Scented balls, the Tudor way!

Using bar soap to make something else is a time honored tradition. In the 16th century in Tudor times grated soap could be bought at the Apothecary as an ingredient for scented soap balls (and rather strange medicines…). Intriguing recipes of that time exist, with quite curious ingredients; from oil of spike (a type of lavender) to civet (an excretion of the civet cat, used in perfumery) – if it smelled nice, or otherwise helped a woman’s self-image by bleaching (white hands), scrubbing (calluses), dyeing (rosy cheeks) or smoothing (wrinkles), pretty much anything went…

 

Soap balls: not only for the young but also the young at heart!

White soap was known for many centuries but it was not until the Middle Ages that it came into widespread use. White soap had two distinct advantages over soft soap, or black soap. Its basic ingredient olive oil was easy and pleasant to work with compared to animal fat of questionable age and hygiene. It also sets into solid bars and therefore can be shredded, which makes it possible for the customer to mold and scent soaps to the customers’ personal taste.

Despite the general modern believe that people back then did not bathe much at all, the Tudors did keep themselves clean –by continuously changing and laundering their underclothes and by sponge bathing. Henry VIII and other royals had permanent plumbed-in bathrooms, like those built at Hampton Court and Whitehall. Of course, these magnificent bathrooms were great luxuries. Bathing for the average person meant having to fill a wooden tub with water – which was time consuming without indoor plumbing or gas ranges and not something they would bother to do regularly. An interest in personal cleanliness did develop around that time as Tudor style clothes were tight fitting and often of not easy to clean fabrics – as shown by various toiletry soaps and stain removal recipes that began to show up in various household instruction manuals of that time.

Sir Hugh Plat, in his Delightes for Ladies to adorne their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories with Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes & Water (1609), shares a great recipe for 'a delicate washing ball’:

Take three ounces of Orace, half an ounce of Cypres, two ounces of Calamus Aromaticus, one ounce of Rose leaves, two ounces of Lavender flowres: beat all these together in a mortar, searching them thorow a fine Searce, then scrape some castill sope, and dissolve it with some Rose-water, then incorporate all your powders therewith, by labouring of them well in a mortar.

Another nice recipe comes from The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount (1558) by Girolamo Ruscelli, on how to make ‘Vvhite musked Sope’:

Take Sope scraped or grated, as much as you will the whiche (when ye haue well stieped and tempered in rose water) leaue it eight dais in the sunne: Than you shall adde to it an vnce of the water or milk of Macaleb, twlue graines of Muske, and sixe graines of Ciuet, and reducinge all the whole into the fourme and maner of harde past, you shall make therof very excellent balles. 

Making soap balls is easy, as all one needs to do is grate soap into slivers (by hand or with a kitchen machine), add a tiny bit of water or milk to make the slivers sticky, kneed a bit by hand and then roll the sticky mass into a ball. Dry for a few days and the soap is ready to be used. Plain olive oil based soap like Castile Soap would be close to period. This project also makes for quite a fun kid’s activity, especially when they get to hand grind smelly botanicals to add to their own kid sized shaped balls of soap. Check out your local Asian store for a coarse stone mortar and pestle, pick up some herbs and spices like cinnamon sticks, star anise, cloves, lily flowers & rose buds and with the help of your energetic kids grind up a pinch of this and that, and kneed this into your sticky mass before shaping. The bits and pieces will also add scrub to your soap, along with an amazing, hand made scent. And your kids might actually be inspired to wash their hands before dinner now they’ve made their own soap… a win-win situation if you ask me!

 

Look, we made balls!

What are plausible ingredients for period washing balls? You can try dried moss for a scrubbing soap; Cedarwood, Sandalwood, Musk & Civet essential oils for that spicy woodsy scent; (distilled) rose water, ground rose petals & buds, ground lavender buds & lily flowers for a nice floral scent; dried herbs like mint, lemon balm, rosemary & sage for that clean herbal scent. And of course the less usual but very period ingredients like Orace (orris root, or Iris rhizome), Cypres (not cypress, but Aram or jack in the pulpit), Calamus Aromaticus (sweet sedge), Amber Grease (ambergris), Benjamin (benzoin), Macaleb (Prumus maheleb), Sandali citrini (yellow saunders wood), gum Oldanum (frankincense), Storax and my personal favorite; oil of Spike (Lavendula spica essential oil)…

 

Using a stone mortar & pestle to grind 

their choice of herbs and spices.

So next time you are shopping online for kitchen spices, or visiting an international market, check out the botanicals to see what unusual scrubs and scents they might have… and make yourself a set of scented balls, the Tudor way!


Bibliography:
http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/historicalballs/History%20of%20soapmaking.htm

http://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/resources/life-in-tudor-england/tudor-hygiene-part-1-bathing/

Ashenburg K (2007) The Dirt on Clean, an unsanitized history North Point Press, NY

Plat, Sir Hugh (1609) Delightes for Ladies to adorne their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories with Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes & Water EEBO

Ruscelli, Girolamo (1558) The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount EEBO

My personal database of soap related Materia Medica.

TO dye bones, woode, skinnes, leather & hogges brystles...

→To dye bones into a greene colour.
TAke a panne full of cleare water, and put into it a good greate piece of quicke lyme, leauinge it so the space of a  daye. The next daye morninge mingle it well together with a sticke, and so let it reste, and at none styrre it agayne, and likewise at night. The nexte mor|ninge folowinge, you shall straine it cleane oute and kepe it, in the meane time haue the bones that you will die in a readinesse, and boile them well in other com|mon water, wherein Roche Alome hath ben dissolued, and whan it hath boyled a good space, you shall take them out, and let them drie, than scrape them wel with a knife, and put them into the sayde lime water, and addinge to it some Verdegrise, you shall let them seeth well, and than take them out. And after you haue wy|ped and dried them, do with them what ye will, for thei will be very fayre: And in stede of the saied lyme water you may vse pisse, whiche wyll be of the like operation.

comments: quick lime is calcium oxide; roche alum is rock alum (hydrated potassium aluminum sulfate), verdegrise is verdigris (copper carbonate).

→Another maner howe to die bones, or Iuorye, into the coloure of an Emeraude.
TAke Aqua fortis separatiua, and put therin to fret and dissolue, as muche copper or brasse, as the water is hable with her force to dissolue and leuse: this doen, put in what peece of woorke you will, beynge fyrste cutte in the fourme that you will haue it, as beftes for kniues, penkniues, ynckhornes, images, or anye other thinge to youre fantasie, leaue them in it the space of a night, and thei shall be of the colour of an Emerande. Nowe, if in steede of copper or brasse, you didde put in Syluer, it woulde be the better.

comments: aqua fortis is nitric acid.

→To die bones redde, blewe, or of anye coloure you wyll.
87 FIrste boyle your bones in Alome wa|ter, than take quicke lyme water, or pisse, and in this water or pysse, you shall put Brasyll, Azur, or an herbe called Rub[...]a, which the Apoticaries call Rubramaior, and Rubra tinctorum, or Rubea tinctorum, wherewith they coloure wolle or skinnes, in Englishe Chickweede, or what other colour you wyll, and than seeth your bones or Iuozie therein, and they wyll take suche coloure as you put in.

comments: alome is alum; Rubia tinctorum is common or dyer's madder; Iuozie could be ivory.

→A very goodlie secrete to dye or colour woode, of what colour a man will, which some Ioyners do vse that make tables and other thinges of diuers colours, and do esteme it amonge them selues to be of suche excellencie, that one brother will not teache it another. 
TAke early in the morninge, newe and freshe horse donge, made that night, and take of the moysteste ye can gette, with the strawe or lytter and al, and laye vpon some little stickes layde a crosse one ouer|thwart another, and set some vessell vnderneth, for to receaue that shall droppe or fall from the sayde donge. And yf you can not haue inough in one morninge, doe the like two or three times, or as ofte as you wyll: than whan you haue wel dreamed out the water of this dong you shall put into euery pot of the sayed water, the big|nesse of a beane of Roche Alome, and as much gomme Arabick. Than stiepe what colour you will in it, vsing dyuers vessels, if you will haue diuers colours, and put in what pieces of wood you will, holdinge them at the fyre, or in the Sunne: and at eche tyme plucke out some pieces and laye them apart, leauinge the other in, for the lenger ye let them lie in the water, the more wyll the colour alter. And in this manner you shall haue a greate quantitie of diuers colours, the one cleerer, the other darker, and maye vse it to youre commoditie, so what vse you list, for they shall be coloured both within and withoute, so that they will neuer lose theyr colour, neither by water or any other thinge.

comments: roche alome is rock alum; gomme Arabick is gum arabic.

→To counterfeyte the blacke woode called Hebenus, or Hebenum, and to make it as fayre as the naturall Hebene, which groweth no where but in India.
ALl kynde of woode that is lyke vnto this Hebene, may be dyed black: but the hardest and the massiuest (as boxe and other lyke) are meetest for it, [Note: Sola India fert Hebenu~ ] and will be bryghter, and aboue all, the wood of a Mulbery tree, as well the white as the blacke, is the beste to be couloured, albeit the blacke be muche more for the pur|pose. Take than the saied wood, and let it lye the space of three dayes in Alome water, either in the Sunne, or a pretye waye of frome the fyre, vntill the water waxe somewhat warme: than take oyle Oliue, or Oyle of lyne seede, and put it in a little panne, wherein is the bygnesse of a nutte, of Romaine Vitriole, and as much Brymstone. This doen, seeth your woode in the sayde Oile a certaine space, and so shal you haue a thinge ve|ry darke of colour. And the lenger you let it boile, the blacker it will waxe, but to much boylinge burneth it, and maketh it bryttle, therfore both in thone and other you must be circumspecte, and vse discretion.

comments: hebenus is ebony (Diospyros ebenum); oyle Oliue is olive oil; Oyle of lyne seede is linseed oil; Romaine Vitriole is cupric sulfate, Brymstone is sulfur.

→To die skynnes blewe, or of the colour of Asure.
HAuinge fyrst well washed the skinne, and than wronge him, take the berries of wal|wort, and elder berries, and seeth them in water, wherein Roche Alome was dissol|ued, passe him once thorowe this water, & let him drie, than passe him again thorow the same wa|ter, and being wiped and dried againe, wash him with cleere water, than scrape out that water with the back of a knife, & once again passe it ouer wt the same colour, and let it dry, so shal it be of a very blew or Asur colour.

comments: Roche Alome is rock alum.

