Several plague outbreaks struck various areas of Europe for centuries before peaking with the Black Plague in the 1300s. The plague continued to break out into the late 1700s. One of the most famous stories of the Black Plague is a story of the four thieves who were caught and arrested for stealing from the homes of dead plague victims. For this, they were condemned to be burned at the stake. They begged for mercy and offered to reveal the secret of why they had not caught the plague. One version relates that they were forced to bury the plague dead with the promise that if their concoction protected them and they lived, they could go free. As their resistance to the plague became obvious, the recipe was posted around town so that others may benefit. There are as many variations on the recipe for Four Thieves Vinegar as there are versions and purported locations of the story. 

René-Maurice Gattefossé, French chemist and scholar, published the “original” recipe that hung in the museum of Old Marseille, France, in his book, Gattefossé’s Aromatherapy (1937).

"Take three pints of strong white wine vinegar, add a handful of each of wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram and sage, fifty cloves, two ounces of campanula roots, two ounces of angelic, rosemary and horehound and three large measures of champhor. Place the mixture in a container for fifteen days, strain and express then bottle. Use by rubbing it on the hands, ears and temples from time to time when approaching a plague victim."

As time went on, it became common practice to use a total of only four herbs, one for each thief, when making this vinegar. 

To make perfume to burn:

Take half a pound of Damask Rose-buds, Benjamin [benzoin] 3 ounces beaten to a powder, half a quarter of an ounce of Musk and as much of Ambergris, the like of Civet. Beat all these together in a stone Mortar, then put in an ounce of Sugar, and make it up in Cakes and dry them by the fire."

From Sir Kenelm Digby, Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery, 1668.

In “Askham’s” Herbal under Rose:  “Also drye roses put to ye nose to smell do co-forte the braine and the harte and quencheth sprite.”

In Banckes’s Herbal we read of Rosemary: “Take the flowers thereof and make powder thereof and binde it to thy right arme in a linnen cloath and it shale make thee light and merrie." “Take the flowers and put them in thy chest among thy clothes or among thy Bookes and Mothes shall not destroy them."

Apparently, fragrances were used then as now to combat insomnia. Rosemary was tucked under the pillow to assure dreamless sleep; little stuffed pillows of dill seed were tucked into babies' cradles to sooth them. Ram's Little Dodoen (1606) gives the recipe:

"Take drie rose leaves keep them in a glasse which will keep them sweet and then take powder of mynte, powder of cloves in a grosse powder, and putte the same to the Rose leves thanne putte all these togyther in a bagge and Take that to bedde with you and it wyll cause you to sleepe and it is goode to smelle unto at other tymes."

The Menagier de Paris hands down a recipe for drying roses to put among clothes: "Roses from Provence are the best to put in clothing, but they should be dried, and in mid-August sift them over a screen so that the worms fall through the screen, and then spread them in your clothes."

According to John Gerarde’s The Herball: “Rosemary is spice in the Germaine kitchens and other cold countries . . . also do put it into chests and presses among clothes, to preserve them from moths or other vermine.”

From John Plat - Delights for Ladies: “How to drie Rose leaues in a most excellent manner. When you haue newely taken out your breade, then put in your Roses in a sieve, first clipping away the whites, that they may be all of one colour, lay them about one inch in thicknesse in the sieve; &when they haue stood half an houre, or thereabout, they will grow whitish on the top; let them yet remaine without stirring, till the vppermost of them be fully dried: then stir the- together, and leaue them about one other halfe houre: and if you finde them drie in the top, stir them together againe, & so continue this worke vntill they bee thoroughly dryed, then put them, hote as they are, into an earthen potte hauing a narrow mouth, and being well leaded within, (the Refiners of golde and siluer, call these pottes, hookers) stop it with corke and wet parchment, or with Waxe and Rosen mixed together, and hang your pot in a chimney, or neere a continuall fire, & so they will keep exceeding faire in color, & most delicate in sente. And if you feare their relenting, take the Rose-leaues about Candlemas, and put them once again into a sieue, stirring them vp and downe often till they be drie, and then put them vp againe hote into your potte. Note, that you must set vpp your ouen lidde, but not lute it about when you set in your Roseleaves, either the first or second time.

Strewing herbs were used mixed with, or instead of, rushes or straw to cover floors. From Thomas Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry: "Strewing Herbs of all sorts:

        Bassell [basil], fine and busht, sowe in May.

        Bawlme [Lemon Balm?], set in Marche.

        Camamel [Camomile]

        Costemary [Costmary/Bible Leaf]

        Cowsleps and paggles.

        Daisies of all sorts

        Sweet fennell

        Germander

        Hop, set in Febru arie.

