Mind Your Manners

The Renaissance saw a rise in the appreciation of manners and respectable behavior as the growth of cities and trade brought together men of diverse backgrounds. This led to the publication of many books on the subject, even though the topic itself may have been seen as somewhat crass. As Erasmus says in De Civitate:

“I do not deny that external decorum is a very crude part of philosophy, but in the present climate of opinion it is very conductive to winning goodwill.”

Still, this doesn’t prevent one from looking on with a sophomoric appreciation at some of the great minds of the 16th century opining on such subjects as sneezing and farting:

“When you have blown your nose, you should not open your handkerchief and inspect it, as though pearls or rubies had dropped out of your skull.”

Giovanni della Casa, Il Galateo (1558)

“There are some who lay down the rule that a boy should refrain from breaking wind by constricting his buttocks. But it is no part of good manners to bring illness upon yourself while striving to appear polite. If you may withdraw, do it in private. But it not… cover the sound with a cough…, it is more dangerous to refrain from breaking wind than it is to constrict the bowels.”

Desiderius Erasmus, De Civitate Morum Puerilium (1530)