→To die skinnes in chickweede, called in latin Rubra ma|iore, or Rubra tinctorum, into a redde colour.
HAuing anoincted, washed, wronge, & layd abroad the skin, as is aforesaied, wete it with water that white wine lees and baye salt hath ben boiled in, and than wring him. Take than cre|uises or crabbe shelles (be they of the sea or of the riuer) burned into ashes, the whiche you shall temper with the said water of the lees and salt, and rubbe well the skinne therwith, than washe him well with cleere water, and wringe hym. This done, take ruddle tempered in water of lees, and rubbe the skinne well ouer and ouer with it, and than with the foresayde ashes, wasshinge, and wringinge it thre times. Finallye, after you haue wasshed him, and wronge him, if you thinke it be not well ynoughe, you shall geue him one dienge with Brasyll. The paste or masse of Rubra tinctorum, must be made with water that lees or tartre hath bene boiled in, and the sayed water must be luke warme, whan you make the paste of rud|dle, than leaue it so the space of a night. After this, put vpon the sayd Rubra tinctorum, a lyttle Alome, dragges, or lees, or Alome catinum, stieped in water. You maye also adde to it the colour of the shearing of scarlet, whi|che hath bene taken oute boylinge in lye, whiche is a goodly secrete.

comments: Rubia tinctorum is common or dyer's madder; lees (dragges) is the sediment in a barrel of wine and contains tartar; Alome is alum; Alome catinum is uncertain, could be burned tartar.

→To die skinnes Greene. [Note: Sap green is made with the berries of a Dogge berry tree ]
ANnoint the skinne, and wash him well with cold water, and than in hote water, and so wipe & drie him. This doen, take of the graines wherwt men the sappe (the decoction wherof shall be put in thende of this boke, with them of all other necessary thinges) and the sayde graynes or berries muste be verye rype, than put them in cleare water, couered a fingar heigth, put therein also Roche Alome, and geue theim onelye one wawlme on the fyre. This doen, strayne them out into some vessell, than take the skinne, and folde him in the middle, rubbinge him well on both sydes, with the said sodden graines, or berries, whiche remaine in the pan, and after with rawe Alome poulder. This doen, take the ashes of shepes donge burned, and wete it with the saied coloure that you strained into the sayde vessell, and rubbe the skinne wel on euery side, than cleere him againe of the saied graines, and washe him with cleere water, and set him to drie withoute wipinge him. Fy|nally cast on him two glassefulles of the sayde coloure, and it will be a perfecte greene.

comments: Roch Alome is rock alum; graines are most likely buckthorn berries, used to make sappe green (UV sensitive).

→Another waye to dye skinnes greene.
LEtte the skinne be annoincted, well wasshed, wronge, and stretched oute as before, than take of the same grai|nes and berries ye toke before, which you shall stampe and seeth in Roche Alome water, and geue the skynne twoo wypes ouer with this coloure, and so let it dry. After this you shal geue him one dying or colouringe of yellowe, made with the graynes, or berries of Nerprum, sodden in water and Alome, and a lyttle Saffron, and you shall haue an excellent greene.

comments: Alome is alum; nerprum is a yellow dye, as is saffron.

→To die the sayde skinnes greene another waye.
TAke the skinne, being annoincted, wasshed, and spredde abroade, dye and coloure him with the coloure made of sap greene, and put to it a few asshes wette in water, and so rubbe the skinne all about. And whan you haue washed and wyped hym againe, geue him one wype ouer with and Indian co|loure sodden in Roche Alome. And whan it is drye, lay on it of the foresayde yellow, and you shall haue a fayre and liuely greene.

→Another waye to dye skinnes of Asure coloure, and fayre.
TAke the skinnes of blacke grapes, and rubbe well your leather with all, vntill it waxe some|what blewe, and alsoo rubbe it well with the poulder of Indicum, then washe it, drye, and po|lyshe it. Than stiepe the Indicum in thicke redde wyne: and whan the skynne is washed, annoinct him with it, and you shall haue a fayre skinne asured blewe.

comments: Indicum is likely Chrysanthemum indicum, a known source of green dye.

→Another maner to dye skinnes Greene.
TAke rype elder berries, and the berries of wal|wort, and of sappe greene, and this well stam|ped, you shall put to it Roche Alome, as muche as you shall thinke good, but rather to muche than to little: than take the lye, and put into it the saied berries of sappe greene, and seeth them one waulme.
This doen, put in the berries of the walwort, or elder, and make them seeth also one waulme, than take them from the fyre, and let them coole, and after rubbe the skinnes with theim. Finallye, ye shall cast vpon them, the ashes of sheepes donge, rubbinge them well with it. After this, geue theim the couloured water that the saied graines or berries were sodden in, than take of the water with a curryers knyfe, and let them drye. And yf you nede to geue theim more coloure, than you maye put in more Indicum boyled, and it wyll be the better.

comments: Walwort is walewort or European dwarf elder.

→To die neates leather into a greene colour, as well in galle as in leaues.
POlyshe well the leather with a pom|meyse stone, annointe it well with oyle, and washe it: than take an vnce or two of galles stamped, and put it in hote water, leauing it so an hour, than straine it thorow a linen cloth, and put the leather into the same wa+ter, rubbinge it well with your handes, and leaue it so the space of an houre: and hauinge taken it out, wring it, and stretch it abroad, & tight it. Than take the grai|nes or berries of Nerprum, gathered in Iuly, whan thei be yet greene: drie them, and stampe them well, adding therto for euery skinne, two vnces of Roche Alom bea|ten in poulder, and mingled with the poulder of y^[...] saied berries or graines. Than powre vpon the sayd poulder boylinge water, and let it coole, this doen, poure of the sayd water with the said graines vpon the skinne, rub|binge it well ouer with the palme of youre hande, than stiep the ashes of goates donge, in the water of the said graines, and with the same water rubbe likewise the skin well with youre hande, after this washe him, and scrape out the water with a tanners paring knife, than tight him out, and take other ripe gaines of sap grene and set them to seeth, hole, in water with Roch Alom, and afterwarde let them coole. Than take of the sayde sodden berries or graines, and rub the skin with theim with your handes, and put of the ashes vpon it, which you shall stiep in the same greene water, that the sayed berries were sodden in. Finallye, you shall wasshe the skin, and take out the water with a scraping knife, tha~ berries were sodden in. Finallye, you shall wasshe the skin, and take out the water with a scraping knife, tha~ you shall geue it a course ouer of the saied grene water with a brush or clout meet for such a purpose: And than lay him to drie, and trim him, and you shall haue a fair grene. If you will haue the coloure darcker, or sadder, whan you set the said graines to seeth with the Alom, you shall put to it a little Indicum well brayed. And you must note, that the water must be hote whan you stiepe the ashes in it, with the water of the graines of Nerpru~.

comments: nerprum is unknown; Roche Alom is rock alum; Indicum is Chrysanthemum indicum.

→To die skines greene with the flowres of Ireos.
TAke the fresshe flowres of Raphanitis, [Note: Ireos, a kind of floure de+luce called in latin R[...]|phaniti[...] ] or Ireos, and stampe them well, than take the drie graines or ber+ries of Nerprum, and with them stampe roche Alome, a reasonable quantitie, whereof a greate deale can do no hurte: put to it a little raine water, and mingle all this with the foresayd flowres stamped. Kepe this colour in some clene vessel, and than take the skinnes, being an|nointed, and washed as is aforsaid, and put to them the graines of sap grene with the ponlder, in the same ma|ner that we haue spoken of the other: washe them, and scrape of the water with a knife, and so let them drye, and geue them one wipe ouer finely with the sayed co|lour that you kept, let them drie again, then dresse them according to the science, and you shal haue fair leather.

comment: Ireos is Raphanitis or Iris illyrica, the sword lily; roche Alome is rock alum; graines of sap grene is are most likely buckthorn berries.

→To die bones in a turkishe or redde colour.
ALl kinde of bones may well be died and coloured, but hartes horne is farre better then anye other. Take than what bone you will, & shape him into what forme you please, and pullish him, and then boyle him in Roche Alome water a good while, letting him after+ward drie, than take good grene, and stiep it in goates pisse, and put it in some copper or brasen vessell, well couered, and hide it vnder a dongehil the space of .xv. or xx. dayes, and then shall you finde it verye fayre. You may make the like also with the brine of a man in stede of the goates pysse. And for to make it redde, put in Ci|nabrium, or Brasyll, in steade of greene: but than you must put it in some vessell of wood or glasse, and not of copper nor brasse.

comments: Roche Alome is alum; grene is most likely buckthorn berries; Cinabrium or vermillion is mercury sulfide; Brasyll is brasil-wood.

→To die hogges brystels and other things, for to make rubbers and brusshes.
FIrste wash well the brystels, the~ take water wherin Roche Alom hath ben boyled, and put the sayd bristels ther|in, and let them lye vntill they take a coloure somewhat yellow: than take Chickeweede well stamped, and put it in Vyneaygre. Afterwarde sette a kettle with cleere water on the fyre, wherinto you shal caste the saied Chickeweede, with the Vyneaygre and all, and whan it beginneth to boyle, cast in the brystels, and let them seeth but a very lyttle whyle, than take of the kettle from the fyre, and let it coole, and so shall you haue your bristels of an excellent good colour.

comments: Roche Alom is alum; Chickeweede is Rubia tinctorum or common or dyer's madder; Vyneaygre is vinegar.

→To dye the saied bristels yellowe, greene, or blewe, or any other colour.
FIrste you must wasshe them, and let theym boyle in Alome water, as the other before: than take Ligustrum, and saffron, if you will haue them yellowe. Indicum, or the iuyce of elder berries, or walwort, or els of the flow+ers of Ireos, if you will haue them blew. If you wil haue them greene, take paynters greene, and dresse them as is aboue saied, assayinge sometime if the coloure please you. And by this meanes you maye dye theim what co|lour you liste.

comments: Alome is alum; Ligustrum is a type of privet; Indicum is Chrysanthemum indicum; walwort is walewort or European dwarf elder; Ireos is Raphanitis or Iris illyrica.



