16th Century Perfume Water By Lady Isabel Velazquez de la Vega

Introduction Scents have mystified humans for hundreds of years. We have used a variety of perfumes, washes, musks and soaps to cover up otherwise unwanted odours. While the methods, usage and ingredients have evolved over time, the end goal was the same: to stimulate the senses. Some sweet smelling concoctions were designed to not only make one smell nice, but also promised to cleanse, revitalize and even restore beauty. Such vitality waters, were often know as Aqua Vitae.1 Below I will touch on the many aspects of medieval perfume water, including its legendary origin, methods of preparation and common applications.

The Legend of Hungary Water Washes or Waters mentioned in medieval times were more than just scented water. Waters on average contained some sort of distilled alcohol as well as a range of spices, herbs and flora to give them their scent.2 To this day the term water is used in perfumes and colognes such as eau de cologne and eau de toilet. Lavender, Rose and Rosemary were common plants used in the making of such waters, with Rosemary being mentioned as the the legend of Hungary Water. The exact true origin of such waters is complete conjecture, but the legend states the Queen of Hungary was presented with the medicinal water by either a hermit or an angel (depending on the variation of the tale) in her private garden. Those who put credence in this invention story assert that the Queen in question was Elizabeth, wife of King Charles Robert of Hungary who died in 1381. Elizabeth stated that by often washing with this spirit of rosemary, in her 70th year she was cured of the gout and universal lameness of her age. She claims that not only did she live past 80, but became so lively and beautiful as to attract the attention of the widower Polish King who sought to make her his second wife. John George Hoyer of the Medicorum Hungariae Biographia stated that a receipt to prepare this water, written in Elizabeth's own hand in golden letters, is still preserved in the Imperial library in Vienna. Historians have since disproved this and come to the conclusion Hoyer had misremembered the account.3 One of the first actual accounts is found in a small book by John Prevot, which after his death in 1631 was published by his two sons at Frankfort in 1659. It can be assumed that Prevot mistook this Elizabeth for St. Elizabeth, daughter of King Andrew II who was never queen of Hungary.4 St. Elizabeth did mention in her will two breviaries, one bequeathed to her daughter in law and one to a Clara von Purkur with the stipulation that upon her death she give it to a monastery It is not impossible to think one of these books may have mentioned some sort of recipe for an aqua vitae.5 1 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 315 2 Scents of the Middle Ages, Waters and Splashes section 3 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 315 4 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 316 5 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 316

One of the biggest issues with the validity of this legend is the gaping holes in its evidence. For the legend to be true, the proposal of marriage would have had to come around 1370. Unfortunately Casimir III, brother of Elizabeth reigned in Poland till that year. He was succeeded by Elizabeth's son Louis, who died after her in 1382 and the throne then remained open for 3 years. Based on this her story about a Polish King proposing marriage seems highly unlikely. What is more probable is that Elizabeth's claim that the water made her youthful and beautiful again was nothing more than just the boasts of a vain and childish woman.6 It is widely believed by the fact that since there are mentions of the rosemary-wine product in the 16th and 17th centuries without the Queen of Hungary name, that it was most likely merchants using the story to extoll their product and make an easier sale.7

Fig 1 – Detail of a statue of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 1520 (image from Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg, France)

Recipes for Waters and Washes To make a water or wash, the spirits involved needed to be strong and the ingredients fresh. The aroma was taken by drawing out the essential oils of flower petals by soaking them or distilling them several times through a process called enfluerage.8 Another, far easier way was to mix several drops of the essential oil into the alcohol rather than to distill it multiple times. Some locations that oil of rosemary was made in were Beaucaire, Montpelier and Languedoc in France where rosemary grows in abundance.9 Number of rose water recipes from many sources. Rosetta Clarkson, author of Magic Garden quotes William Lawson, 1600: “The rather abundance of Roses and Lavender, yield much profit, and comfort to the senses: Rosewater, Lavender, the one cordial, as also the Violets; Burrage (borage) and Bugloss the other reviving the spirits by the sense of smelling, both most durable for smell, both in flowers and water.”10 Washes of rose or violet waters were used at medieval tables before eating. Le Menagier de Paris, (as edited & translated by Tania Bayard) says: “To make water for washing hands at table: Boil sage, then strain 6 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 317 7 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 317 8 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 317 9 History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water, p. 317 10 Scents of the Middle Ages, Waters and Splashes section

