What were medieval hobbies?

Answer 1

Women practiced embroidery and made tapestries. They raised flowers, though usually in a vegetable garden or among medicinal herbs. They sang and played Musical Instruments, and they danced. Those who were literate read and wrote poetry, and there were a number of important medieval poets who were women. St. Hildegard of Bingen wrote a play set to music, and since she wrote the music in understandable notation, it can still be performed.

Answer 2

1st answerHobbies? These people didn't have time for hobbies. To have a hobbies you need free time and in the time of the middle ages people were doing everything they could just to stay alive. A monk was a very quiet fellow. He was one of the messenagers of God and had to display this most of the time. 2nd answerPerhaps we can take examples of a couple of people who actually lived as monastics in the middle ages, see what they did, and come to conclusions.

We might look at the life of Hildegard of Bingen. She entered a convent at an early age, and really grew up there. She was educated there and learned to raise medicinal herbs and tend the sick. In addition to her monastic duties, she wrote books on herbology, corresponded by letter with a variety of famous people, including kings and emperors, wrote music, and wrote works of fiction, including a play set to music. She learned to write music notation, so her music was recorded and can still be performed.

Another example was the English Franciscan Monk, Roger Bacon. Bacon taught at Oxford, but he also studied and experimented in a number of fields. These fields included optics, physiology, Astrology, alchemy, mathematics, and on and on. He was an empiricist, and strongly advocated a scientific approach to knowledge. His work was admired by the pope. Clearly his work also exceeded the demands placed on a monk.

These examples were not unique. There were large numbers of other monks and nuns who pursued artistic expression or scientific knowledge in ways that went far beyond questions of mere subsistence. Nor were they intended for gain, as these people were not involved in the acquisition of money. I think that means the art of Hildegard of Bingen and the science of Roger Bacon would qualify as hobbies.

There is not a lot of information about hobbies of the middle ages, but this does not mean they did not exist. I had to look at a number of articles on gardening before I could find any reference to flowers being grown in gardens before the Renaissance. When I did, the flowers were simply inserted as a household garden crop. But if they were a garden crop, then that implies they were used and appreciated, and the culture and arrangement of flowers for a household certainly implies there was someone pursuing a hobby. Given the numbers of convents and monasteries of the Middle Ages, it is hard to imagine that no monk or nun ever raised a flower just to have fun and appreciate it.

I would say music, poetry, philosophy, mathematics, and science were among hobbies indicated. I am sure there were others, and probably many of them. The fact that something was not recorded as a hobby, does not mean it would not qualify, because not everything was recorded.

Answer 3

Some medieval hobbies might include hunting, watching plays, Archery and entering competitons.

Calligraphy was common among the clergy, and in the upper class woment did needlework. They also had many things we have today such as fishing. It depended on your class, upper class young boys were taught to fight, where as lower class boys would have fished.

Answer 4

Monks 'dont do fun'. Unless it was part of their religious duties which is to be holy and chaste in body and soul, in all senses and mind, being devoted to attention and prayer. To make God their only delight, rejoicing in hope, patient in affliction and obedient to those in charge, serving one another and seeing to peace. Being devoted to Hymns and Spiritual Songs. The aspiration of a Monk is to make the inner man a Monk

Answer 5

Servants didn't have hobbies; servants worked. ALL the time. When not working, they might eat, drink and chase women.