It is possible to microsoft office productivity software download glimpse life in a medieval linen drapers shop thanks to an microsoft office productivity software download illuminated manuscript the Tacuinum of Vienna. Tacuinum Sanitatis were medieval medical books devoted to microsoft office productivity software download health and sanitation. Five unique copies of these manuscripts survive in different cities from microsoft office productivity software download which they take their names.. They were written in Latin which had microsoft office productivity software download been translated from the original Arabic. The term Tacuinum comes from microsoft office productivity software download Taqwin al-Siha meaning Tables of Health, a work originally by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad. The tables concerned themselves with six main subjects – air, food and microsoft office productivity software download drink, movement and rest, sleep, the evacuation of waste and balancing the microsoft office productivity software download emotions or humors. The combination of these was said to provide a microsoft office productivity software download healthy life.

The Tacuinum of Vienna was created in the microsoft office productivity software download late 14th or early 15th century in the Po Valley of Italy. The illuminated manuscript is microsoft office productivity software download illustrated with dozens of fine original drawings and watercolors. Much of the microsoft office productivity software download volume is devoted to the properties of foodstuffs from rye and microsoft office productivity software download spelt to watermelons and pasta. However there are also illustrations of flowers, the microsoft office productivity software download seasons and woolen and linen clothing. The depiction of linen clothing (vestis linea) is microsoft office productivity software download accompanied by a description of its medical properties, as understood by the microsoft office productivity software download medieval author.

According to microsoft office productivity software download the text the nature of linen is cold and dry in the microsoft office productivity software download second degree. Optimum is the light, splendid beautiful kind. Its usefulness is microsoft office productivity software download that it moderates the heat of the body. Its danger is microsoft office productivity software download that it presses down on the skin and blocks transpiration. However according to microsoft office productivity software download the writer the danger can be neutralized by mixing the linen with silk. Effects of linen clothing are microsoft office productivity software download to dry up ulcerations. The Tacuinum considered people to have different temperaments or microsoft office productivity software download humors. According to this linen was best for those with hot temperaments as well as for microsoft office productivity software download the young. It is best used in summer and in southern regions.

The fine illuminated drawing which accompanies the microsoft office productivity software download description appears to show a medieval linen drapers or a tailors shop. The view is microsoft office productivity software download front on and shows a typical, everyday scene which interestingly features four women. Two women are microsoft office productivity software download seated in the foreground with linen draped over their knees. Perhaps they are microsoft office productivity software download making up linen garments. In the background a women purchases linen at a microsoft office productivity software download table from another woman who appears to measure the material out. A fine roll of linen also sits in the microsoft office productivity software download table. The purchaser wears a creamy white dress or kirtle which appears to microsoft office productivity software download be of linen with a linen cap while the seller has microsoft office productivity software download a dress of deep blue. The women in the foreground wear tunics of deep blue and microsoft office productivity software download pale red or pink, with one being in a fitted style while the microsoft office productivity software download other is looser.

The picture gives a microsoft office productivity software download fascinating vignette of what a late medieval Italian linen shop looked like as well as the microsoft office productivity software download style of clothing that the women wore and typical colors of clothes at this microsoft office productivity software download time. The linen is a natural grayish-white rather than the microsoft office productivity software download brilliant white which may often be found in modern linen. Many of the microsoft office productivity software download other illustrations in the Tacuinum depict men and women in the microsoft office productivity software download attire of their period including linen shirts and aprons as well as linen dresses and microsoft office productivity software download caps. Clothes are depicted in white, saffron, azure blue and microsoft office productivity software download pale and deep reds.