the water and cool it until it is a little more than lukewarm. Or use chamomile, marjoram, or rosemary boiled with orange peel. Bay leaves are also good.”11 Earliest essential oil mentioned is otto of roses. Oil of lavender was very popular by the 14th century. Nicholas Culpeper warns that oil of peppermint is too strong and sharp as a scent.12 Through my research I have come across several period waters recipes from The English Housewife by Gervais Markham, one recipe calling for a bath using fresh rosemary (Fig 2) or rosemary oil known as the “bath of life” which was said to restore beauty, health and fruitfulness in women.13 Perhaps it was this recipe the Hungary Water legend speaks of. Another recipe found in that book is for a Damask rose (Fig 3) based perfume, including a range of other ingredients such as lemon peel, cloves, bay leaves, sage, lavender, mint, basil, corn flag roots, hisslop, savory, balm, cinnamon and nutmeg.14 Nicholas Culpeper's Complete Herbal has a 3 page long article, extolling the virtues and remedies to be found from the many different forms of roses.15

Fig 2 & 3 - Rosemary plant and Damask roses

Period Distillation While there are many different forms of distillation depending on time and location, Culpeper, who was considered a master of his craft and responsible for many herbal remedies known today, listed simple instructions in his Complete Herbal. In his second section, the very first chapter is a list of do's and dont's when it comes to distilling waters. He mentions a common and “vulgar” method of using a pewter still to distill the waters, which yields a weak result, and laments that while distilling in sand is by far the best, he is unable to sufficiently explain the method in his book.16 He does admit however that even mixtures made in a pewter still should last for up to a year. Culpeper also goes on to further instruct that once the water is made, it should be allowed to breathe in a glass container covered with perforated paper to allow the vapours to escape which would otherwise corrupt the mixture. Once this process is done, it is to be sealed, preferably with a bladder tied around the top as opposed to a cork which can make the product musty.17 The Arabs of the east were well known for their scientific achievements, and their advanced knowledge in medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, perfumery and commerce was able to reach the lands of Europe thanks to the First Crusade in 1096.18 In Salerno, a Benedictine monastery had been turned into 11 Scents of the Middle Ages, essential oils section 12 Scents of the Middle Ages, essential oils section, Nicholas Culpeper's Complete Herbal, Chapter I, Of Distilled Waters 13 The English Housewife, p. 131 14 The English Housewife, p. 132 15 Complete Herbal, p. 152-154 16 Complete Herbal, Chapter I, Of Distilled Waters 17 Complete Herbal, Chapter I, Of Distilled Waters 18 Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, p. 129

University of Salerno six years earlier, and was said to have been founded by Salernus, an Italian, Pontus, a Greek, Adale, an Arab and Elinus, a Jew. It is unclear if these men did in fact band together to create this house of knowledge, but it portrays the cultural melding in the region at that time. The earliest record of achieving alcohol through distillation in Europe via Arab science is mentioned by the Magister Salernus, who had attended the university between 1130 and 1160. Scholar and saint Albert the Great (1193-1280) gave instructions on making the new substance: “when wine is sublimed like rose water, a light, inflammable liquid is obtained”.19 Techniques for distilling both alcohol and the essential oils needed for perfume varied widely based on region and were ever improving, as the method of distillation was still not perfected even by the Renaissance. One example of a technique used by Islamic producers of rose water was a galley-oven (Fig 4) that could fire multiple stills with one heat source. Another example, which comes from Adam Lonitzer's Herbal of 1577 is a water-bath (Fig 5) that is used to heat six stills at once.20 John French's book The Art of Distillation is a very useful guide to an assortment of different methods of period distillation, including pages and pages of labeled diagrams to show just how each apparatus is to be used. He mentions that of all the instruments available at the time, jug-metal, ptter-metal glazed and glass serve as the best vessels for their strength against melting or breaking and for not causing any malignity to the mixture as with lead. Michael Savonrola (1384-1464) wrote about the importance of water-cooling, as well as the need to insulate the process, known as luting. He also described in his works multiple distillations known as cohobation.21 Distilling wine once would usually yield a solution of 60% alcohol. It would then be re-distilled to produce alcohol that was nearly 95% pure. Achieving 100% purity was impossible at that time, as ethanol is hydroscopic and would have absorbed about 5% water from the atmosphere itself.22

