Physician that treated patients with bubonic plague
Copper engraving of a plague doctor of 17th-century Rome, by Paulus Fürst, 1656.
A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague[2] during epidemics in 17th-century Europe. These physicians were hired by cities to treat infected patients regardless of income, especially the poor, who could not afford to pay.[3][4]
Plague doctors had a mixed reputation, with some citizens seeing their presence as a warning to leave the area or that death was near.[5] Some plague doctors were said to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures.[6] In many cases, these doctors were not experienced or trained physicians or surgeons, instead being volunteers, second-rate doctors, or young doctors just starting a career.[7] Plague doctors rarely cured patients, instead serving to record death tolls and the number of infected people for demographic purposes.[5]
In France and the Netherlands, plague doctors often lacked medical training and were referred to as "empirics". Plague doctors were known as municipal or "community plague doctors", whereas "general practitioners" were separate doctors and both might be in the same city or town simultaneously.[2][8][9][10]
History
An early reference to plague doctors wearing masks is in 1373 when Johannes Jacobi recommends the use of masks, but offers no physical description of the masks themselves.[11] According to Michel Tibayrunc's Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases,[12] the first mention of the iconic plague doctor is found during the 1619 plague outbreak in Paris, in a biography of royal physician Charles de Lorme, serving King Louis XIII of France at the time.[13] After De Lorme, German engraver Gerhart Altzenbach published a famous illustration in 1656, which publisher Paulus Fürst's iconic Doctor Schnabel von Rom (1656) is based upon. In this satirical work, Fürst describes how the doctor does nothing but terrify people and take money from the dead and dying.[14]
The city of Orvieto hired Matteo Angelo as a plague doctor in 1348 for four times a normal doctor's rate of 50 florins per year.[9]Pope Clement VI hired several extra plague doctors during the Black Death plague to tend to the sick people of Avignon. Of eighteen doctors in Venice, only one was left by 1348: five had died of the plague, and twelve were missing and may have fled.[15]
Methods and tasks
Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs or leeches on the buboes to "rebalance the humors."[16] A plague doctor's principal task, besides treating people with the plague, was to compile public records of plague deaths.[5]
In certain European cities like Florence and Perugia, plague doctors were requested to do autopsies to help determine the cause of death and how the plague affected the people.[17] Plague doctors also sometimes took patients' last will and testament during times of plague epidemics,[18] and gave advice to their patients about their conduct before death.[19] This advice differed per patient, and after the Middle Ages, the nature of the relationship between doctor and patient was governed by an increasingly complex ethical code.[20][21]
One of two only known surviving plague masks; dated between 1650 and 1750; held by the German Historical Museum, Berlin
The exact origins of the plague costumes are unclear but have been traced to 17th century Italy and France.[23] While plague doctors wore a mask of some form since at least 1373, there is no evidence linking the typical image of the plague doctor costume to medieval plague doctors, and most of the early modern depictions of the costume come from satirical writings and political cartoons.[11][24][25] Some plague doctors may have worn a special costume consisting of a bird-like beak mask containing aromatic herbs, an ankle-length overcoat, gloves, boots, a wide-brimmed hat, a linen hood, and an outer over-clothing garment.[26][27][28][29][30]
There are only two known artifacts of plague masks, both dated to the 17th century and both found in Germany. Despite contemporaneous outbreaks in other regions such as Italy, there is no historical evidence of plague in central Europe that would correspond to these masks.[22] The masks have glass over the eyes and curved leather "beaks". One mask has two small nose holes and may have been used as a type of respirator which contained aromatic plants or substances.[23] The first known observation of the herbal-stuffed beak was during the 1656–1658 epidemic in Rome.[23][31] The beak could hold dried flowers (like roses and carnations), herbs (like lavender and peppermint), camphor, or a vinegar sponge, as well as juniper berry, ambergris, cloves, labdanum, myrrh, and storax.[citation needed] The herb-containing mask would have allowed for the doctor to use both hands in examining the patient.[23] The purpose of aromatic contents of the mask was to protect the wearer from miasma, a pathogenic form of "bad air" thought to be evidenced by bad smells, such as the smells of sick patients or decaying bodies.[32][33]
