Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. Welcome back to betwixt the sheets, the podcast that gets very dirty and filthy with history. And because of that, I have to give you the fair do's warning at the top of each episode. And here it is. This is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults about adulty things and an adulty way covering a range of all subjects and used to be an adult too. I don't know why I keep having to say that. I mean, surely you know that a podcast titled sex scandal in society is going to get a bit saucy.

Oh well, let's crack on.

Imagine Leonardo da Vinci drawing the Vitruvian man, or Michelangelo up a scaffold, painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or Galileo investigating the night sky through a telescope, or Queen Elizabeth the first rallying her nation in the face of the Spanish Armada.

Oh, they're all so powerful, so talented, so intelligent. But how did they smell? That's the real question, isn't it? That's what we really want to know. If you got up close and you were giving them a good sniffing, what would they smell like?

Just how clean were people in the early modern period.

Do you want to find out?

I know I do.

Right, on with the show.

Yeah. Hello and welcome back to Petwitza Sheets, The history of sex scandal and society with me, Kate Lister.

The Renaissance was a time of progress in the arts, progress in the sciences, progresses in philosophy, progresses everywhere.

But what about in the bathroom?

Where and how often did these people bathe?

What were they using? Where did they go to the toilet? What was the sewage system like? And so many other questions. Today I'm joined once again by Dr. Julia Martins of Living History on YouTube and we are going to find out just how filthy people in the Renaissance were. Are you ready? Well, I know I am. Let's crack on.

Well, hello and welcome back to Betwicks the Sheets. It's only Julia Martins. How are you doing?

I'm well, thank you, Kate. How are you? I'm so glad to be back here. We had so much fun last time, didn't we? That was a good giggle. I'm so glad that you're back for this one. This is the next installment in our little mini-series about how mucky were people from the past, basically. I love that. Excellent series.

It's a good scene because that's one of the big misconceptions.

Or maybe it's not a misconception.

But it's certainly something that everybody thinks about the past is that they were all filthy and muddy and just, and it was a horrible time to be around and everybody stank. And you are here to talk to us about the early modern period

and about how stinky they were.

Do you think that this is a period in history

that is associated with being unhygienic and dirty?

I mean, the medieval period definitely is.

...