Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Drinking water
(1,109 words)

1. Introduction

Drinking water is the cleanest possible fresh water, suitable for human consumption. As yet, the state of scholarship on drinking water in the early modern period is unsatisfactory. Drinking water is the sole basic constant of human nutrition (Food), and in spite of what is surmised about high alcohol consumption, it was the most important drink in early modern Europe [6]; [9]. It did, however, have an ambivalent status. Water competed with higher-status beverages, both alcoholic, especially b…

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Hirschfelder, Gunther, “Drinking water”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_029087>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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