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Late Medieval Women, Pomanders, and Devotional Practices
Hannah Jones
University of St Andrews
May 14th, 2013
Word Count: 2,481

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Late Medieval Women, Pomanders, and Devotional Practices
This essay will argue the significance of late medieval women using pomanders in their
private devotional practices. Pomanders were an interesting aspect of personal rosary meditation
during the Middle Ages. Devotees used pomanders aids in meditation and a way to add a
symbolic layer to an already deep religious experience. Although commonly considered a
personal hygienic and decorative item, the pomander also served a devotional purpose to help
meditation therefore easing the union between worshipper and god, and encouraging affective
piety. When worshippers used pomanders in conjunction with prayer beads; they could associate
specifically with Mary in the garden and the virtue and union that that implies. The writings and
objects examined come from multiple cultures which could weaken the analysis in this essay, but
I believe that late medieval ideas about scent and religion, in this case were similar enough that
we can still draw some firm conclusions. Smell is often overlooked in religious context, but the
practice of attaching pomanders to rosary beads should inspire us to rethink this relationship.
Pomanders first appear in recorded European history around 1287.1 Originally they were
secular items used to freshen the immediate person and ward off "bad air." Although physicians
of the late medieval period had begun reevaluating the cause of bad smells, the laypersons
consensus was that bad smells brought sin and sickness. The word pomander originally referred
to the ball of resin or clove-studded orange that gave off scent, but soon applied to the metal or
wood container housing the scent as well. People began supplementing their rosary strings with
Pomander charms at a later date as seen in their increased use in portraits and religious paintings
in the 16th century. Unfortunately, not many actual pomanders have survived until modern
times because of value of raw metals.
A modifier of scent such as the pomander was incredibly important in a personal
devotional context because of religious scent theories and its ability to maintain one's
metaphorical garden of virtue. Pomanders and smell were important to religion and philosophical
thinking. Treatises and paintings during the Late Middle Ages tell us that people then had many
theories on the moral, religious, and health connotations of the sense of smell. The particular
concentration on morality and religion imply that the act of attaching a pomander to prayer
beads was not a random gesture. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, treatises were
commonly written that connected sin to scent.2 Not only were some scents more associated with
virtue than others, but philosophers such as Isidore believed that the ability to detect scent was a
sign of virtuosity in and of itself.3 This applies to images of Mary in that, In northern European
paintings from this time period, the Virgin and Child are often surrounded by scent motifs
showing both their ability to detect virtue and their virtuous nature. Freshly sliced oranges and
profferings of flowers grace many paintings of the Virgin and Child, such as Joos van Cleve's
Holy Family (fig. 1). As discussed in depth later on, the reason behind such details has to do with
as much the divine nature of good smells as it does a reference to the garden in the Song of
Songs and thus the union between Mary and Christ. The importance of smell in religion also
shows up in various accounts of divine occurrences attached to a wonderful smell,4 such as at the
death of St Erkenwald or the Martyrdom of St Becket.5 Woolgar gives several examples of
1
"Ball for Musk." Victoria and Albert Collections. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2013.
2
Woolgar, C. M. The Senses in Late Medieval England. New Haven Conn.: Yale UP, 2006. Print. p. 11
3
Woolgar, p. 11
4
C. Classen, D. Howes and A. Synnott Aroma: the cultural history of smell (London, 1994) pp.3, 116
5
Woolgar, p. 118