The wide-brimmed leather hat helped to indicate a plague doctor's profession.[30] They used wooden canes in order to point out areas needing attention and to examine patients without touching them.[34] The canes were also used to keep people away[35] The doctor's long robe was made from linen because it was said contagion did not stick to linen as easily as other materials.[23] The robe was also sometimes made from goat skin, which was said to be stronger against the plague than linen because of its small pores and polished texture. It was not unheard of for the robe to be sealed with oil or wax for an extra layer of protection so the miasma could not seep through the holes of the linen material.[citation needed]
Though contemporary theories about the nature of plague transmission were somewhat incorrect, it is likely that this costume would have provided some protection. The garments covered the face and body, shielding against airborne droplets, as well as splattered blood and lymphatic fluid. The robe, being leather or waxed, prevented fleas from clinging to the wearers' clothes and infesting them.[36][23] The costume of the plague doctor is one of the earliest examples of personal protective equipment in the medical profession.[32]
Cultural Depictions
Depictions of the beaked plague doctor rose in response to superstition and fear about the unknown source of the plague, symbolizing the foreboding of death.[26] The beaked plague doctor inspired costumes in Italian theater as a symbol of general horror and death, though some historians insist that the plague doctor was originally fictional and inspired the protective garments of real plague doctors later.[24]
While later sources based in other regions do claim that this costume was in use in their country (most specifically during the Black Death), it is possible that these sources were influenced by theater and other works of fiction[citation needed].
This well known costume now is used as common costume in festivals mainly in Europe and within the art of theater.[37]
Contract
A plague doctors were contracted by municipal administrators to treat bubonic plague patients. These contracts are present in European city archives.[7] Historical examples of plague doctor contracts show contracts negotiated over questions of pay, housing, citizenship, service period, and scope of service.[7] Part of the plague doctor's contractual agreement was to quarantine after seeing a plague patient, essentially living in isolation.[38] Their contractual responsibility was to treat plague patients, and no other type of patient, to prevent spreading the disease to the uninfected.[39]
Notable plague doctors
The Italian city of Pavia, in 1479, contracted Giovanni de Ventura as a community plague doctor.[9][40]
The Irish physicianNiall Ó Glacáin (c.1563–1653) earned deep respect in Spain, France and Italy for his bravery in treating numerous people with the plague.[41][42]
Nostradamus gave advice about preventive measures against the plague,[44][45] such as the removal of infected corpses, getting fresh air, drinking clean water, and drinking a juice preparation of rose hips.[46][47] In Traité des fardemens Part A Chapter VIII, Nostradamus also recommended to not bleed the patient.[47]
↑ The historian Herbert J. Mattie has argued that the print constitutes a Protestant caricature of Catholicism, in "The Raven and the Plague: Iconology of Paulus Fürst's Doctor Schnabel," Nuncius, advanced article, 14 april 2025.
1 2 Cohn, Samuel. The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe. p.209.
↑ Michel Tibayrenc, ed. (2007). Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases: Modern Methodologies. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Liss. ISBN978-0-471-65732-3. OCLC181344580.
Bauer, Susan Wise (2003). The Story of the World: Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages – From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance. Peace Hill Press. ISBN978-0-9714129-4-1.
Byfield, Ted (2010). Renaissance: God in Man, A.D. 1300 to 1500: But Amid Its Splendors, Night Falls on Medieval Christianity. Christian History Project. ISBN978-0-9689873-8-4.
Byrne, Joseph Patrick (2006). Daily Life During the Black Death. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN0-313-33297-5.
Byrne, Joseph Patrick (2008). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues. ABC-Clio. ISBN978-0-313-34102-1.
Heymann, David L., The World Health Report 2007: a safer future: global public health security in the 21st century, World Health Organization, 2007, ISBN92-4-156344-3
Kenda, Barbara, Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited, Taylor & Francis, 2006, ISBN0-415-39804-5
Mattie, Herbert J. "In search of Doctor Zero." History, Health & Healing. Web. October 2022.
Reading, Mario, The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, Sterling Publishing (2009), ISBN1-906787-39-5
Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctor's Review: Medicine on the Move." Doctor's Review. Web. May 2011.
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