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…