From the book of secrets by Ruscelli, Girolamo (1558) The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount Containyng excellent remedies against diuers diseases, woundes, and other accidents, with the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions and meltynges. Translated out of Frenche into Englishe, by Wyllyam Warde. Digital copy from Early English Books Online (EEBO) at http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home

The first is a link to an exerpt of the pdf about the dye recipes of the Alexis.
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/ld.html#d2
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/leather.pdf

More Alexis dye recipes, and lots more about medieval dyeing, is available here:
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/alexis.html

A most copious and exact Compendium of Sope - Medieval Soap Recipes.

If you've ever wondered how to get your hands on some period recipes for proper documentation in A&S competitions - download A Most Copious and Exact Compendium of Sope! 60+ pages of original recipes with detailed bibliography, links to medieval translation sites for that little extra push and an extensive glossary of unusual ingredients.

Available for download at Academia.edu:
https://www.academia.edu/27795669/A_most_Copious_and_Exact_Compendium_of_Sope

the Notandissimi Secreti de L'Arte Profvmatoria

The NOTANDISSIMI SECRETI DE L’ARTE PROFVMATORIA (1555) - A fare Ogli, acque, paste, balle, moscardini, uccelletti paternostri, e tutte l’arte in iera come si ricerca, si ne le citta di Napoli del Reame, come in Roma, e quivi in Venetia nuova mente posti in luce. (To make oils, water, pomander, soap balls, musk comfits, little birds, prayerbeads, all the art of previous research, in the city of the Kingdom of Naples, as in Rome, and there in Venetia new minds has brought to light.) lists 30 soap recipes in medieval Italian, including how to make lye and soap from scratch, and how to make white soap. As this manuscript is in medieval Italian the information given is not generally accessible, and as it looks like it lists information not found elsewhere, including on how to make white soap, I started the time consuming process of translation.

As a preview of things to come, here are a couple of tentative translations, including the original Italian text for those of you who read medieval Italian.

Translations © 2016, by Susan Verberg


A fare balle di sapone odorifere, & eccellenti.
HABBIATE oncie una di sapone damascino bianco, & tiratelo bene sopra la piolla oucro piagna,  poi habbiate il mortale,  pistatelo be fottile, et poi habbiate una ampollina con un poco di acqua rosa, con un poco di canella tagliata minuta, che habbia buono odore, & mescolate con ditta pasta dia sapone,  farete sopra la centre calda sentir uno poco di caldo,  & poi habbiate lo mortaletto,  pistate ben sottile uno grano di muschio, & uno grano di ambracane,  uno grano di zibetto, et fate che sia bene trito, togli ditta acqua rosa, copartila bene con ditti odori, dipoi metteti la mistura in una ampolla, & poi pigliati il ditto sapone, che e nel mortale et aggiongeteli quella sopraditta mistura a poco a poco madandola bene, & questo faretti tante uolte, che ditta mistura di sapone chia la sera lauareteui quando andareti al letto, & lasciares ti star cosi tutta la notte, continuando andara uia presto in cinque ouer sei uolte.

To make soap balls scented, & excellent.
Have one once of white Damascus soap, shave well with a carpenter’s plane or similar, until it is gone, then use a mortar, stamp until small, then use a vial with a little rose water, with a little cinnamon cut small, that has a good smell, & mix with the aforementioned soap paste, you will heat above the central fire until it feels a little hot. Then use the little mortar and grind small one grain of musk, & one grain of ambergris, one grain of civet, and grind it well, remove the remains with rosewater, and mingle well with these aforementioned scents, afterwards put the mixture in a vial. And then take the mentioned soap, which is in the mortar and add unto this soap the mentioned mixture gradually well, and highlight with this gum-like soap mixture when washing to go to bed, & leave the remnants undisturbed all night, and continue this without delay for five or else six times.


A far ballotte di sapon gentile odorifere quanto sia possibile.
HABBIATE sapon bianco lire doi, & biacca oncie doi, hirios oncia una, muschio grani quattro, prima pestare ti I sapone nel mortale ben sottile, & po toglieti acqua rosa & incorporate insieme, e faretine ballotte, & sarano pfette.

To make gentle soap tablets scented as much as possible.
Have two pounds white soap, & white lead two ounces, hirios [orris root, see previous comment] one ounce, musk four grains, before you pound the soap very thin in a mortar, & then take rosewater & combine into small balls, & and it will be perfect.

Comment: Hirios is made from iris, but there is question as to which one. It can translate to orris root or Rhizoma Iridis which is derived from I. Germanica, I. pallida and I. Florentina, or it can translate to ireos or Raphanitis which is a variety of the plant Iris illyrica, or sword lily. The word is not included in the 1611 Queen Anne's New World Dictionary.


A far indurire il sapone bianco, & lustro, duro, & farlo fortissimo.
PIGLIATE de la lume di feccia come il sapone e bollito cinque hore, e gettatlili del sale asciutto ne la caldaia, poi fareti bollir la liscia debile per ogni lira una di sale, e metteti oncia una di lume di feccia ne la ditta liscia debile, et faretila cosi bollire un quarto d’hora, & dipoi scolate ditta liscia da la lume, & poneteli il sale, et lasciatela, ben discare, et poi gittati sopra il sapone come insegna la ricotta, & uederete questa durezza, & lustrezza che dara ditta lume di feccia al ditto sapone bianco.

To harden white soap, & bright-shining, lasting, and made very strong.
Take alum faecis (burnt cream of tartar) as well as soap and boil for five hours; throw dry salt in the boiler, then boil with weak lye for every one pound of salt, and put one ounce of alum faecis in the aforementioned weak lye, and boil well for a quarter of an hour, and afterwards drain the lye with the alum, add the salt, leave it, grind well, and then throw over the soap in the manner of making ricotta, see it is hard, and the luster the mentioned alum faecis gives to the mentioned white soap.

Comment: In spot cleaning soaps lume di feccia (also known as lume de fezza) clearly translates to alum faecis or burnt cream of tartar, as it has an active rol in the cleaning process. In cosmetic soaps it could also conceivably translate to facial alum, but be aware that the literal translation of feccia is the lees of wine accoring to the 1611 Queen Anna's New World Dictionary.


A dare il muschio al sapone.
PIGLIATE de l’anteditto sapone lire doi, & mettetilo in uno catino di terra uetriato, et netto, et con acqua rosa ben fina, e fattelo be tenero, forte mescolando con uno legno, & lasciatelo al sole la state, mescolando forte, et fpesso, & fe’l diuentara duro gittate;I sopra de l’acqua rosa, & cosi per diece giorni ò piu, & quanto piu il tenereti al sole sar à megliore. Dipoi tolleti muschio fino, & soluetilo, come si dirà al sue luo go caratti sei, zibetto in poluere caratti Quattro, canella ben sottile un quarto, et mezzo, mescolate ogni cosa ben insiemenel catino con il sapone, poi disubito mettetilo ne li suoi albarelli di uetro potreti anchora metter incompagnia un quarto di poluere di rose damaschine che’l fara piu soaue, & come sara no li uasi di ueto pieni farai gocciare delle gioccie del muschio soluto ditto di sopra, & cosi farà fatto perfetto, in altro modo anchora si puo fare.

To give musk to soap.
Take the aforementioned soap two pounds, & place it in a earthen bowl covered with glass, well polished [waterproofed], with very fine rosewater, until it is softened, stir well with a piece of wood, and leave it be in the sun, stirring well, and often, until it becomes hard; for rosewater soap, & so for ten days or more, the more it it is kept in the sun, the better. Then for fine musk toilet soap, & that may be dissolved, as mentioned here six caratti, civet powder four caratti, cinnamon well thinned a quarter and a half, stir everything together well in the basin with soap, and then quickly put all in the glass jar, also you could combine a quarter of powder of damaschine roses to make it even more sweet, if the glass vessel is not full with the drip drops of the musk solution as spoken above, to do it perfect, in another way it also can be done.


A darli altri odori al sapon sopra ditto.
PIGLIATE del sapone in pane che fia stato mescolato con l’acqua rosa, & co effo mescolate oglio di belzoi, di storax, & di naranze, & di quella forte che ui piacerà, & mescolati ben al sole, & farà fatto. Potrai anchora darli odore con alter pluere odorifere, come sandali, citrine, magalepi, canella, garofil, hirios, cipri, & alter cosec he uogliono, & far à se condo la proprietà, & forza fua, & ancho secundo il gusto de la persona che gli piace che d’uno odore, a chi d’un’altro, ma il meglio è fiori de naranzi, ouer di cedro freschi, che siano lira una : & pestarli nel mortale con il sapone, che sia stato al sole & mescolato con acqua rosa lire doi, & pstate benisieme, & mettetilo poi nel suo pittarello di uetro uetriato, & sera al Proposito molto bene di diuersi colori ne potreti fare come ue deroti qui drieto leggendo.
 
To give other scent to soap as previously mentioned.
Take a soap loaf that is mixed with rose water, & mingle with oil of benzoin, storax, and of naranze [naranzi; sweet orange, Citrus aurantium], with the strength that you do like, and let it mingle well in the sun, & it will do that. Also you can give it fragrance with other diverse scents like sandali citrini [yellow saunders wood], magalepi [Prumus mahaleb], cinnamon, garofil [gilliflower, see previous comment], hirios [orris root, see previous comment], cipri [galingale or Cyperus longus], & change the things he wants, according to the quality, & strength desired, & that also matches the taste of the person whom likes that kind of scent to those of another; but the best is flowers de naranzi, or fresh cedar, which is a penny: and crush them in a mortar with the soap, leave it in the sun & mixed with two pennies of rosewater, & pound well together, & then put it in its small earthen pot with a glass covering [lid] & it shall be spoken of very well, I could do in different colors as there are directions [instructions] here after reading [later in text].

Comment: Garofil or garofali translates to both gilliflower and cloves in the 1611 Queen Anne's New World Dictionary. In other languages gilliflower is used interexchangeably between gillyflower and cloves, to make it even more confusing. Gillyflower is the carnation Dianthus caryphyllus, cloves are the dried seeds of the clove shrub and they are not related. In my experience, if plant matter is indicated carnations are most likely (mostly seen in brewing) and if a powder is requested it is probably the spice cloves. It is up to you to make the final decision!