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pleasant smells accompanying the opening of tombs and the advent of miracles.6 Not only were
good scents present at dramatic religious events, but they were also present in the everyday
religious health of a person. Theories about the exact connection between virtuosity and heaven
vary, but it is undeniable that good scents were associated with goodness. By maintaining your
physical self through good hygiene you were also maintaining your "garden of virtue" and
attracting god into that "garden". According the 14th century author, Klein, the devotee must
nurture a garden in her heart so that the scents will welcome god into her.7 The author prescribes
different plants to different virtues, so authors valued the symbolic nature of plants. Washing was
considered baptismal because when smells were washed away, sins were also. In popular and
philosophical discussions of smells there was an agreement that they reflected your virtue, but
the papacy made no official connection between smell and virtue.8 In fact, Dominicans saw the
use of perfume as lavish and worthy of confession.9 During public worship, scent in censures
supposed to carry your prayers up to heaven and make those prayers pleasing to god, thus
increasing your chances of being humored.10 Evil smells marked things destined for hell. Many
descriptions of hell pair it with an awful stench.11 Good smells could protect you from the bad,
like temptation or the plague. That a modifier of scents, such as the pomander were used in
personal devotional context is not all that far-fetched considering the importance of scent to
theories on religion and the soul especially the very personal areas of maintaining your garden of
virtue.
Pomanders were involved in meditation with rosary beads. There are many visually
documented instances of pomanders being attached to rosary beads so pomanders were probably
involved in the mediation process. Proof: hours of Burgundy, them being attachment to the
rosary (rosaries were used for meditating), examples on Mary herself in paintings. Pomanders
were just one way to incorporate the odorous ideal into religious life. For example, censures,
prayer nuts like these,12 and floral imagery also played a role in the ecclesiastical setting.
However pomanders are unique because of their personal nature and association with the rosary
bead and therefore association with Mary. Meditating with rosary beads was very common by
the Late middle ages and consisted of repeating the Hail Mary prayer while visualizing Christ's
life or Mary. Thomas of Cantipre first called the beads used to count a strung of prayers or
hymns a rosary in the 13th.13 During the 15th century this practice arose and involved chanting a
series of Ave Marias and Pater Nosters with meditation on the Life of Christ.14 Marcus von
Weida's rosary manual says in takes fifteen minutes to pray through one third of the string.15 This
repetition is a common way of reaching a meditative state. The goal of this visualization and
6
Woolgar, p. 118
7
Falkenburg, Reindert Leonard. The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticismand the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin
and Child, 1450-1550. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub., 1994. Print. p. 23
8
Woolgar, p. 125
9
Woolgar, p. 126
10
Woolgar, p. 119
11
T.H. Seiler, "Filth and stench as aspects of the iconography of Hell" in The iconography of Hell ed. C. Davidson and T.H.
Seiler (Medieval InstituePublications, Kalamazoo, Early Drama, Art and MusicMonograph Series, 17; 1992) pp. 132-40
12
Reischig, Peter, Jorik Blaas, Charl Botha, Alberto Bravin, Liisa Porra, Christian Nemoz, Arie Wallert, and Joris Dik. “A Note
on Medieval Microfabrication: The Visualization of a Prayer Nut by Synchrotron-based Computer X-ray Tomography.” Journal
of Synchrotron Radiation 16, no. 2 (February 12, 2009): 310–313. doi:10.1107/S0909049508043082.
13
McLean, Teresa. Medieval English Gardens. New York: Viking, 1981. Print. p. 132
14
Falkenburg, p. 47
15
Winston-Allen, Anne. Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages. Penn State Press, 1997. p. 48

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meditation, Love says, encourages moral action and sympathy.16 Rosary meditation was
encouraged even in an atmosphere of anti-idol behavior because of its didactic purpose. Late
medieval "how-to" manuals on meditation encourage the "inventing details and self insertion to
elicit affective response which would lead more effectively to contrition and penance".17 This
means that the worshipper was meant to imagine the story of the life of Christ and insert
themselves into that story, creating dialogue and imagining surroundings to make the experience
as personal as possible. The goal of meditation was to create emotional arousal and hopefully
inspire moral action.18 Private devotional practices becoming more popular to supplement church
activities and to encourage a more personal relationship with God, especially for those women
who remained at home often. Rosary confraternities were dominated by women.19 This could be
due to the rosaries attachment of the Virgin Mary. Visualization in prayer was an important way
to personalize religion and to subsidize the religious experience offered by the church. This
period saw a shift towards individual prayer and recreating the church in the home. The entire
genre of Andachtsbild "allow the viewer to engage in contemplative empathy"20 and were
intended for the privacy of the home. We know that pomanders were used in private devotional
practices because Nun Katarina gave simple monastery version as new year's gifts to her friends
with the intention of them being used in private devotion.21 Her letters support the theory that
pomanders were important to private worship as well as personal protection from "bad air".
Pomanders, by their nature were a very personal item meant to be held physically close to the
owner. By holding a pomander the heat in that person's hands softens the resin and helps release
the scent.
Two images from the Netherlandish Hours of Mary of Burgundy perfectly demonstrate
the meditation process, while illustrating the involvement of scent and the pomander in that
process. Prayer books, like this book of hours, replicated the church experience in the home
when used to imagine the divine.22 If we interpret these images in a didactic sense, then they
address the ideal way to meditate during that time period. The purpose of meditating in this way
was to think about the story, insert yourself in that story and hopefully learn something by
inserting yourself. Scent is very much linked to memory, so was a very useful addition to this
informative and empathetic personal experience. The manuscript artist paints Mary of Burgundy
kneeling before a window looking into a church where she visualizes herself before the Virgin
and Child. Instead of prayer beads, Mary of Burgundy enables this vision by reading from her
prayer book. However the illuminators do depict a set of beads on another page adjacent to the
prayer book, indicating parallels in use for meditation. This theme of scent in her visions is
continued when we note the baubles on her rosary look like pomanders. We can deduct from this
that she was using scent to help her commune with the Virgin. In addition to a pomander this
illumination features prominent use of flowers including iris and carnations. These are
undoubtedly symbolic, as noted by several scholars, but also used to denote scent. In the first
image, a priest waves a censure around to help carry prayers up to heaven. The theme of a vision
16
LeVert, Laurelle. “‘CrucifyeHem, Crucifye Hem’: The Subject and Affective Responsein Middle English Passion
Narratives.” Essays in Medieval Studies 14 (1997): p. 73.
17
LeVert, p. 73
18
LeVert, p. 73
19 Winston-Allen p. 28
20
Falkenburg, p. 2
21
Schleif, Corine, and Volker Schier. Katerina’s Windows: Donation and Devotion, Art and Music, As Heard and Seen Through
the Writings of a Birgittine Nun. Penn State Press, 2009, p. 241
22
Clanchy, Michael. "Images of Ladies with Prayer Books: What Do the Signify?" The Church and the Book : Papers Read at
the 2000 Summer Meeting and the 2001 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (2004): 106-12. Print

