So much I love here (busy nuns! soapwort marginalia! medieval people kept clean!), but the plant was called "saponaria" not "saponifera". Soapwort was used for washing, but real soap was made in many medieval homes, and imported in large quantities and many varieties.
Ironlily@ironlilyart.com · 6h agoNoa & Una’s Marginalia 📜 Soapwort In the Middle Ages, soap wasn’t something that could be mass-produced like it is today. So what if you wanted to wash your hands but felt that water alone wasn’t enough? That’s where “soapwort” came in! full article below! medium.com/@SisterNoa20...
![The first part of an entry for a 13th-century English cardinal, Hugh of Evesham, who is said to have died in Rome in 1287 as the result of either "pestilence" or poisoning. Below is both the French text and an English translation.
"Hugues Atratus de Evesham. - Né à Evesham (Angleterre), il fréquenta les Universités de son pays natal, puis celles de France et d'Italie, se livrant surtout à l'étude des mathématiques et de la médecine. Il obtint des prébendes ecclésiastiques en Angleterre et fut appelé à Rome, en 1280, pour donner son avis sur des questions médicales. On a prétendu, à tort selon Marini, qu’il avait été le médecin du pape Martin IV, qui le fit cardinal."
"Hugh (the Black) of Evesham. Born at Evesham (England), he attended the universities of his home country, then those of France and Italy, focusing especially on the study of mathematics and medicine. He secured ecclesiastical prebends [appointments] in England and was called to Rome in 1280 to give his advice on medical matters. It is said (erroneously, according to Marini) that he was the (personal) physician to Pope Martin IV [r. 1281-1285], who made him a cardinal.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:twqucin7jqhlteuk37lqltr7/bafkreibhft6retz3lci4no6celltonyojiogbktouakcjrivth5e3hyjjq)
![The latter part of an entry from Wickersheimer's 1936 biographical dictionary of medieval French medical practitioners, for a 13th-century English cardinal, Hugh of Evesham, who is said to have died in Rome in 1287 as the result of either "pestilence" or poisoning. Below is both the French text and an English translation.
"Il mourut à Rome, en 1287, du poison suivant les uns, de la peste suivant d'autres[2] et fut enterré dans l'église Saint-Laurent « in Lucina ». Il composa divers ouvrages dont deux de médecine, Canones medicinales et Super opere febrium Isaac[3]; le seul qui ait été conservé est un Sermo in dominica Septuagesime [4]."
He died in Rome, in 1287, from poisoning according to some, from "pestilence" according to others, and was interred in the church of Saint Laurence in Lucina. He composed various works of which two were on medicine: "Medical Canons" and "On Isaac [Israeli's] Work on Fevers." His only work that survives is a sermon on Septuagint Sunday [the ninth Sunday before Easter].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:twqucin7jqhlteuk37lqltr7/bafkreibfavaliqanxfw3imo4xt5qfmgfegg4iu7e5j7hnwp62mztojj5ne)
