Farting in the Middle Ages: Body Norms and Flatulence in Europe 500–1500
Medieval Europe had a radically different relationship to the body than the modern world. Norbert Elias described in 'The Civilizing Process' (1939) how a profound shift in attitudes toward bodily functions took place between the 12th and 18th centuries: what had once been open, normal, and public was gradually moved into private. Farting in medieval Europe was an unavoidable part of daily life — medically discussed, processed in literature, and commented on by the Church.
Before the Civilizing Process: Physicality as Normal
In the early and high Middle Ages (500–1200), there were no private bedrooms, no separate rooms for bodily hygiene, no quiet facilities in the modern sense. Communal sleeping halls, public latrines, and sharing meals in cramped spaces were the norm. In this context, farting was simply a physical fact, without the layer of shame it carries today. Contemporary etiquette books (so-called 'courtesy tracts') from the 12th and 13th centuries begin to set first rules — and the mere fact that they mention farting shows it was public enough to require regulation. Thomasin von Zerclaere wrote in the 'Welsche Gast' (1215) about courtly behavior — explicitly including bodily functions. The rules are moderate: not at table, not in the presence of social superiors. Complete banishment is not expected.
Medieval Medicine: Farting as a Health Obligation
Medieval medicine, which relied heavily on Galen (2nd century CE) and the Arabic scholar Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 10th/11th century), had a clear view of intestinal gas: it must come out. The humoral theory regarded flatulence as an expression of 'winds' (flatus) in the body, which, if retained, could lead to serious illness — from stomach pain to 'corrupt vapors' rising to the brain. The 'Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum', a medical didactic poem from the School of Salerno (12th century), explicitly advises farting: 'Quando tibi ventris fuerit constrictio fortis...' (roughly: if you have gas, do not hold it back). Suppressing flatulence was considered medically dangerous — an attitude that stands in sharp contrast to modern shame culture, but is not entirely physiologically wrong.
The Church and the Body: Sin, Nature, or Devil?
The Christian Church of the Middle Ages had an ambivalent relationship with the body. On one hand: the body is divine creation, bodily functions are natural and not inherently sinful. On the other: the flesh is an entry point for sin, and excessive physicality hinders spiritual development. Farting was in this context not a subject of explicit theological condemnation — it was too trivial. But there were marginal debates: Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) discussed flatulence in her medical writings ('Physica', 'Causae et Curae') in the context of health and temperaments. Albertus Magnus, the medieval universal scholar, commented on the physiology of intestinal gas in 'De animalibus' coolly and matter-of-factly. The Devil was occasionally associated with flatulence — medieval devil figures were sometimes described with 'infernal gases', rooted more in the association of smell with evil than in any theological condemnation of farting itself.
Literary Evidence: Fabliaux, Boccaccio, and Carnival Plays
Medieval literature is rich in farting scenes. The French fabliaux (short verse tales of the 12th–14th centuries) are a particularly abundant source: in stories like 'Le Chevalier qui faisait parler les cons', bodily functions are deployed as comic and moral elements. Giovanni Boccaccio's 'Decameron' (1353) contains in the ninth novella of the third day an explicit farting scene in which a fart serves as punishment for an unsuspecting man. German Fastnacht plays of the 14th–16th centuries — popular farcical pieces performed during carnival season — regularly use flatulence as a dramatic device. Hans Sachs, the Nuremberg shoemaker-poet (1494–1576), wrote several carnival plays in which physical jokes including farting are central. These texts show: in the Middle Ages, farting was not a scandal — it was comedy.
Did you know?
- The 'Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum' (12th century) explicitly recommended farting for health — holding it in was considered medically harmful.
- Norbert Elias showed in 'The Civilizing Process' (1939) that bodily functions were gradually moved from public to private between 1200 and 1800.
- The French fabliaux of the 12th–14th centuries contain numerous farting scenes deployed as comic and moral elements.
- Hildegard of Bingen discussed flatulence in her medical writings soberly in the context of health and the temperament theory.
Fun Fact
In the famous etiquette book 'De civilitate morum puerilium' (On the Civility of Children's Manners, 1530) by Erasmus of Rotterdam, there is a sentence that perfectly illustrates the transitional period between medieval openness and early-modern shame: he writes that a fart one cannot hold back should be disguised with a cough — but simultaneously stresses that it is harmful to suppress winds. The norm forbids public farting, but medicine permits it. Erasmus's solution is the first documented advice for socially concealing a bodily function.
Sources
- Elias, N. (1939/2000). The Civilizing Process. Blackwell.
- Bumke, J. (2008). Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages. Overlook Press.
- Rawcliffe, C. (1995). Medicine and Society in Later Medieval England. Sutton Publishing.