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https://www.medievalists.net/2023/05/drink-water-middle-ages/

Did people drink water in the Middle Ages?

By Peter Konieczny

“Let us make use of a healthy, natural drink which will sometimes be of
benefit to both body and soul – if it is drawn not from a muddy cistern
but from a clear well or the current of a transparent brook.” ~ Lupus
Servatus, Abbot of Ferrieres (9th century)

One of the oddest myths about the Middle Ages is that people did not
drink water. Many books and articles have repeated the idea that water
was so polluted during this period that medieval men and women would
only drink wine, ale or some other kind of beverage. However, there is
plenty of evidence that people regularly drank water.

It’s true that medieval people rarely wrote about their love of water –
you don’t find many chronicles or letters describing one drinking the
liquid. Instead, they would speak of the fondness of ale or wine. This
is not surprising – water is relatively tasteless – and few people would
have preferred it compared to the alternatives. Like today, one doubts
that too many writers from the Middle Ages would have praised their
hosts for providing a cup of water instead of wine.

However, there are several types of sources that offer more insight into
drinking water during the period. Medical texts and health manuals
throughout the Middle Ages often note the benefits of drinking water, as
long as it came from good sources. For example, Paul of Aegina, a
7th-century Byzantine physician, writes “of all things water is of most
use in every mode of regimen. It is necessary to know that the best
water is devoid of quality as regards taste and smell, is most pleasant
to drink, and pure to the sight; and when it passes through the
praecordia quickly, one cannot find a better drink.”

One can find numerous references to when one should drink water, or add
it to another drink. Sometimes medieval physicians even gave advice on
when to avoid water. The Regimen Sanitatis Salerni, for example, advises
that drinking from a cool spring was good for thirst, but rainwater was
even better. However, when having a meal the treatise finds that wine is
preferable, as water will chill the stomach. Meanwhile, a 15th-century
Italian writer told pregnant mothers to “beware of using cold water, it
is not good for the fetus and it causes the generation of girls,
especially here in our region, so keep drinking wine.”

Medieval cities and water supply
Records related to medieval cities also note the importance of drinking
water, and the efforts by local leaders to give people access to it.
Leon Battista Alberti, the fifteenth-century architect and author of De
re aedificatoria, gives the reasons why urban areas needed a good water
supply: “Since a city requires a large amount of water not only for
drinking, but also for washing, for gardens, tanners and fullers, and
drains, and — this is very important — in case of sudden outbreak of
fire, the best should be reserved for drinking, and the remainder
distributed according to need.”

Cities would spend large amounts of money on creating and maintaining
water supply sources. For example, in the thirteenth century, the city
of London constructed ‘The Conduit’. Using a system of lead pipes, it
brought fresh water from a spring outside the city walls into the middle
of London, where people could freely access it. City records
occasionally note expenses related to maintaining and cleaning The
Conduit, and during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this system
was expanded to other parts of the city. Other medieval towns had
similar systems to bring in water.

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Being on bread and water
Medieval religious texts also mention drinking water. Some hagiographic
accounts relate to how saints abstained from alcoholic beverages and
drank water instead. Some of the more austere monastic communities also
advocated relying on water. Moreover, medieval handbooks of penance
often punished people for their sins by taking away their finer food and
drink. For example, the 11th-century writer Burchard of Worms offers
this penalty against people who swore against God:

If thou hast sworn by God’s hair or by His head or made use of any other
blasphemous expression against God, if thou hast done so but once
unwittingly, thou shalt do penance for seven days on bread and water. If
after having been upbraided for it thou hast done it a second or a third
time, thou shalt do penance for fifteen days on bread and water.

While in this case drinking water is made to be a punishment, this does
not mean that the church was trying to kill sinners. More likely, they
figured that a drab diet for a week or so would be sufficient
encouragement not to get involved in minor transgressions.

One can find references to people drinking water in many other sources
as well. Bede notes that King Edwin of Northumbria, “established a
benefit for his people in that in many places where clear
springs/streams ran by well-used roads, where they were most frequented
he ordered posts with bronze cups hung on them to be set up for the
refreshment of travellers.” Centuries later, when Michelangelo was
suffering from kidney stones, a doctor advised him to seek out waters
from a spring outside of Rome. Afterwards the Renaissance artist wrote
back, “I am much better than I have been. Morning and evening I have
been drinking the water from a spring about forty miles from Rome, which
breaks up the stone…I have had to lay in a supply at home and cannot
drink or cook with anything else.”

People in the Middle Ages were also well aware that not all water was
safe to drink – in addition to polluted water, which would be largely
confined to urban areas, it was common knowledge to avoid obtaining
water from marshy areas or places of standing water. However, if they
knew the water was coming from a good source, they would not be afraid
to drink from it. But like us, they often preferred something a little
more tasty, as said in Ælfric’s Colloquy from the 10th century:

“Ale if I have any, or water if I have no ale.”

Further Readings:
Hagen, Ann, A handbook of Anglo-Saxon food: processing and consumption
(Pinner, 1992)

Kucher, Michael, ‘The Use of Water and its Regulation in Medieval
Siena’, Journal of Urban History, Vol.31:4 (2005)

McNeill, John T. and Gamer, Helena M., Medieval handbooks of penance: a
translation of the principal “libri poenitentiales” and selections from
related documents (New York, 1965)

O’Neill, Tim, What Was the Drink of Choice in Medieval Europe? – from
Slate.com

Salzman, James, Drinking water: a history (New York, 2012)

Squatriti, Paolo, Water and Society in Early Medieval Italy, AD 400-1000
(Cambridge, 1998)

The great Medieval water myth – from Les Leftovers

Top Image: British Library MS Harley 3469 fol. 23r

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