Sapone da mettere nelli bossoli, ouero in albarelli.
PIGLIATE liscia di sapone, cioè della secunda acqua, & uno secchio ouero boccale della prima, cafora soldi doi, et soldi doi di storax liquido, & mettetili nella ditta liscia: dipoi mettetilo al fuoco in uno paruolo ouero in una stagnatella co una lira ouer due di grasso di manzo, tagliato in pezzetti minuti, & scolatilo, & poi mescolati fino che’l ui piace, & s’elui paresse troppo liquido mettetili una scutella di sapone granato: dipoi leuatilo dal fuoco sempre mescolando fino che sia rifredito, delquale potreti empire li uasi uostri ouero albarelli, o bossoli, & questo fa le carni luster, molesine, nette, & biache, & tanto belle quanto si puo piu dire, se con quello ui uoleti lauare.
 
Soap to put in the ointment box, or else in jars.
Take lye of soap, that is to say of the second water, & one pitcher or rather else a drinking pot, campfor one soldi, and one soldi of liquid storax, & mix in the mentioned lye, then heat a kettle or else baking pan with  one pound or else two of beef fat, cut into tiny pieces, & strain, & and then mix up as it pleases you, & if the liquid is too weak [either strength of lye or density of mixture] mix in one scoop of grainy soap: then when it rises take from the heat stirring constantly for a long time until it comes together, when it is time you can to fill your vessel or else jar, or ointment box, & this makes the skin luster, smoothened, unspotted, & white, & so much more beautiful than you can say, if with that you will wash.


Saponetti da barbiero a la Fiorentina.
PIGLIATE sapone Gaetano piolato come sapete, e di poi seccatelo al sole, in modo che lo possiate tamisare ben sottile, & habbiate garofali, hirios, oldano come ui pare, e di queste cose fatene poluere sottilissima, & per ogni lire otto di sapone sopraditto ponete oncie dieci, otto di, questa mistur a di fpecie, di modo che ogni lire tre di fpecie farete lire quindeci di sapone, & con acqua rosa, & un poco di muschio, et pesta te, & incorporate ogni cosa ditta, & habbia e la uostra forma, e fatene balle o saponetti, & è cosa gentile, & stgnorile.

Soap balls of the barbers of Florence.
Take gaetan soap as you know, let it dry in the sun, so that it can be sieved into small pieces, & have garofali [cloves, see previous comment], hirios [orris root, see previous comment], oldano [francinsence] as you think, for these things divide the small powder, & per eight pounds of soap mentioned add ten ounces, or eight, of this spice mixture, so that every three pounds of spice is part of fifteen pounds of soap, & with rosewater, & a little musk, and pound well, & incorporate everything as told, & have your forms, to make soap balls, & generally gentle, & princely.


A far sapone duro con fuoco.
PIGLIATE le sopraditte robbe, & ponetele a bollire in una caldaia al fuoco, e quando che la bollira gettatili dentro de la farina de amito a poco a poco, & incorporate bene, & lasciate bollir per tre hore, & dipoi leuatela dal fuoco, & mescolate bene per una hora, & dapoi gettatelo ne l’acqua, & habbiate un poco di calcina Bianca, & lasciatela cosi stare per quattro giorni, & uenira duro.

To make hard soap with fire.
Take the aforementioned goods, & put them to boil in a vessel over heat, and when it boils gradually add stoneground flour of starch [wheat], & incorporate well, & let it boil for three hours, & when it rises take it off the fire, & mix well for an hour, & afterwards add some water, & have a little white lime, & let it be so for four days, & becomes hard.


Sapone muschiato.
PIGLIATE muschio quanto uoi pare, & pestatelo sottilmente, & metteteli uno poco d’acqua rosa, & incorporate insieme, & scaldatelo in uno gotto ouer pignatta quato a oui pare che la pignatta sia uetriata, & cosi calda com’ella sara gittatela sopra’l sapone, che sia i poluere, come dice di sopra, et come hauerete fatto queste compositioni me scolatelo sottosopra, & uoltatelo bene, & dapoi lo ponerete in un uaso, & di sopra poneteli muschio puro, & mescolate con uno stillo, & astroppate bene con carta quanto piu far à suecchio tanto piu far à megliore.

Musk soap.
Take musk as much as you think, & grind small, & add a little rosewater, & mix together, & heat in a pot or earthen meat pot if it has a glass cover, & as hot as it will and add the mentioned soap, which is powdered, as stated above, and as this mixture has come back down, & turns well, then place it in a vessel, & add put in pure musk, & mix with an sharp stick, & [cover] well with paper as much as a pail so much more the better.


Altro sapon con zibetto.
PIGLIATE sapone tritato come è ditto sopra al sapon muschiato, che’l stia al sole con acqua rosa, et metteti de trio zibetto, & mescolate bene, & se uorreti potrete mettere la ditta poluere a dissoluere muschi, & metter nel sapone, & obturate il uaso ut supra.
 
Another soap with civet.
Take chopped soap like the previously mentioned musk soap, let it stand in the sun with rosewater, put in a trio of civet, & mix well, & as needed you can mix the previously mentioned powder in dissolved musk, & put into the soap, & [cover] the vessel up.


Sapone con il belzoi.
PIGLIATE sapone che sia state al sole, & purgato con un poco di oglio di belzoi, & mescolate, et cosi potrete fa re di oglio di storax ouero oldano, ouero ogn’altro odore che vi piacerà, & farete le vostre balle o saponetti.

Soap with benzoin.
Take soap that has been in the sun, and purged with a little oil of benzoin, & mix, you can also use oil of storax or oldano [frankincence], or another kind of scent you like, & and make your balls or wash-balls.


Sapone con rose.
PIGLIATE sapone trito, che sia sbroffato con l’acqua rosa, & che’l sia stato al sole, & purgato tanto che non senta piu da l’odore del sapone, & dapoi habbiate rose fresche, & che siano pestate bene, et mescolate insieme, et fatene ballotte con ditto sapeon, & rose, e saluatelo in un uaso di ue tro, & questo è il uostro sapone rosato, et cosi potrete fare di ogn’altro odore, questa regola serue a tutti gli ingeniosi, & efperti intelletti che si uoleno dilettare di quest’arte.
 
Soap with roses.
Take soap crumbled very small, which is sprinkled with rosewater, that was in the sun, & purged so that is does not smell anymore of soap, & then take fresh roses, and crush them well, and stir together, and make round bullets with said soap, & rose, and save in a vase of glass, & this is your pink soap, and so you can do with other scents, this rule serves all naturally, & intellectual experts willingly delight of this art.


Sapone ad un’altro modo buono, & bello.
PIGLIATE sapeon gaettano, & sia piolato come narea l’altra ricotta lire sei, sapone negro lira meza, & farete come dice di sopra, & far à auantaggiato.
 
Soap in another good way, & beautiful.
Take Gaetan soap, & be it shaved like narea [?] or instead cooked six pounds, black soap half a pound, & do as I say above, & stay far ahead of peers.


Item altro sapone. - Ingredients other than soap.
Pigliate sapone gaettano piolato fecco, e poluerigiato fate che’l sia a peso           lire.4
Take shaved Gaetan soap left overs, and powders which shall weigh 4 pounds.
Hirios                       onc.6                        Orris root                6 ounce
Oldano                     onc.2                        Frankincence           2 ounce
Storax calamita        onc.1                        Storax calamita       1 ounce
Storax liquida           onc.meza                 Liquid storax           half ounce
Rose rosse                onc.1                        Red Rose                1 ounce
Poluere de cipri        onc.3                        Galingale powder   3 ounce
Muschio                  grani.6                      Musk                       6 grains
Et con acqua rosata faretti come è di sopra.
And with rosewater as is highlighted above.


Item un’altro modo. -Ingredients in another way.
Pigliate sapone Gettano piolato, & in poluere lire.8
Take Gettano soap shaved, & in powder 8 pounds.
Oldano                   onc.4                        Frankincence          4 ounce
Garofali                 onc.6                        Gilliflower              6 ounce
Hirios                    onc.2                        Orris root                2 ounce
Storax liquida        onc.2                        Liquid storax          2 ounce
Muschio                drag.meza                 Musk                      half a dragme
Et fate poluere, & imbeue tilo con l’acqua rosata, et pestatelo nel mortale di piombo caldo, & la mazza calda, & fatte balle ouer saponetti al modo uostro utsupra.
Make powder, & moisten with rosewater, and grind in a mortar of hot lead, & a hot iron pestle, & make balles or wash-balls, out of your way.


Sapone fino.
PIGLIATE sapon damaschino radato, & acqua rosa Muschiata, hirios biancho la terza parte & storax liquido, & coponenti & fareti il uostro saponetto come sapete, o con stampe, & come a uoi parera, e lasciatelo indurire a l’hombra.
 
Fine soap.
Take damaschino soap radato, & musky rose water, white hirios [orris root, see previous comment] a third part, & liquid storax, & put it all together, & decorate your wash-balls as you prefer, or with stamps, & as per your opinion, and let it harden in the shade.

How one shall make lye to dye blue with.

Hoe men looghe maken sal / om blaeu mede te verwen - dat tweede capit.
Als ghi blaeu verwē wilt / soe suldy makē stercke looghe / die twee deelen sullen asschen zyn / en̅het derde deel calck / en̅laet dat sieden vier pater noster lanc / en̅schuymet wel. Dan worpt daerna claer was in / wāt dye looghe daer af claer wert. Dan doeghet vāden viere / en̅latet staen sincken twee uren oft daeromtrent. Dan doeget in eenē ketel vyf pondt weede bloemen / dit doet in die voorseyde looghe. Dan hangt dit al te samen over tvier / en̅latet wel wermen sonder sieden. Daerna suldyt doen in een harinck tonne en̅latet daer rusten een half ure: dan suldy darin werpē een half pinte zeems. Roert dit wel met eenen stock en̅decket wel toe een vierēdeel vā eenre ure / so ist bereyt. Neemt nu garē / of linen doec / of wollē laken / of fusteyn / of tghene dat ghi wilt. En wildyt licht blaeu hebben / toe en steket maer eenwerf in / maer wildyt een luttel bruynder hebben steket tweewerf / wildÿt noch bruynder hebben / so steket driewerf in / of so langhe tot dat u bruyn ghenoech is. Als ghy dan gheverwet hebt tghene dat ghi wilt / so sult ghi die cuype laten rusten tot des anderē daechs. Wildy dā noch meer garens of wollen verwen / so suldy weder dye verwe uiter tonnen in uwen ketel werpen / en̅doet daertoe vier quaerten looghen voorseyt / dat dect wel ende latet staen een ure. Dan worpt daer in een half pont bloemen voorseyt hāget alsoe over dat vier ende latet wel wermen sonder sieden. Dan worpet weder in u tonne een pinte zeems daer mede / en̅decket wel / also suldÿt laten staen rusten een vierendeel van eender uren. Dan steket daer weder in het ghene dat u belieft / en̅verwet alsoe voorseyt is.
Item als ghy een cuype sette wilt / soe suldy altyt nemē tot elcke once bloemen een quarte looghen.

