Continuing with my last post’s theme on bathing through history, this one deals specifically with bathing in the Middle Ages.

While the Crusades are generally blamed for a number of things, they triggered significant advances in the West. Indeed, some scholars think the intercultural exchanges between East and West were partly responsible for the Rennaissance – the other part being due to the influx of Greek scholars following the fall of Constantinople.

Among the other advances were the establishment of hospitals and significant advancements in naval architecture and nautical sciences including the development of the compass.

Bathing in the Middle Ages

One of the more interesting indirect consequences of the Crusades, however, is the rebirth of the bathing culture.

First, a clarification: contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages bathed regularly. They did not go around dirty and stinking.

As The Medievalists.net