Fig 4 & 5 – Galley-oven and water-bath distillation devices (images from Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel) 19 Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, p. 132 20 Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, p. 135 21 Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, p. 135 22 Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, p. 136

Stage 1: Ingredients For my project I chose to make one batch of “Hungary Water” based on a receipe as described by John Prevot who claimed it to have been written in the Queen of Hungary's own hand: “Take of aqua vitae, four times distilled, three parts, and the tops and flowers of rosemary two parts, out these together in a close vessel, let them stand in gentle heat for fifty hours, and then distill them.” I also tried, just for fun a receipe from Sir Hugh Plat's Delights for Ladies which mentions a perfumed water concoction that can either be distilled as usual or left as is (tincturing): “Macerate rosemary, sage, sweet fennel seeds, marjoram, lemmon or orenge pils in spirit of wine a day or two, then distill it over again, unless you had rather have it in his proper colour, for so you shall have it upon first infusion without any farther distillation.” In modern times we are lucky enough to be able to buy at the store water that is already distilled or purified, so I was able to skip that step. As distilling hard alcohol is illegal, I opted instead for the next best thing: vodka. While vodka as we know it isnt exactly period in England, there have been records of a vodka typ alcohol existing in Russia and Poland in the late 1500s.23 It is also the closested thing to what they would have achieved by distilling ale several times as it is a grain alcohol.24 Vodka is also one of the few alcohols that has no odor or taste of its own, therefore not effecting the outcome of the mixture.

Fig 6 – Distilled water, vodka, marjoram, sage, fennel seeds, rosemary with flowers, lemon and orange peels

23 Bread and Salt: A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia 24 Delights for Ladies, English Housewife, Art of Distillation

Stage 2: Preparation As all the period receipes I have found in all my research do not give proper measurements for how much of each ingredient to use, I searched instead other who have tried their hand at making the waters to see which ones had met with an success. I settled on a receipe of ¼ a cup of rosemary with “tops and flowers” from a friends garden and soaked it in 4oz of vodka in a closed container (Fig 7) in a warm place for 50 hours. For the other concoctions I added ¼ a cup of each other dried spice (as I had no fresh sage, marjoram or fennel seeds available) to the ¼ cup of rosemary and changed the vodka amount to 12oz. Many of the receipes called for an entire orange or lemon peel for the cirtus scent to properly sweeten th other spices. To allow the vodka to seep in and infuse the citrus peel properly, I chopped it into strips as recommended and placed the orange peels in one container and lemon peels in the other to see if there was much difference in fragrance. Once the mixture was done I let them stand to infuse and tincture.

Stage 3: Straining Once the 50 hours were up it was time to strain the solid from the liquid. While a normal mesh strainer removed the bigger, bulkier pieces, the challenge was removing the much finer particles. In period they may not have gone to much length to remove the smaller bits as they would be distilling the mixture so the final product would be debris free. As I do not have access to an distilling equipment at this time, chose to follow the simple method of tincturing. To remove the tiny bits of spice frm the liquid, I decided to try straining it through a piece of linen. While I have no supporting evidence this was how they would have strained a tincture, I found it was a huge success, collecting all the debrie and letting only the liquid through. Curiously enough I found that the mixtures containing the citrus peel took much longer to strain than the “hungary water” one. While the rosemary mixture drained through the linen quiet quickly, the lemon and in particular the orange mixtures (Fig 8) took between 5 to 20 minutes to completely drain through. I suspect that the oils found in the peel may have had a hand in causing this.