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continues on the second page, but the patron Mary of Burgundy is absent. The artist uses the
same strategy to designate a vision by showing Christ's Passion frames by a set of columns.
The Virgin Mary has a long history of association with garden imagery. The pomander's
association with meditating on Mary makes sense because of Mary's association with garden
imagery. The most direct way the worshipper could use the floral scents and the pomander to
commune with Mary and thus God was through meditation because Mary was heavily associate
with botanical imagery. Modern scholarship privileges sight or "inner sight" when speaking
about meditation because vision is much easier to depict in art and scent is not a lasting concept.
Sight was obviously important but smell was as well. The Virgin's association with smell and
botanical imagery was noticeable in the way religious people talked about her. Mirk compared
her to a spice shop in one sermon.23 In addition to that, artists frequently depict her in a garden
because of the Song of Songs.
Pomanders were probably used specifically to meditate on Mary in the garden because of
the overall importance of the Song of Songs passage along with its symbolic significance. The
Song of Songs, a passage in the bible with erotic undertones generally understood as an allegory
for the union between either the Virgin and Christ or God and his followers was a popular
subject in the Late Middle Ages. Winston-Allen said that it "pervaded all aspects of religious
writing and served as a standard emotive idiom for mystical, devotional expression throughout
the middle ages."24 The Song of Songs provided a catch-all for religious emulation for married
women because it provided a metaphorical example for a good wife and the good wife being a
good follower of god. The Song of Songs served as inspiration for garden throughout medieval
literature and art.25 As an allegory for the union between soul and creator or the love between
Mary and Christ its multiple interpretations prove its significance. Along with representing a
union, the Song of Songs even applies specific meanings to the botanical motifs used.26
"botanical motifs represent the bride and bridegroom which have been taken as allegories for
Christ and Mary. This resulted in use of these motifs in prayer and hymns to represent the virgin
and Jesus."27 The garden in the Song of Songs often "amalgamated" with Eden.28
The pomander itself is ripe with botanical imagery. The name pomander comes from pomme
d'ambre meaning apple of amber. Apples have very obvious connotations to gardens because of
the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from Paradise. Pomander designers emphasized the floral
connotations by covering pomanders with scrolls of foliage and geometric patterns, drawing
attention to its purpose of holding scents suited for a garden.
In addition to representing Mary, the garden also represents the worshipper. When the
author writes that "she is a garden enclosed" it shows that the garden is a symbol for the
woman.29 Pomanders were used to help the union between god and worshipper. Rosary beads
"brought the user to god through the Virgin Mary" and through the powers of smell, pomanders
did the same thing. Just as maintaining your metaphorical garden of virtue welcomed god into
your heart, generally smelling nice was thought to attracts god, thus enabling the union between
devotee and god. The Song of Songs replicated this experience with the line "to spread the sweet
23
Mirk's Festial ed. T. Erbe (EETS, ES 96;1905) pp.245-6.
24
Winston-Allen, p. 146
25
McLean, p. 121
26
Falconburg, p. 8
27
Falconburg, p. 9
28
McLean, p. 121
29
The Bible, Song of Solomon 4:12

