Healthy LivingIn this illustration from a very popular fourteenth-century Latin handbook on maintaining health and well-being, women with their sleeves rolled up prepare cloth for medical uses; the woman on the left is trimming small threads off with a one-bladed shear, and the woman on the right is boiling the cloth to bleach it. The men in the background eat a meal and drink wine. The text of this handbook was a translation of an Arabic medical treatise, made in the kingdom of Sicily, the site of much cultural borrowing. (Austrian National Library, Vienna/The Bridgeman Art Library)> PICTURING THE PASTANALYZING THE IMAGE: Cleanliness and moderation were recommended as essential to healthy living in this handbook. How does the artist convey these values in this scene?
CONNECTIONS: Given what you have learned about medieval medical care, why might a handbook like this have been popular with literate urban residents?