The medieval guide to living well

The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living, Katherine Harvey, Reaktion Books, £20

In so many contexts, when you hear the word ‘medieval’, then you can be reasonably confident that whatever’s coming next is going to be bad – really, really bad. A ‘medieval’ approach to healthcare, a ‘medieval’ way to wage war, and a ‘medieval’ view of the world, this kind of language signals immediately that we’re about to start talking about something primitive, barbaric and cruel. I stopped watching medieval-themed media a long time ago because it was becoming so predictable: violence-loving knights, fanatical clerics and a callous disregard for everyone else.

Katherine Harvey’s The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living provides a timely and entertaining counterbalance to such stereotypes. Believe it or not, medieval families washed regularly, changed their clothes, loved their children, valued sleep, tried to stay fit, encouraged dental hygiene and recognised the dangers of addiction.

Harvey explores how medieval communities sought to maintain their health across a range of themes, from medicine to old age, from drink to disease. A central reference point intersecting many of these areas is the fundamental medieval understanding of the body and its operation. The conviction that good health depended on balancing the body’s four humours (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) recurs in multiple contexts. By extension, achieving the desired equilibrium between these humours required careful consideration of an individual’s gender, lifestyle, age, the air they breathed and the changing seasons (among other things). Naturally, we know this basic frame of reference to be inaccurate, but the seriousness and sense of inquiry which contemporaries brought to this model underlines the importance they attached to the principle of establishing good practices in health and nutrition.

Throughout the book, Harvey draws attention to many important – often sobering – pieces of data that shed light on the grimmer, heartbreaking aspects of the medieval experience. It is estimated that 30 per cent of children in this era died during their first year, with an additional 20 per cent dying before reaching adulthood. Roughly five per cent of English noblewomen died in childbirth, while in early 15th-century Florence, that number rose to around 20 per cent. Equally shocking are the findings from an excavation in Siena, which suggest that 88 per cent of those who died from the plague in 1383 were children. Cancer also claimed many victims, but seemingly not as many as the modern world. A study in Cambridgeshire shows its prevalence at between 9–14 per cent of the population (compared with 40–50 per cent today).

Conversely, the book also contains many positive, even inspirational, moments. These include a genuine desire among medical practitioners – both within the church and without – to care for the poor, and a far more enthusiastic attitude towards sex than is commonly allowed. Many people enjoyed keeping pets and recognised the health benefits of having them. I had no idea that in the 13th century a bishop of Durham kept pet monkeys; I was even more surprised to discover that Alfonso X of Castile was deeply attached to his pet ferret. By extension, the Church demonstrated a close interest in supporting and encouraging health and education across this period.

The sum of all these anecdotes is to build a nuanced portrait of the pressures and dangers that contextualise medieval lives. Harvey draws attention to many remarkable figures, approaching them as complex individuals rather than caricatures to lampoon.

To the modern reader, a few of the revelations incline towards the absurd. Eating turnips was supposed to incite lust, the elderly were advised to avoid cats because their breath could cause lung damage, and medieval opinion was divided over whether to allow very young children to drink alcohol. This may sound odd, appalling, or even funny, but to a medieval eye, these were perfectly reasonable pieces of advice or topics of conversation, well-grounded in existing knowledge.

Overall, this is a well-researched book that demonstrates an impressive command of a broad and multifaceted topic. Thoughtfully related to the modern day, The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living entertains, informs and shatters stereotypes with equal gusto.