Medieval people kept domesticated dogs, cats and other animals. Here are the tips they gave about proper care for them.
Pets were rare in the medieval world – people in the Middle Ages kept pets like dogs and cats, but most of them had a purpose. Dogs would be used to guard homes or assist in hunting, while cats were needed to catch rats and other vermin. However, the relationship between these animals and their guardians is often an affectionate one.
The leading research on this topic can be found at Medieval Pets, by Kathleen Walker-Meikle, who states that at the end of the Middle Ages we can find many examples of people keeping animals as their companions. The Italian poet Petrarch had several pet dogs, one of which he adopted when it was left in a house where he was staying. Meanwhile, the famous Renaissance woman Isabella d’Este (1474 – 1539) owned several cats, including one named Martino. When he died in 1510, Martino was given a proper funeral with a graveside sermon.
Many of the writings about domestic animals from the Later Middle Ages come in the form of criticism that people should not keep them – that it is too pointless and a waste of food that could have gone to the poor Church officials found that monks and especially nuns were keeping dogs, cats and birds as pets – while they could not completely ban it, they pleaded with the monks and nuns not to keep too many and not to bring them to church.
Meanwhile, the Ancrene Riwlea guide for anchoresses written in the early 13th century, explains:
Unless you are required, my dear brothers, and your director advises it, do not keep any animal except the cat…Now if a man needs to keep it, let him make sure that it does not annoy to anyone or harm anyone. , and that his thoughts were not captured here.
The 13th century scientist and philosopher Albertus Magnus wrote a book In Animals which details the characteristics of the various creatures and includes some useful advice on caring for them. Dogs, for example, should not be fed food straight from the dinner plate or constantly petted, if you want them to be effective guard dogs. Otherwise, these dogs will “watch the door and the one in the master’s generous hand.” Meanwhile, the cat “likes to be petted lightly by human hands and is playful, especially when it is young.” Albertus advises that you should cut off the ears of cats so that the night dew does not get into their ears and that if you cut off the whiskers on their mouths “they will lose their courage.”
At the end of the 14th century Gaston III, Comte de Foix (1331-1391) wrote a book about hunting called Hunting Book, which includes a section on how he took care of the greyhounds he used to hunt. Gaston explained that their kennels must be made of wood and at least a foot off the ground, with a loft where the dog can be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It should also have fresh hay added to its floor each day and have a door that opens onto a sunny yard, so that:
the hounds may go without play when they please for it is grete likyng for the hounds when they may goon in and out at their lust.
The assistant in charge of the dogs will be busy – they will clean the cages every morning and provide fresh water twice a day. The dogs also had to be taken out once or twice daily for a walk and allowed to play “in a nice meadow in the sun.” Besides being fed bran bread, the dogs also get some meat from hunting. If a dog is sick, he can get better food, such as goat’s milk, bean soup, minced meat, or buttered eggs.
When training these dogs, Gaston explains that you have to reward them for good deeds and punish mistakes, but when talking to them you have to be honest. He added:
I talk to my dogs like I do to a human…and they understand me and do what I want more than any other human can make them do as I do, and probably never will of anyone when I am dead.
In the Islamic world, dogs are considered unclean animals and should not be kept as pets. That did not stop people from owning them, although they should only be used for hunting, guarding or herding animals, and several books by Arabic writers give advice on how to care for them. This includes that dogs should sleep close to their handlers (but not in the same bed) because this will make them friendlier, more obedient, and even make them more pleasant. The dog should also have their own soft bed and avoid mixing with other dogs and they might spread diseases to each other.
During the autumn and winter months, the dogs must be fed only once a day, at sunset – otherwise, the writers believe that the dogs will not be well enough when the hunt begins the next day. morning However, during the warmer months of spring and summer, dogs should be fed small portions several times a day. The food is usually meat soaked in a beef soup, but can also include bread and milk, and is served cold or cold so the dogs don’t vomit it up.
At work Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam, Housni Alkhateeb Shehada noted that these Islamic writers, “emphasized that the dog is an animal that needs special attention, which includes petting and combing its fur with pleasant caressing materials like silk. The authors wrote that stroking with hands, scratching, touching and similar basic actions that every dog handler needs to do in his daily dog care help to ensure the good health of the dog. dog.”
Finally, Walker-Meikle explains that one of the best sources on bird conservation comes from the medieval period The Housekeeper of Paris, a guidebook written in 1393 by an old Parisian merchant for his new wife. In one section he detailed that caged birds had to be constantly watered and added:
Item, let the carded wool and feathers be put into the aviary to make their nests. And so I saw turtle-doves, linnets and goldfinches laying and rearing their young. Item, give them also worms, maggots, flies, spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, fresh hemp in leaves, moist and soaked. Item, spiders, worms and similar things that are soft in the beak of a small bird, that are soft.
See also: Medieval Pet Names
Top Image: Pen drawing of a cat accompanied by the name ‘Mite’, from an account book of the Cistercian abbey of Beaulieu- British Library MS Add. 48978 f.47v