        Lavender

        Lavender spike

        Lavender cotten [santolina]

        Marjorom, knotted, sow or set, at the spring.

        Mawdelin

        Peny ryall [Pennyroyal]

        Roses of all sorts, in January and September

        Red myntes [peppermint?]

        Sage

        Tansey

        Violets

        Winter savery."

Gerard mentions using meadowsweet aka queen of the meadow as a strewing herb and to 'deck up houses'. 

Powdered ingredients, sewn up in sachet bags to be stored with linens were popular by the end of period. Hugh Platt's Delights for Ladies (1594) gives a recipe that he claims will keep seven years. But a simpler one is Gervase Markham's: "Take of Orris six ounces, of Damask Rose-leaves as much of Marjerom and sweet Basil of each an ounce, of Cloves two ounces, yellow Sanders [sandalwood] two ounces, of Citron pills seven drams, of Lignum Aloes one ounce, of Benjamin one ounce, of Storax one ounce, of Musk three dram; bruise all these, and put them into a bag of Silk or Linnen, but silk is the best."

“Askham’s” Herbal gives these instructions for Rose water. “Some do put rose water in a glass and they put roses with their dew therto and they make it to boile in water tha- thei set it in the sune tyll it be readde and this water is beste.”

Bulleins Bulwarke (1562) includes this formula: "Three pounds of Rose water, cloves, cinnamon, Sauders [sandalwood], 2 handful of the flowers of Lavender, lette it stand a moneth to still in the sonne, well closed in a glasse; Then destill it in Balneo Marial. It is marvellous pleasant in savour, a water of wondrous swetenes, for the bedde, whereby the whole place, shall have a most pleasaunt scent".

In Hugh Plat's Delights for Ladies (1594) there is this formula for "sweet water": "To make a special sweet water to perfume clothes in the folding being washed. Take a quart of Damaske-Rose-Water and put it into a glasse, put unto it a handful of Lavender Flowers, two ounces of Orris, a dram of Muske, the weight of four pence of Amber-greece [ambergris], as much Civet, foure drops of Oyle of Clove, stop this close, and set it in the Sunne a fortnight: put one spoonfull of this Water into a bason of common water and put it inot a a glasse and so sprinkle your clothes therewith in your folding: the dregs, left in the bottome (when the water is spent) will make as much more, if you keepe them, and put fresh Rose water to it". 

The Menagier de Paris suggests: "To make water for washing hands at table: Boil sage, then strain 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".

"To make water for washing hands at table: Boil sage, then strain 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." A Medieval Home Companion (from Le Menagier of Paris)

Essential to prevent chafing as well as achieving that fashionably pale look, body and face powders were concocted by mixing powder bases (rice powder, talc, ground orris root, ground calamus root, starch) with various ground spices and herbs: cloves, dried rose petals, lavender. Discorides says that powdered myrtle leaf is good spread on moist thighs and underarms.

'An Excellent Damask Powder' (from Ram's Little Dodoen, 1606, cited by Jeanne Rose), lists the ingredients: rose petals, cloves, lignum Rhodium (rosewood?), storax, musk, and civet. 

Trotula gives the following recipe for a scented powder to brush into the hair: "But when she combs her hair, let her have this powder. Take some dried roses, clove, nutmeg, watercress and galangal. Let all these, powdered, be mixed with rose water. With this water let her sprinkle her hair and comb it with a comb dipped in this same water so that [her hair] will smell better. And let her make furrows in her hair and sprinkle on the above-mentioned powder, and it will smell marvelously."

Baths

We all know about the scented oils and ointments that rich women supposedly used after their baths; but putting herbs in a steam bath (sauna) seems to have been a favorite trick of herbalists like Hildegarde of Bingen and the author of Banckes' herbal. 

Margaret Freeman cites the Booke of Nuture: "To give your soveriegn a'bathe or a stewe so-called,' says Russell, you should have ready 'a basin full in your hand of herbs hot and fresh and with a soft sponge in hand his body...wash'. 

William Langham's Garden of Health (1579) suggests Rosemary:  'Seethe much Rosemary, and bathe therein to make thee lusty, lively, joyfull, likeing and youngly.'" (Clarkson, Magic Gardens, p 118). Parkinson advocates spearmint in the bath 'as a help to comfort and strengthen the nerves and sinews'.