How one shall make lye / to dye blue with. That second capit.
If you want to dye blue / so you should make strong lye / the two parts should be ashes / and the third part chalk / and let that simmer four paternoster long / and foam well. Then throw in some clean wax / which will make the lye clear. Then take off the fire / and let it sink two hours or similar. Then put in a kettle five pounds of woad flowers / do this in the aforementioned lye. Then hang this together over the fire / and let it warm well without boiling. After that you should put it in a herring ton and let it rest a half hour: then you should throw in a half pint of life honey. Stir this well with a stick and cover well for a quarter of an hour / so it is made. Now take yarn / of linen cloth / of woolen sheets / of bombazine [a twilled dress fabric of worsted and silk or cotton] / of whatever you like. And if light blue is wanted / go ahead and put it in once / but if a little browner is wanted put it in twice / want it even browner / put it in three times / or as long until it is brown enough. If you dyed what you wanted / let the tub rest until the next day. Would you want to dye more yarns or woolens / then you should put the dye from the tub into your kettle / and add four quarts previously mentioned lye / and cover well and let stand for an hour.  Then throw in a half pound previously mentioned flowers, hang over the fire and let warm well without simmering. Then throw again in your ton a pint of life honey / and cover well / also you should let it rest a quarter of an hour. Then add again that which you would like / and dye as is mentioned.
Item if you want to prepare a vat / so should you always take to each ounce flowers a quart of lye.

T bouck van wondre, 1513, edited by H.G.Th. Frencken. Printed by H. Timmermans, Roermond 1934 http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/fren007tbou01_01/colofon.htm Translation by © Susan Verberg, 2016


To restore the lost color to a garment
Take one pound of crushed weyd ashes and pour four mass of water thereon. Let it stand a night, and then pour off the lye and take two ox galls and a handful of dried birch leaves, mix them together in the lye and let it boil together a half hour or until the leaves sink to the bottom. Let it cool; then, whichever color you would restore, add wool shearings dyed that color to the lye and boil it again and let it stand fourteen days or longer. The lye will take the color from the wool. Then pour it off and wash the cloth therein that you wish to renew. In this way the color returns again to the cloth.

Allerley Mackel: To remove stains from cloth, velvet, silk, gold stuffs and clothing these stains being of grease, oil or wine stains or any other kinds, and how to do this easily without damage, with waters or lyes as will be taught in this booklet. Thereto also how to restore clothing which has lost its color, as well as how one dyes yarn and linen, and also wood and bone, in a variety of colors. Printed in Mainz by Peter Jordanim, March 1532. Translation © 2005, Drea Leed

According to Drea Lead of http://www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/allerley.html:
The exact translation of the term "weyd" is problematic. The phonetic spelling could refer to willow ashes (weidt) or woad ashes (waid). Both willow and woad ashes are mentioned in T Bouck va Wondre, a Dutch spot-cleaning and fabric dyeing manual of the early 16th century. In addition, weyd aschen could be the 16th c. German equivalent of the dutch wee assen, or "common ashes" from the hearth.

My interpretation from a soap makers point of view is that "weyd" is a phonetic spelling for the English "white" and that the ingredient mentioned is "white ashes". Not only does the first recipe mention it would make a strong lye, as white ashes are wont to do, "weyd" pronounced sounds very similar to the English "white" and the term white ashes has been in use in English soap recipes since the early middle ages.


Pag. 6 - Om te maken dat een laken zyn verwe verloren heeft / wederom keere in sinen eerstē staet.
Neemt onghebluscht calck twee oncen / potasschen een once / claer water twee pondē / menghet al dese dinghen te samen / ende laetse die tijt van een half ure / ende wasschet dlaken daer inne / dat gedaen / het sal wederome in zyn verwe keeren.

Pag. 6 - To make happen that a sheet which lost its dye / once again be like it first was.
Take unslaked lime two ounces / potash one ounce / clear water two pounds / mix all these things together / and let stand in the time of half an hour / and wash the sheet therein / that done / it shall once again returned as dyed.

Een nieuw tractaat ghenoemt dat Batement van Recepten inhoudende drye deelen van Recepten. Anderwerf gecorrigeerd ende verbetert. Gheprint T Antwerpen op die Lombaerde veste teghen over den ijshont bij mij Hans de Laet van Stabroeck 1546-kl. 8o. Een secreetboek uit de zestiende eeuw (ed. Willy L. Braekman) onderdeel van T bouck va wondre. Omirel UFSAL, Brussel 1990
A new manuscript named that House of Recipes containing three parts of recipes. Otherwise corrected and improved. Printed in Antwerp at the Lombaerde Veste opposite the icedog by me Hans de Laet of Stabroeck 1546-kl. 80. A book of secrets of the sixteenth century (ed. Willy L. Braekman) part of T bouck van wondre. Omirel UFSAL, Brussel 1990.
For digital text: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_bat002wlbr01_01/colofon.htm


To die a Crimson colour.

Scrape hard sope, and so melt in common water, and put your silke in a linnen or thin canuasse bag, and so put it into the kettle to the soped water, and let it boile softly halfe an hour space, but stir it oft for burning, then wash it in salt water first, and after in fresh water, for each pound of silk, take a li. or more of Allom, laide sufficient in colde water, & therein put your silk without your bag, and let it rest therein viii houres, then take and wash it in fresh water, then wring it, & put it in the panne to the crimsine colour, being wel stampt & cleane, tak 4 ounces, and boyle it with so much water as will couer your silke foure fingers aboue the water, & to each pound of crimsine colour, put too three ounces of galles in fine pouder, or in steed thereof yee may put in halfe an ounce of arsnick, which is not very wholesome because of the fume, nor the water thereof, and when it boyleth put in your silk as aforeprepared, and there let it boyle a quarter of an houre then wring it a little, and drye it in the shade, and so it will bee faire.

Purfoot, Thomas (1605, first edition 1588) A Profitable Booke, declaring diuers approoued Remedies, to take out spots and staines in Silkes, Veluets, Linnen and Woollen Clothes: With diuers Colours how to die Veluets and Silkes, Linnenn and Woollen, Fustian and Thread: Also to dresse Leather, and to colour Felles. How to guild, graue, sowder, and Vernish. And to harden and make soft Yron and Steele. Verie necessarie for all men, specially for those which haue or shall haue any doing therein: with a perfect Table hereunto, to finde all things readie, not the like reuealed in English heretofore. Taken out of Dutch, and Englished by L. M. Imprinted at London by Thomas Purfoot, dwelling within the Rents, in S. Nicholas Shambles. From Early English Books Online (EEBO) at http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home

Backyard dyeing fun!

Having laid my hands on half a dozen skeins of plain white wool yarn, and having the resources of a homestead, I decided to combine the two and under guidance of my friend Angelika try my hand at all natural plant dyeing this summer.

But where to start? And what to buy? Isn't dyeing quite an intricate and expensive challenge better left to the experienced and initiated? In part that is true, it is quite handy learning to dye from someone who has done it before. But it does not have to be difficult or expensive at all - it can be as intricate as you decide to make it. If you're looking for a specific shade, and want to be able to duplicate, mine is not the way for you. But if you're happy to get color, and even happier if it is mostly the color you intended - you can get a surprising amount of dyeing fun out of an ordinary back yard.

We both prefer natural fibers so we used a selection of linen, cotton and wool fabrics and fibers. I quickly learned that plant based fibers and animal based fibers do not take color the same way; plant based fibers are made from cellulose which is fairly resistant to taking dye. Animal fibers are made from protein and are relatively easy to dye. Both need a little help to create a good connection between fibers and dye and this process is called mordanting.

From looking over Angelika's shoulders and listening to her explanations the past few years - she loves dyeing with natural materials - I did pick up some dyes need mordanting, some fibers need it too, but not always or in the same amounts... but why? As it turns out most fibers and dyes are not all that compatible, there isn't a lot for the dye to adhere to. So to give the dye a place to stick, something is added that bridges, or sticks both to the fabric and to the dye. In the case of cellulose fibers a tannin mordant is needed, followed by a metal mordant and in the case of protein fibers a metal mordant is enough. It is possible to dye wool without mordants but it won’t be as vibrant; onion and tea are high in tannin and will dye, but mordanting as well influences the intensity of color. Black walnut is a bit of an odd one, it does not need mordanting because it is high in natural mordants but because the chemical structure of the pigment allows it to directly adhere to the protein fiber!

 

 Processing sumac leaves to make a tannin mordant.

Two good sources for tannin mordants are sumac and rhubarb leaves. As rhubarb is easily available in spring, and sumac easy to find in summer and fall these two make a good three season source of natural tannin mordant. With both sumac and rhubarb the leaves are used, not the wood; for each pound of dry yarn use four pounds of greens. Put leaves in a big pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil for an hour. After an hour remove the greens, add the cellulose yarn and let sit for another hour, or two. Another source for tannins would be black tea, but as that is highly concentrated it would also act as a dye and darken the yarn significantly. Sumac does too, but not as significant and therefore does not interfere with the dyeing process as much, making it a better tannin mordant for brighter colors (and it's free).

A good metal mordant is alum, or aluminum sulfate, which is fairly inexpensive and sold over the internet at stores specializing in dyes. Use 10% for wool or up to 20 % for fine yarn like silk, cotton or linen, of the dry weight of the yarn. Add enough water to submerge the yarn, bring to a boil, turn off, add the damp yarn and let steep for an hour, or so. Do not boil fibers, especially wool roving and tips, as the roiling bubble action of boiling can naturally felt it!

Mordanting the fibers in sumac ‘tea’ overnight.

