The King of Dirt: Public Health and Sanitation in Late Medieval Ghent

Abstract

Taking the office of the coninc der ribauden in Ghent as a case-study, this article reconstructs the enforcement of urban sanitation and preventative health practices during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The coninc managed a wide range of issues perceived as potentially polluting, damaging or threateningto health. Banning waste and chasing pigs as well as prostitutes off the streets, the office implemented a governmental vision on communal well-being. Health interests, as part of a broader pursuit of the common good, therefore played an important yet hitherto largely overlooked role in medieval urban governance.

The Counts of Nassau and the Performance of Lordship in Late Medieval Brabant

“…All the streets and squares had to be cleaned of 'dung, and all rubbish, stone and wood pushed aside' . As with princely entries, this not only ensured that the town would look bright and clean, but also minimised the danger of fire, given that the cortege accompanying the new lord carried torches (Coomans, 2019;Lecuppre-Desjardin, 2004: 104-106). Everybody should adorn his or her house with nice cloth and green meye (blooming branches of birches, beeches, or pine trees, used especially for festive occasions) and should strew the streets with 'grasses and odoriferous herbs (…) everybody to the best of his ability', indicating the involvement of all social classes.…”

Jeremy Bentham on Police: The Unknown Story and What It Means for Criminology

“…To Muslim rulers, then, moral hygiene and a well-functioning marketplace were mutually reinforcing endeavours. Such centralized and all-encompassing officials as the muhtasib were rare in western Europe before the nineteenth century, but in countless cities in the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Low Countries and Italy, government organs collectively shared similar burdens, combining moral, physical, economic and political agendas (Coomans 2019;Geltner 2019;Geltner and Roberts forthcoming;Jørgensen 2008;Rawcliffe 2013;Roberts 2019). In doing so, moreover, they adopted an environmental approach to the sites, amenities and even the zones under their care, once again in line with Quinn's assessment (2021, Introduction, 39) that, to Bentham: 'police includes action against calamity as well as against crime' (see Rawcliffe and Weeda 2019).…”