Higiene, deporte y humanismo en el renacimiento español

Abstract

Starting with the medieval canon of the six non-natural things that maintain and prolong health, this paper analyses some of the hygienic aspects (air and life in the towns, the body and bathing, noble sports, the physic exercises, moderation in diet and way of life, the passions of the soul and spiritual exercises) that were considered important during the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Furthermore, viewing the history of teaching as a process that spansmany centuries, the author argues that education has perpetuated, from Antiquity to the modern period, a series of commonplaces about bodily health that extol - in line with Aristotelian and Galenic tradition - the importance of a balanced, moderate life, which aligns with the virtue of temperance. It is also stated that hygiene ?in its public and private dimensions? has a history that goes back before the Enlightenment and the liberalism of the 19th century.