Mordant the evening before and let the yarn sit in the mordant overnight - that way the yarn is cooled down enough it can easily be squeezed or wrung dry for the next step, the dye bath. Keep in mind that each mordant results in slightly different color dyes, so choose accordingly. For instance chromium really brightens colors (but is poisonous), alum gives clear colors, tin brightens colors and can also be used as an afterbath (adding it to the dye late to darken), copper gives the best greens and iron darkens, and is often used as an afterbath. Both copper and iron can be made at home: copper can be added by dyeing in a copper pot, and an iron solution can easily be made by adding vinegar to iron scraps (like nails and pieces of cheap fencing) in a glass jar - but be careful not to screw down the lid as the exothermic reaction might respond unexpectantly!

Harvesting stinging nettles is quite a prickly business!

Using plant materials it is not all that difficult to dye yellows; pale yellow, lime yellow, greenish yellow, brownish yellow - most plants give some sort of yellow dye. Like ragweed dyes a greenish yellow, birch & poplar dyes yellow, any of the rosacea leaves dye yellow, peach & apple leaves dye yellow and bindweed dyes a light green yellow. It's the other colors that are harder to find. Onion skins can dye a bright orange and reportedly, bindweed roots dye a slight pink, as do rhubarb roots (but I'm not digging up my patch!). Willow leaves and bark dye a cinnamon brown, black walnut a deep brown at first draw and a cinnamon brown at the second. We also tried some odd ones like daffodil heads (yellow) and tageta flowers (also yellow) and honestly, if there is any indication of dye (it stains your fingers while weeding) get a bunch, boil it down, and see what happens!

Harvesting goldenrod flowers to make a bright yellow dye.

Except for a few dyestuffs, like goldenrod, most dye baths benefit from prolonged exposure. A good rule of thumb is to make your bath in the afternoon, add the yarn, put the colander with greens on top of it (keeps the yarn submerged and keeps steeping more dye) and let it sit overnight. You'll benefit from the cooler evening temperatures to cool down your kitchen again and as an added bonus the yarn is nicely cooled down by the next day to easily be rinsed in cold water without starting a felting reaction. Let it dry, or set, completely - out of the sun - before washing with soap.

Goldenrod dye with unmordanted wool yarn (top L) and alum mordanted wool (top R).

In the case of goldenrod, the flowers give the bright yellow color and are a potent dye. The longer it sits, though, the deeper the color gets and at some point the green stems and small leaves, which dye brown, will add, making it even darker. So for a bright yellow 15 minutes tends to be the optimum time. Similar with onion peels; sitting overnight can darken the orange towards brown. Black walnut is also a powerful dye and needs no mordanting at all for wool fibers, making it a good beginner’s dye. It also has antifungal properties and was used for wool underclothing throughout history to help prevent skin conditions!

Onion skin dye with alum mordanted wool fiber and unmordanted wool yarn.

For my first project we used well known dye plants like black walnut leaves, goldenrod flowers, stinging nettle and onion peels. We could have weighed the greens, but as our limitation was space in the pots, not the amount of greens, we picked as much as we could fit into each stockpot. As I could fit three stockpots on my stovetop we made three dye baths at the same time, in a similar fashion as the mordant solution: cover the greens with water, bring to a boil and boil for an hour, or so. Remove the greens, turn off the heat, add the yarn - and see the color change...

We dyed plant fibers and protein fibers and got wildly different results - both between the two types of fibers and from what we expected and what actually happened. Unless every variable, including temperature, pH & weights, are carefully controlled, natural dyeing is quite the spontaneous undertaking! For instance; a linen dress I was hoping to dye a deep brown with black walnut turned into a beautiful yellow copper instead - linen really does not take dye very well. A cotton dress I was hoping to dye yellow with logwood turned blue instead! The wool was mordanted in an acidic environment (an alkaline can damage wool fibers) but not rinsed real well, acidifying the dye to a pretty yellow brown. But when we made a new batch and added the cotton dress it was naturally alkaline and dyed a deep blue!

LTR: undyed, goldenrod, nettle, onion, onion (longer), iron – all unmordanted wool.

We sure saw chemistry in action: what a difference the nature of fibers makes, how some dyes react to changes in the pH but others not at all, the color difference a bit of metal mordant makes, how some strike enthusiastically quick but others need soaking overnight… to get a taste of all the intricate variables possible while still being such a surprisingly easy and rather satisfying project... I totally see how natural dyeing quickly can become quite the passion!


Published in the Aethelmearc Gazette, October 29, 2016
https://aethelmearcgazette.com/2016/10/29/backyard-dyeing-fun/

Modern & Medieval Soap Making Compared.

Have you ever daydreamed about making historic soap all the way from start to finish? I did, and after years of making modern soap I finally took the plunge… and what an interesting adventure it became! Digging through old articles and manuscripts, learning to decipher medieval English, a kitchen invaded by weird concoctions bubbling away – how could something seemingly so simple turn out to be so challenging? I found one of the first hurdles I came to in my quest of making medieval soap was technique: as a modern soap maker working with purified lye my modern experiences and techniques did not quite transfer to medieval recipes using wood ash lye…

First things first. To undertake soap making one should be familiar with what soap is and why it works the way it does. In short, soap is a simple molecule with the unusual ability to dissolve fats and oils into water, making it possible to rinse them away. It is made by mixing dissolved hydroxide salts with fatty acids, resulting in fat salts or soap (for instance, tallow mixed with sodium hydroxide becomes sodium tallowate, or tallow soap). This process is called saponification, from the Latin word sapo for soap. And if you are an outdoor enthusiast you might have inadvertently made soap already. Scrubbing a greasy frying pan with campfire ashes does not just scour the dirt away; rinse with a little water and the hydroxide salts in the ashes will combine with the cooking grease into a primitive cleanser – a way of cleaning dishes and laundry that has been with us through Ancient times!

Black soap, or soft soap, gets its name from the dark color of the wood ash lye used to make it (and the cast iron it was often boiled in). Hard soap was made with high quality barilla ashes, which makes a light colored lye (and hard soda soap); therefore white soap quickly equated with high quality hard soap. Why is this important? It’s because sodium hydroxide made from marine and marsh plants makes solid bar soaps, while potassium hydroxide from land based plants makes liquid or soft soaps. Sodium hydroxide is a small molecule with short and tight molecular bonds which creates soap with a strong crystalline structure. Potassium hydroxide is a large molecule, with long weaker molecular bonds, which creates soap with a weak crystalline structure. It’s the lye that makes the soap.

The first mention of soap being used on a human body for cleaning was in the 4th C: French soap was described by Theodorus Priscianus as a material for washing the head. (Dunn, 233) By the 7th C Italian soap makers were organized into craft guilds and the profession of soap maker is mentioned in Charlemagne’s Capitulare de Villis of 805 AD. By the 8th C, soft soap made with oils was common in France, Italy, and Spain, as olive oil was widely available. It is generally accepted that soap was known in England by the 10th C, most likely introduced by the Celts. (Bramson, 57) Another early reference to soap manufacture is by the monk Richard of Devizes in about 1200CE: “Apud Bristollum nemo est qui non sit vel fuerit saponarius” (about the number of soap makers in Bristol and the smelly nature of their profession). (Matthews, 4) Also by the 12th C, hard soap came into use which was said to be an Arab development later imported into Europe. By the 13th C, the manufacturing of soap in the Islamic world became virtually industrialized, with sources in Nablus, Fes, Damascus, and Aleppo. Around the 13th C, Marseilles emerged as the first great center of European soap making and remained so throughout the Middle Ages. (Bramson, 59) Genoa, Venice, and Bari in Italy and Castile in Spain also became epicenters of soap making due to their natural resources. (Bramson, 57) All had abundant supplies of olive oil and barilla, (Bramson, 57) a sodium rich plant whose ashes were used to make soda lye, a perfect combination to make a beautiful hard white bar of soap.

Since hard soap can be shredded and reformed soap balls came into being, a luxury product used by the upper classes. In Tudor times botanicals were introduced into soap, and scented soap became a "must-have" item of the elite. Fine soaps were produced in Europe from the 16th century on, and many of these soaps are still produced, both industrially and by small-scale artisans. Castile soap is a popular example of the vegetable-only soaps evolved from the oldest “white soap” of Italy.

[SIDENOTE: As soap was considered a luxury, English soap manufacturers had to pay a heavy tax on all the soap they made. Because of this heavy tax, soap was very expensive, sometimes even cost prohibitive to make, and did not come into common use in England until after the tax was repealed in 1852! (Bramson, 59)]


THE DIFFERENT SOAP MAKING TECHNIQUES

MELT AND POUR SOAP
In modern times, this soap is not made from scratch but is bought in a store ready to use and is formulated to melt and reconstitute with minimal issues. As the soap is already processed, it needs no curing time. It comes in two versions, melt and pour soap and melt and pour glycerin. Glycerin soap is the see through soap which is moisturizing and fun to suspend objects in, like pretty botanicals (and toys) as you can see them floating about.

Historically, soap could be bought plain at the Apothecary and used as an ingredient in medicines. Especially prevalent in 16th C medicinal manuscripts, soap used as an ingredient in recipes was well practiced, either for its medicinal benefits or for its easy carrier function.

Medieval examples of re-cooked and dissolved soap recipes:

For the black jaundice.
Take genciana [gentian], long peper [Piper longum], calamus aromaticus [sweet sedge], auencis [unknown], lycores [liqueur], raisins of currants [dried currants], white soap of Spain, of every  i. 3. and two spoonfuls of mustard, and boil all these in a quart of wine until a third is evaporated, and let the patient drink it.
This is the glasse of helth. by Thomas Moulton, 1547.

An excellent soap for scabies and itch.
Take white soap half a di. and steep in sufficient rose water, until it is well soaked, then take two dragmes of mercury sublimed [mercuric chloride], dissolve it in a little rosewater, mix the soap and the rosewater well together, and afterwards add a little musk or civet, and keep it. This is the best to cure a great scabies or itch without harm.
A short discours of the excellent doctour and knight by Leonardo Fioravanti, 1588.

And if you are indisposed to break the skin, and let your humours [blood] out (as by such manner one is eased), you shall make a little plaster of black soap and aqua vite [grain alcohol], which will blister it without any great pain.
The regiment of life by Jean Goeurot, 1550.


TRANSLUCENT SOAP
By cooking a basic soap with granulated sugar and alcohol it is possible to create a translucent soap (this is not glycerin soap, but glycerin can be added as a moisturizer). I have not found any historic recipe using a similar technique or ingredients.


