Rose, is structured as an allegory suggesting that the type of garden one chooses to enter is a lifestyle choice. As literary settings, gardens of this period were idyllic spaces where lovers met, courtiers retreated from city life, & adventurers sought an earthly paradise. Nature's Garden (depicted in the foreground) includes, inside high walls, 3 gardens representing ways to live that are available to man. The Garden of Pallas (Minerva), guarded by Religion (background) represents the contemplative life. The Garden of of Juno, guarded by Wealth (left), suggests the active, commercial life. The final garden, the Garden of Voluptuous Life, is guarded by a naked woman at an idle door admiring herself in a hand mirror. The narrator of The Book of Chess Lovers is about to turn toward the Voluptuous garden. "All the young people of the world would have done the same," declares Évrard Conty.  (And it is a big dog vs little dog world here as well.)

Garden of Love - Monogrammist WH 1475

Monogrammist WH (printmaker; German) Garden of Love; couples within an enclosed garden,  outside are people swimming in a river and further back into the landscape are soldiers on horseback. c. 1475-80