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smell around/let my beloved come into his garden."30 It is a perfect example of the union
between worshipper and god, which was another goal of private devotion. The pomander
facilitated this by inviting god in because good smells were equated with virtue. God only goes
into the garden of "those pure virtues and those sweet smelling hearts."31 St Bernard believed
that there were five spiritual counterparts to the five physical senses and uniting with God used
those senses. 32 People were thought to be able to taste and smell god when united and this is
what the pomander replicated. The pomander also facilitated this by improving the meditation
experience and making it more real, thus allowing the worshipper to be more involved in their
divine experience and unite with God. Richard of St Victor took this philosophy further when he
wrote hortus conclusus. Medieval theologians extended the idea of the garden of virtue to
paradise. Just like in the Song of Songs, the garden represents the soul where 'plants of virtue'
grow and where the soul can spiritually access their virtues, thus gaining insight into what the
afterlife will be like.33
In Conclusion, floral smells eased meditation on garden imagery. Garden imagery helped
viewer think about the Virgin because of her association with gardens in the Song of Songs and
the belief that virtue was associated with smell. As the interceder between God and worshipper,
the virgin encouraged the union between the two, completing the double meaning of the Song of
Songs as the love between god and worshipper. So pomanders combined with meditation helped
the worshipper unite with god both by drawing the holy spirit in with good smells and by
recreating the Song of Songs.
30
The Bible, Song of Solomon 4:16
31
Falconburg, p. 22
32
Falconburg, p. 18
33
Falconburg, pp.19-20

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fig. 1: Joos van Cleve, Holy Family, Oil on canvas, 1464-1540, http://www.arthermitage.org/
Fig. 2 and 3: Hours of Mary of Burgundy, 1467-80, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna,
Lib-Art.com

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Bibliography
Classen, C., D. Howes, and A. Synnott Aroma: the cultural history of smell (London, 1994) pp.3, 116
Clanchy, Michael. "Images of Ladies with Prayer Books: What Do the Signify?" The Church and the
Book : Papers Read at the 2000 Summer Meeting and the 2001 Winter Meeting of the
Ecclesiastical History Society (2004): 106-12. Print.
Falkenburg, Reindert Leonard. The Fruit of Devotion: Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish
Paintings of the Virgin and Child, 1450-1550. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub., 1994. Print.
LeVert, Laurelle. “‘Crucifye Hem, Crucifye Hem’: The Subject and Affective Response in Middle
English Passion Narratives.” Essays in Medieval Studies 14 (1997): 73.
McLean, Teresa. Medieval English Gardens. New York: Viking, 1981. Print.
Mirk's Festial ed. T. Erbe (EETS, ES 96;1905) pp.245-6.
Reischig, Peter, Jorik Blaas, Charl Botha, Alberto Bravin, Liisa Porra, Christian Nemoz, Arie Wallert,
and Joris Dik. “A Note on Medieval Microfabrication: The Visualization of a Prayer Nut by
Synchrotron-based Computer X-ray Tomography.” Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 16, no. 2
(February 12, 2009): 310–313. doi:10.1107/S0909049508043082.
Schleif, Corine, and Volker Schier. Katerina’s Windows: Donation and Devotion, Art and Music, As
Heard and Seen Through the Writings of a Birgittine Nun. Penn State Press, 2009.
T.H. Seiler, "Filth and stench as aspects of the iconography of Hell" in The iconography of Hell ed. C.
Davidson and T.H. Seiler (Medieval Institue Publications, Kalamazoo, Early Drama, Art and
Music Monograph Series, 17; 1992) pp. 132-40
Winston-Allen, Anne. Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages. Penn State
Press, 1997.
Woolgar, C. M. The Senses in Late Medieval England. New Haven Conn.: Yale UP, 2006. Print.
N. a. "Ball for Musk." Victoria and Albert Collections. Web. 14 May 2013
N. a. "Song of Solomon" Song of Solomon.4:12-4:16. Web. 14 May 2013