HAND MILLED & GRATED SOAP
A modern way of making several kinds of soaps without making a batch of each is to make one large batch of base soap, grate that down, and use as needed. The grated soap is melted au-bain-marie in a 1:2 water to soap mixture. Heat the water to 180 degrees and add the grated soap. When soap and water have blended and the mixture turns clear, herbs, spices and essential oils can be added. Be aware certain essential and fragrance oils do not deal well with heat and can evaporate, so check to make sure your choice of essential or fragrance oil works with a hand milled soap. Hand milled soaps and rebatched soaps are similar as both are grated and reheated with water, except in the case of rebatched soap only a little water is added. This technique is often used to save cold-process soaps that went wrong and need to be re-cooked.

Commercial soap is also milled, but by machines that press freshly made soap between sets of rollers to flatten it paper thin. It gets shredded, and the soap flakes are ground through the rollers again and again, squeezing and mixing them together. Then it goes through an extrusion machine to squeeze out a long bar of tightly compacted soap flakes, that gets cut into individual bars.
   
By the Renaissance, soap could be bought premade and used as an ingredient in medicines, laundry and toiletry soaps. Especially in Tudor England hard white soap would be used grated to make specially scented and herbed soap balls or wash balls.

[SIDENOTE: Despite the general modern believe that people back then did not bathe much at all, the Tudors did keep themselves clean –by continuously changing and laundering their underclothes and by sponge bathing. Henry VIII and other royals had permanent plumbed-in bathrooms, like those built at Hampton Court and Whitehall. Of course, these magnificent bathrooms were great luxuries. As Tudor style clothes were tight fitting and often of not easy to clean fabrics an interest in personal cleanliness developed around that time – as shown by various toiletry soaps (and stain removal recipes) that began to show up in various household instruction manuals (livinghistory)]

Sir Hugh Plat, in his Delightes for Ladies to adorne their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories with Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes & Water, shares a great recipe for 'a delicate washing bal’:

Take three ounces of Orace [orris, or Iris rhizome], half an ounce of Cypres [Arum or jack in the pulpit], two ounces of Calamus Aromaticus [sweet sedge], one ounce of Rose leaves, two ounces of Lavender flowers: beat all these together in a mortar, push them through a fine sieve, then scrape some Castile sope, and dissolve it with some rosewater, then incorporate all your powders together, by working them over well in a mortar.
Delightes for Ladies (1609) by Sir Hugh Plat

Another nice on how to make ‘White musked Soap’:

Take soap scraped or grated, as much as you need the which (when you have well steeped and tempered in rose water) leave it eight days in the sun: Then you shall add to it an ounce of the water or milk of Macaleb [Prumus maheleb], twelve grains of musk, and six grains of civet, and reduce all together into the form and manner of a hard paste, you shall make of this very excellent balls.
The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount (1558) by Girolamo Ruscelli

Making soap balls is easy, as all one needs to do is grate soap into slivers (by hand or with a kitchen machine), add a tiny bit of water or milk to make the slivers sticky, kneed a bit by hand and then roll the sticky mass into a ball. Dry for a few days and the soap is ready to be used. Plain olive oil based soap like Castile Soap most similar to medieval white soap.


LIQUID SOAP
Modern liquid soap can be made by dissolving sodium hydroxide soap into water, which it does not like to do naturally, or by making soap with potassium hydroxide. Modern potassium hydroxide soaps are similar to medieval soft soap, as potash lye is the natural form of potassium hydroxide; with contaminants and of uncertain strength.

Caustic potash, the natural source of potassium hydroxide, was generally available because of wood heating and cooking. By leaching caustic ash with soft water (predominantly rain water) lye or hydroxide was formed. This lye solution would be weak compared to modern lye, at about pH11, and would have many other minerals in solution; like sulfites, chlorides and carbonates - most of which are of no use and can even detrimental to the saponification process. Weak drip lye could be evaporated to concentrate its strength, which also helped to remove unwanted salts as most would settle out of suspension and the still dissolved lye could be poured right off. Drip lye could also be fortified by calcining the ashes with lime, thereby oxidizing ash carbonates into hydroxides and raising the pH of the lye.

[SIDENOTE: Black soap was, as shown by many price agreements where it was sold in small pots, or bulk in vats, a soft soap.  (Matthews, 4) In 1511 there was controversy among London soap boilers regarding the composition of black soap. In 1624 the Bristol City Council made an ordinance that Bristol soap could only be made from olive oil, with the interests of southern merchants in mind. (Matthews, 4) An earlier a soapmakers’ ordinance from 1603 expressly forbade any soapmaker to buy tallow after successful lobbying by the Chandlers and train oil (from marine mammals) was not allowed on penalty of heavy fines! (Matthews, 5)]

From the Mappae Clavicula comes the following soap recipe using wood ash lye. This recipe uses the word “clarified” in connection with evaporated lye, which I interpret to mean the lye was decanted off its sediments. Especially in older recipes from Guild sources information can be presented incomplete or out of order, in this case mentioning heat after clarification, but since later period recipes confirm the process this interpretation makes the most sense.

280. How soap is made from olive oil or tallow
Spread well burnt ashes from good logs over woven wickerwork made of withies, or on a thin-meshed strong sieve, and gently pour hot water on them so that it goes through drop by drop. Collect the lye in a clean pot underneath and strain it two or three times through the same ashes, so that the lye becomes strong and colored. This is the first lye of the soapmaker. After it has clarified well let it cook, and when it has boiled for a long time and has begun to thicken, add enough oil and stir very well. Now, if you want to make the lye with lime, put a little good lime in it, but if you want it to be without lime, let the above-mentioned lye boil by itself until it is cooked down and reduced to thickness. Afterwards, allow to cool in a suitable place whatever has remained there of the lye or the watery stuff. This clarification is called the second lye of the soapmaker. Afterwards, work [the soap] with a little spade for 2, 3 or 4 days, so that it coagulates well and is de-watered, and lay it aside for use. If you want to make [your soap] out of tallow the process will be the same, though instead of oil put in well-beaten beef tallow and add a little wheat flour according to your judgment, and let them cook to thickness, as was said above.
Mappae Clavicula; A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques, 12th C.


The following recipe from the Secretes of Alexis of Piemont mentions the correct proportions of lye to oil for a successful soap boil “vnto three pound of the saide lie, you muste haue one pound of oile” and also stresses not to boil but to simmer the soap; for a long, long time.

To make black Sope for clothes, with all the signes and tokens that it giueth and maketh in beiling.
[…]Use 3 pounds of egg bearing lye to 1 pound of oil, pour the oil in and stir and mix well. Do this in the evening so that the infusion can stand overnight. In the morning start to simmer it, for seven to eight hours; if it is over 100 pounds simmer ten hours or more. When it starts to simmer and rise up a lot, take it from the fire and stir it well until it starts to go down again. Keep stirring so it does not get burned to the bottom. When you use a cauldron leave a hand width of space because the soap rises and swells in cooking and oil would be lost. The more it is stirred and the oils incorporate well with the lye, the sooner it simmers. When it has simmered for about eight or nine hours it is time to take samples and check. Make sure to have some first and second lye ready as needed. When it has boiled until the right time you shall see it become thick, and make long and thick bubbles when simmering. To take a sample, take a little with a spoon and put it on a small earthenware dish and let it cool. Then cut it with a little stick and if it closes again it is a sign it has cooked enough; if it does not close, it is not finished, so keep simmering it [this is reversed]. Take many samples and check. [..]
The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560.


[SIDENOTE: Soap was regarded as a luxury item in many western European countries including England and taxed as such, keeping quality soap out of reach of the general public. In 1631 this commodity of soap led to the sale of a monopoly for a million pounds for the making of soap by the Crown to a company at Westminster, which was a death blow to the Bristol soap industry. (Matthews, 3)]


HARD SOAP
Modern hard soap is made with sodium hydroxide lye which is easily available in pure crystal form. It was not until pure crystallized sodium hydroxide was invented and patented by French chemist Nicolas Leblanc in 1790 that exact measured recipes with predictable results were possible, and in combination with advertisements, the soap industry became what it is today.

Historically, sodium lye was made by leaching sodium rich ashes, made from burning marine or marsh plants. Coastal regions with access to these plants, especially Barilla which is known for sequestering sodium chloride in unusual high amount, had access to sodium rich lye and could therefore make hard white soaps. For instance Savon de Marseille and Aleppo soap are well known modern soaps based on century old techniques, with Nabulsi soap tracing its roots all the way to the 10th century.

Liquid soap worked well for cleaning and laundry but dilutes quickly and thus wastes more than hard soap; hard soap was prized for its economy but because of the lower availability of sodium hydroxide much more expensive. One way around this was quickly discovered, and by salting out potassium hydroxide soaps during the cooking process with sodium chloride, or ordinary table salt, an amazing chemical exchange happened. The potassium switches places with the sodium and sodium hydroxide is formed, thereby creating hard sodium hydroxide soap out of soft potassium hydroxide soap!

As the coastal plant barilla is hard to come by, making historic white soap is challenging. One way around this is to burn kelp to ashes, which is available in 50# bags at your local feed store. Kelp is a marine plant and produces sodium lye, but as it does not sequester salt the way barilla does, a lot more kelp is needed compared to barilla. A more modern technique would be to mix calcium oxide (pickling lime) with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), with the carbonates standing in for the burned plant materials. By adding water sodium hydroxide is formed and can be used to make hard soap with. While this technique mimics the natural ingredients, it does not fully emulate the process as the ashes from burned plants would have other trace minerals and salts.

The Al-mukhtara` fi funun min al- suna` (Inventions from the Various Industrial Arts) by King al-Muzaffar Yusuf ibn `Umar ibn `Ali ibn Rasul of the 13^th century includes a Description of Soap Making. Even though the source of the alkali (al-kily) is not disclosed this is clearly a recipe to make hard soap as at the end it states: The purpose of the mold is to prevent the soap from flowing until it thickens. Leave it for one night and one day until it solidifies. Then cut it with a knife as is usual.

A different type of hard soap is made by adding table salt to a soft soap to salt out and transform it into a hard soap.

