CLEANLINESS

SKIN CARE

COSMETICS

ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY

HAIR CARE

HAIRSTYLES

BODY HAIR

FEMININE HYGIENE

GENERAL HEALTHCARE

Beauty & Hygiene

Generally, the fashionable lady's look for the bulk of the medieval period was as follows- high forehead, plucked eyebrows, small even teeth, a fair complexion, long neck, narrow chest, low sloping shoulders, high small waist and in some cases, a prominent stomach. Women were often described as 'fair' regardless of their natural colouring because 'fair' was the idealised idea of beauty.

Beauty and hygiene is divided into nine separate pages-

- CLEANLINESS - Bathing, perfuming, soap and general personal cleanliness
- SKINCARE - For the beautiful medieval woman
- COSMETICS - Makeup in the Middle Ages
- ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY - Care of the teeth
- HAIR CARE - Care, treatments and hair colouring
- HAIR STYLES - Styling of the hair
- BODY HAIR - The trends in body hair
- FEMININE HYGIENE - Menstruation and what to do about it
- GENERAL HEALTHCARE - Dieting and other ailments

One of the first manuals of feminine beauty written at Salerno around 1100 is widely believed to be that of the lady physician and author, Trota. Trota was credited to be the author of three treatises, but according to Henrietta Leyser in her book Medieval Women- A Social History of Women in England 450 - 1500, the authorship of them is doubtful. Although Trota did write on the subject in The Practice According To Trota, it is believed that Trota herself did not write any of the works widely credited to her. Her treatise was little known in Europe and not translated into any vernacular.

The three treatises accredited to her which were widely distributed are, according to Henrietta Leyser, works of other authors. More information can be read in her book where she goes on to explain where the texts are believed to have originated and why. Those treatises are known as- Trotula A, Trotula B (which is distinctive for its large number of cosmetic recipes for the face and hair), and Trotula C or The Book of Rota.

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