Fig 7 & 8 – Orange, lemon and hungary water mixture tincturing, then mixtures straining through linen

Stage 4: Final Product After all the debris was strained out of the tincture, as per the receipes I measured how much liquid was present and added 2 parts distilled water to the mixture. I then poured the mixtures into three separate bottles and labled them. While at first the mixtures all apeared clear and free of any sediment or cloudiness, I have noticed over the span of standing for an hour that a white silty material gathers at the bottom of the bottle. While I am not surprised being that the mixture has not been distilled properly, Im not 100% sure what the substance is, as oils would in theory rest on the top, not separate and fall to the bottom. It remixes in if the bottle is shaken, but the substance quickly settles again at the bottom once it stands still. Upon further research, I found that it was my mistake to assume the peel was to be fresh. According to the

General Instructor in Arts, Science, Trade and Practical Machinery, by Hewson Clark and John Dougall, it appears to be the contrary, mentioning that fresh peels will cause a “separation to occur”, though it doesnt go into detail as to what exactly the separation is.25 Needless to say, even though many period accounts call for the ability of drinking the mixture, as mine have not been properly distilled, I have decided to only use them as a scent. I have tested the fragrances on my skin by soaking a Q-tip in the liquid and rubbing it on my skin. While I personally am not a fan of the scents, especially the Hungary Water (which I find to be too strong) I can see how these scents would have been far more appealing to the odor of unwashed bodies in period.

Fig 9– Final bottle products 25 General Instructor in Arts, Science, Trade and Practical Machinery, General Rules for Extracting Tinctures

Conclusions I learned a lot with this project, not only that perfumed waters in period had so many applications for scent and beauty but also medicinal purposes as well. It was interesting to find that the legend of Hungary Water is most likely just that, a legend with very little fact behind it other than that a rosemary based water existed at the time. If I were to attempt this again, I would like to try getting my hands on either a proper distilling apparatus or something that can be fashioned into doing a similar job. If I am able to do that then I can compare notes between the end result before and after distillation. I would also like to try making waters out of what I consider to be finer smelling things such as roses, lavender or orange blossom and experiment adding potent ingredients such a mint and bay leaves. If I ever do try using citrus fruit again, I will try it after letting it sufficient dry out.

Sources BIBLIOAGRAPHY - History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins, Hungary Water by John Beckman, translated from German by William Johnston. Fourth edition revised by William Francis PhD and J. W. Griffith MD, London, 1846. Published by Richard and John E. Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet St. - Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel by Edwin T. Morris. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1984. - The Complete Herbal and English Patient by Nicholas Culpeper. First printed in 1653, Published in 1814 by Richard Evans, London. Viewed via online archive from the University of Cornell. Last viewed Jan 2013. - The English Housewife: containing the inward and outward virtues which ought to be in a complete woman.

Chapter III: Of distillations and their virtues, and of perfuming. By Gervase Markham, first printed 1615. Published 1986 by McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal; edited by Michael R. Best. Viewed online through Goggle books, last viewed Jan 2013. - Bread and Salt: A Social and Economic History of Food and Drink in Russia by R.E.F Smith and David Christian. Published by University of Cambridge Press, NY, 1984. WEBSITES - Scents of the Middle Ages by Jadwiga Zajackowa. Online article regarding perfumes, scents and washes. Published by Jennifer A. Heise of www.gallowglass.org, 2004. Last viewed Jan 2013. - Delights for Ladies by Hugh Plat. Published originally by Humfrey Lownes, London, 1609. Viewed online at www.havaris.ca/delightsforladies. Last viewed Feb 2013. - Art of Distillation by John French. Published originally by Richard Cotes, London, 1621. Viewed online at www.levity.com/alchemy/jfren_ar. Last viewed Feb 2013. - General Instructor in Arts, Science, Trade and Practical Machinery, by Hewson Clark and John Dougall. Published originally by T. Kinnersely, London, 1817. Viewed online through Google Books. Last viewed Feb 2013.