When you want to make white soap, use the same materials and techniques and when it is more than halfway cooked, put in some salt, according to the consistency and quantity of it [the soap], and let it boil a little: then take it out of the cauldron, & put it in another & when it begins to boil add more salt and let it simmer to its perfect consistency. To make similar [soap] with Soda, as they use [do] in Venice, the salt must be crushed, and ten pound of it for the hundred [pounds of soap] and mix it all about and put it in a little at a time.
The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560.


COLD PROCESS SOAP
This is the most common soap technique used by soapers worldwide. It uses minimal heat and needs a couple of weeks for the lye to work through its chemical reaction, resulting in about 4 weeks of curing time. The trick with cold process is to have the temperature of the fat/oil mixture and the temperature of the lye/water mixture just right: around 100 degrees F for oils or about 120 degrees F for fats, combined with about 100 degrees F for the lye water. Fat mixtures are heated a little higher as they can solidify at around the target temperatures resulting in false trace.

Due to the fact that cold process soap can only reliably, and safely, be made with accurately measured ingredients, it was not until density was understood that medieval cold process soap recipes start to appear. In the mid 1600’s the egg float test is discovered to test the density of a solution, and as a fresh egg is about the same density as lye, if it is floating with about a quarter of its shell showing, the amount of alkaline salts in solution is of the correct density for laundry soap (also appeared around the same time to check the amount of sugars in solution for fermentation).

The following recipe from the Secretes of Alexis of Piemont (1560) mentions the correct strength of lye used to make laundry soap: “…put the Egge into it, and whiles the egge remaineth aboue…” or a floating egg.
To make black Sope for clothes, with all the signes and tokens that it giueth and maketh in beiling. […] To know the difference between first, second and third lye, take a fresh egg wound around with a thread [to be able to take it back out] and as the first lye comes out float the egg on it. Save this lye for as long as it floats as this is the best lye. […]
From The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560.

Many Colonial recipes for making drip ash lye also mention to use lye that floats an egg (with a quarter of its shell showing) and this is the soap re-enactors complain of as being so harsh. This is Black Soap, or laundry soap and meant to be harsh to better to clean clothes with. It is also harsh on the washed fabrics resulting in wear and tear and if the garments are not rinsed well soap remnants in the clothes are known to itch… good reasons why wealthy households would buy their soap and not make it themselves (difference between just harsh enough and too harsh). This does not mean all soft soap is harsh, only that laundry soap recipes make harsher soaps.

The following medieval cold process recipe on how to make a shampoo, uses a different strength of lye which I found from personal experimentation to be neutral. It mentions “… that will beare an egge swimminge be|twene two waters…” or, the egg is not floating on top, but suspended in the middle. Suspended-egg lye makes near-neutral soap that does not ‘bite’, which makes complete sense as this is a soap meant for personal use. This recipe also confirms the amounts of “thre pottels of lye to a pot of common oyl”; the 3:1 ratio which consistently works well for me. 

A very exquisite soap, made of many things.
Take Aluminis catini [unknown] three ounces, quick lime one part, strong lye that will suspend an egg in the middle, three pottels, a pot of common oil: mingle all well together, add the white of an egg well beaten, and a dishful of meal or flour of Amylum [wheat starch], and an ounce of Romayne Vitrioll [cupric sulphate], or red lead [lead oxide] well beaten into powder, and mix it continually for three hours, then let is stand, for a day, and it will be right and perfect. Finally, take it out, and cut it into pieces: after set it to dry two days, in the wind, but not in the sun. Always use this soap when you wash your head, for it is very wholesome, and makes fair hair.
From The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1558.


HOT PROCESS SOAP
The modern technique is called hot-process because the saponification process is accelerated with heat. The soap is made similar to cold-process soap, using oil/fats, lye and water. The ingredients are brought to trace, but then the soap is exposed to heat and "cooked" through the saponification process. At the end fragrance and color are added and the soap is poured into a mold. The hot process somewhat changes the appearance of the finished soap from cold-process, but allows the soap to be fully saponified and immediately ready for use within just a few days. It has the same basic function as cold process soaps, but generally a less dense and more "fluffy" appearance and texture, similar to rebatched soaps.

Contrary to what most soap makers assume, this is the technique most commonly used for historic soap making as it is not mandatory to have the exact measurements of lye and fats used to create successful soap. It is possible to add more lye or more fats during the cooking process, to remove or change excess or spent lye water and to remove already formed soap. Historic commercial soap vats would have a drain at the bottom to facilitate draining of spent lye, and this “second lye of the soapmaker”, which was rich in glycerin, would be sold to other artisans. This is also the process used for modern commercial soap making as it is this process that gives the opportunity to separate and remove glycerin from the soap in process (and why artisan made cold-process soap is so much nicer for your skin).


Two examples of Medieval cooked soap:

280. How soap is made from olive oil or tallow
Spread well burnt ashes from good logs over woven wickerwork made of withies, or on a thin-meshed strong sieve, and gently pour hot water on them so that it goes through drop by drop. Collect the lye in a clean pot underneath and strain it two or three times through the same ashes, so that the lye becomes strong and colored. This is the first lye of the soapmaker. After it has clarified well let it cook, and when it has boiled for a long time and has begun to thicken, add enough oil and stir very well. Now, if you want to make the lye with lime, put a little good lime in it, but if you want it to be without lime, let the above-mentioned lye boil by itself until it is cooked down and reduced to thickness. Afterwards, allow to cool in a suitable place whatever has remained there of the lye or the watery stuff. This clarification is called the second lye of the soapmaker. Afterwards, work [the soap] with a little spade for 2, 3 or 4 days, so that it coagulates well and is de-watered, and lay it aside for use. If you want to make [your soap] out of tallow the process will be the same, though instead of oil put in well-beaten beef tallow and add a little wheat flour according to your judgment, and let them cook to thickness, as was said above.
From Mappae Clavicula; A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques, 12th C


[1.26.1] On Making Soap XXVI: Take a measure of common oil, and two quarters of capitellum [i.e. potash lye, see 1.26.2] and leave it to boil in some vessel on a slow fire until it arrives at thickness, which you test by putting a drop on marble, if it will have held itself together in shape it is good – and once again  [i.e. as one did for gum] you may know [which capitellum is best] by the taste on the tongue: that which clearly gives a sharp taste – and do this three times, in the same way put in [more capitellum] but that which has less sharp taste following the first, and, lo and behold, Saracen soap.
From Liber diversarum arcium (Book of Various Arts), ca. 1300


CONCLUSION

To summarize, soap has been known and used throughout recorded history but the widespread use of soap as we do now is relatively new. Soap was considered a luxury; it was hard to make and expensive to buy, and would mostly be used where it was needed: an ingredient in medicines, or to clean laundry and household goods. As most of medieval Europe was Christian and Christianity did not place much interest in personal hygiene (it is one of the few religions where personal hygiene is not minutely dictated), cleanliness was up to regional cultures, superstitions and whatever belief medical society would subscribe to. (Ashenburg, 11) Not only were dirty old hermits seen as religiously pure – drawing a connection between dirty of body and pure of mind, but with physicians believing bad vapors were behind most ailments and that a clean body would open the pores to let them in, bathing soon became something to avoid. So for most of medieval Europe soap and water were for cleaning clothes, while people cleaned themselves by changing their under linens and using fragrances to cover up, as much as was possible, any body odors. (Ashenburg, 11)

In medieval times, a chemist was an alchemist – and crafts based in chemistry, like glass making, ceramics, brewing, and soap making were not understood on a modern chemical level. They were learned by trial and error, by years – generations – of practice, and the close kept secrets were passed on from father to son, from master to apprentice…

There be some good Masters and workmen that put in the second lye with the oil, with the intent that the oil might not be damaged so much by its strength, and then they put in a little of the third, and then a little of the fourth, and after that a little of the first: but there is no damage in it, for that happens for the reason that these mix-ups are made in the presence of other men, when the Master does not want them to know for fear that others should easily learn it.
The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by Girolamo Ruscelli, 1560.

INTRIGUED?

I have found there are many historic soap recipes and formula’s available, if you know where to look. To help out the beginner historic soapmaker I compiled a collection of soap formula’s and recipes from the 10^th to 16^th century, including tidbits of soapy fun facts. Available at

https://www.academia.edu/27795669/A_most_Copious_and_Exact_Compendium_of_Sope

Several of my soap making research papers and class hand-outs are available from Academia at

https://independent.academia.edu/susanverberg

BIBLIOGRAPHY

-- (8th C) The Capitulare de Villis: Carolingian Polyptyques. English translation from the University of Leicester at https://www.le.ac.uk/hi/polyptyques/capitulare/site.html

Ashenburg, Katherine (2007) The Dirt on Clean, An Unsanitized History North Point Press, NY

Bramson, Ann Sela (1975) Soap, Making it, Enjoying it Workman Publishing Company

Clarke, Mark (2011) Mediaeval Painters’ Materials and Techniques: the Montpellier ‘Liber diversarum arcium’. London

Dunn, Kevin M. (2003) Caveman Chemistry Universal Publishers

Fioravanti, Leonardo (1588) A short discours of the excellent doctour and knight, maister Leonardo Phiorauanti Bolognese vppon chirurgerie. Translated out of Italyan into English, by Iohn Hester, practicioner in the arte of distillation. (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Goeurot, Jean (1550) The regiment of life, whereunto is added a treatise of the pestilence, with the boke of children, newly corrected and enlarged by T. Phayre. (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Matthews, Harold Evan (1940) Proceedings, Minutes and Enrolments of the Company of Soapmakers 1562 – 1642 Bristol Record Society, Great Britain.

Moulton, Thomas (1547) This is the glasse of helth. (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Plat, Sir Hugh (1609) Delightes for Ladies to adorne their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories with Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes & Water (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Ruscelli, Girolamo (1558) The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount Translated out of Frenche into Englishe, by Wyllyam Warde. (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Ruscelli, Girolamo (1560) The seconde part of the Secretes of Master Alexis of Piemont by hym collected out of diuers excellent authours, and newly translated out of Frenche into Englishe by William Warde. (transcribed by Susan Verberg)

Smith C S & Hawthorne J G (1974) Mappae Clavicula A little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, New Series Vol. 64, Part 4.

Websites used:
http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/historicalballs/History%20of%20soapmaking.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap

For ingredient translations I used my personal soap related Materia Medica & Profumatoria database.

© Copyright by Susan Verberg

reproduction for educational purposes by permission only