30 May 2025 / 10 House
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Find out moreDid the Aztecs know soap?
Washing in water: Codex Vindobonensis pl. 27 (detail)
ORIGINAL QUESTION received from - and thanks to - Daniel: Did the Aztecs know soap? Many times I’ve read that the Aztecs were very hygienic, but I don’t know how hygienic you can be if the only thing you use to clean your baby or touch infectious animals is water. (Answered by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)
We can do no better to answer this than to quote verbatim from the excellent Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno:-
Aztec women were taught to dress well and to wash themselves and their clothes every day, and by these gestures, they would earn their husband’s love. Women got ready for the day by looking into their mirrors made of obsidian or pyrites, by cleaning their mouth, and by washing their face and hands. It is said that when they were done preparing themselves, they looked like flowers.
Cleanliness was one of the most cherished virtues of Aztec society for all citizens, not just women. The Aztecs used the fruit of the copalxocotl (called the ‘soap tree’ by the Spaniards) and the root of the Saponaria americana for soap. These soaps were used to wash the body and to clean the laundry. Most people bathed often, and some bathed every day.
Source:-
• Handbook to Life in the Aztec World by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno, Facts on File, New York, 2000.
Picture sources:-
• Main: Image from the Codex Vindobonensis scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974
• Pic 1: image scanned from The Badianus Manuscript (Codex Barberini, Latin 241) Vatican Library An Aztec Herbal of 1552, introduction, translation and annotations by Emily Walcott Emmart, The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1940.
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Washing in water: Codex Vindobonensis pl. 27 (detail)
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