Uses

The Madonna Lily was already recommended as a medicinal herb by Pliny and Dioscurides, particularly for women's diseases. The Egyptians also regarded the Madonna Lily as "healer of female disorders". Egyptian doctors crushed the mucilaginous bulb and used it for emollient compresses for treating tumours, inflammation and burns. Lily oil brought relief in the treatment of burns and earache.
The Romans are said to have steeped the bulbs of the Madonna Lily in oil and used the extract to care for their sore feet.
In 827 AD the Benedictine monk Walahfrid Strabo described the lily very poetically in his botanical opus "De cultura hortorum":

"O radiant Lily, how with the paltry art of my sober muse
Can I bring you worthy praise in song and verse?
Your shimmering white is the reflection of snowy lustre,
The sweet scent of your bloom a reminder of the woods of Sheba.
Parian marble does not surpass the whiteness of the Lily,
Nor Lavender its perfume. And when the treacherous serpent
Cunningly concentrated poison from corruptive mouth
Doth spit, and through scarcely perceptible wound
Cruel death into the innermost heart doth send, then crush lilies in a mortar
And, this is expedient, drink the juice with heavy Falernian wine.
Or for contusions put it on the blue tinged parts, soon here, too, will be revealed the powers
With which this healing substance is endowed, working wonders.
Finally, lilies are also helpful for sprained or twisted limbs."

Hildegard von Bingen recommended lily water and ointments for skin rashes and blemished skin. According to her this pure flower could also brighten the spirits: "The scent of freshly sprouting lilies and the scent of the lily flowers gladden the heart and set the mind aright."
Lily petals crushed and mixed with honey are said to make the skin soft and help reduce lines and wrinkles.