"Without permitting anyone else to lay a hand on him, the lady herself washed Salabaetto all over with soap scented with musk and cloves. She then had herself washed and rubbed down by the slaves. This done, the slaves brought two fine and very white sheets, so scented with roses that they seemed like roses; the slaves wrapped Salabaetto in one and the lady in the other and then carried them both on their shoulders to the bed . . . They then took from the basket silver vases of great beauty, some of which were filled with rose water, some with orange water, some with jasmine water, and some with lemon water, which they sprinkled upon them." ~Boccaccio's Decameron, 14th century

Pomanders

Pomanders may also be known as "scent apples." A pomander is a solid perfume carried in a decorative holder. There are a number of pomander recipes that have survived. The following recipe from 1573 struck me as one of the more pleasant ones:

"To Make a pomander: Take Benjamin one ounce, of storar calamite half an ounce, of laudanum the eigth[h] part of an ounce. Beat them to powder and then put them into a brazen [brass] ladle with a little damask [water] or rose water. Set them over the fire of coals till they be dissolved and be soft like wax. Then take them out and chafe them between your hands as ye do wax. Then have these powders ready finely searched [sifted]: of cinnamon, of cloves, of sweet sanders [sandalwood], gray or white, of each of these three powders half a quarter of an ounce. Mix these powders with the other and chafe them well together. If they be too dry, moisten them with some of the rose water left in the ladle, or other. If they wax cold, warm them upon a knife's point over a chafing dish of coals. Then take of ambergris, of musk, and civet, of each three grains. Dissolve the ambergris in a silver spoon over hot coals. When it is cold make it small, put to it your musk and civet. Then take your pome that you have chased and gathered together, and by little and little (with some sweet water if need be) gather up the amber, musk, and civet, and mix them up with your ball, till the be perfectly incorporated. Then make one ball or two of the lump, as ye think good, for the weight of the whole is about two ounces. Make a hole in your ball and so hang it by a lace."

Another pomander recipe from 1609 is:

"A sweet and delicate Pomander - Take two ounces of Labdanum, of Benjamin and Storax one ounce, muske sixe graines, civet sixe graines, Amber greece sixe graines, of Calamus Aromaticus and Lignum Aloes, of each the waight of a groat, beat all these in a hote mortar, and with an hote pestell till they come to paste, then wet your hand with rose water, and roll up the paste sodainly."

Although there are a number or surviving pomander recipes, most of them are impossible for most of us to easily reproduce now. So, I tried some experimenting and came up with a recipe that works. I used beeswax instead of ambergris as the waxy base and added almond oil, cinnamon, cloves, powdered sandalwood, benzoin, and amber paste. I did discover though that although rosewater was a common ingredient in period recipes it is not advisable to add it to the one I devised. It caused an almost volcanic reaction when I added it to the mixture, and bubbled over terribly.

An Adapted Pomander Recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 lb. Beeswax

1 tbsp. Almond oil

1 tsp. Ground cinnamon

1 tsp. Ground cloves

1 tsp. Powdered sandalwood

1/4 tsp. Amber paste

15 drops of Benzoin essential oil

Tools

small pot -- preferably enameled

measuring spoons

a wooden stir stick (I used a chopstick)

a ceramic bowl (or other type which can with- stand heat) lined in aluminum foil

a sheet of aluminum foil

Melt the beeswax over medium heat while stirring constantly. Once it is completely liquid, lower the heat and continue stirring. Do not let the wax or mixture boil. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves, and sandalwood. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Then add the amber paste and the benzoin. Once these are thoroughly mixed add the almond oil and mix completely. Once this is mixed together pour it into the foil-lined bowl to cool. Once the mixture is cool enough to handle roll into balls. This makes over a dozen one inch "pommes."

General Housekeeping

Herbs with strong scents were used for many reasons. to discourage bugs and pests.  Tansy was used to repel flies; lavender and southernwood to protect against moths; camphor against anything; pennyroyal for fleas; and mint for mice and ants. 

In Thomas Tusser’s book Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, he gives lots of advice to housekeepers during the Middle Ages, here is what he says about getting rid of fleas in the rushes:

"While wormwood hath seed, get a bundle or twain,

to save against March, to make flea to refrain:

Where chamber is sweept, and wormwood is strown,

no flea, for his life, dare abide to be known.

What savour is best, if physic be true,

for places infected, than wormwood and rue?

It is as a comfort, for heart and the brain,

and therefore to have it, it is not in vain."

Emedicinal - http://www.emedicinal.com/herbs

Medieval Europe's Principal Medicinal Plants - http://www.herbvideos.com/medi.htm

Medieval Herb List - http://www.moonsmuses.com/Medieval.html

Four Thieves Vinegar: Evolution of a Medieval Medicine - http://www.secretofthieves.com/four-thieves-vinegar.cfm

Rosemary, That's for Remembrance - http://www.herbco.com/t-rosemary-article.aspx

University of Maryland Medical Center - http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles