A plague doctor was a physician who treated victims of bubonic plague during 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.
Plague doctors had a mixed reputation, with some citizens seeing their presence as a warning to leave the area or that death was near. Some plague doctors were said to charge patients and their families additional fees for special treatments or false cures.
In France and the Netherlands, plague doctors often lacked medical training and were referred to as "Empiricism". 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.[Simon, Matthew, Emergent Computation: emphasizing bioinformatics, Publisher シュプリンガー・ジャパン株式会社, 2005, p. 3. ]
History
An early reference to plague doctors wearing masks is in 1373 when Johannes Jacobi recommends the use of masks, but he offers no physical description of the masks.
According to Michel Tibayrunc's
Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases,
the first mention of the iconic plague doctor is found during a 1619 plague outbreak in Paris, in a biography of royal physician Charles de Lorme, serving King
Louis XIII of France at the time.
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
Satire work, Fürst describes how the doctor does nothing but terrify people and take money from the dead and dying.
The city of Orvieto hired Matteo Angelo as a plague doctor in 1348 for four times a normal doctor's rate of 50 per year. Pope Clement VI hired several extra plague doctors during the Black Death plague to tend to the sick people of Avignon. Of 18 doctors in Venice, only one was left by 1348: five had died of the plague, and 12 were missing and may have fled.
Methods and tasks
Plague doctors practiced
bloodletting and other remedies such as putting frogs or leeches on the
to "rebalance the
Humorism." A plague doctor's principal task, besides treating people suffering from the plague, was to compile public records of plague deaths. 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. Plague doctors sometimes took patients' last will and testament during times of plague epidemics, and gave advice to their patients about their conduct before death.
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.
Costume
The origins of the plague costumes are unclear but have been traced to 17th century Italy and France.
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.
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.
[Glaser, pp. 33–34]
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.[*Time-Life Books, pp. 140, 158
]
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Dolan, p. 139
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Paton
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Martin, p. 121
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Sherman, p. 162
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Turner, p. 180
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Mentzel, p. 86
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Glaser, p. 36
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Hall, p. 67
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Infectious Diseases Society of America, Volume 11, p. 819
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Grolier, p. 700
The beak could hold dried flowers (like and ), herbs (like Lavandula and peppermint), Camphorosmeae, or a vinegar sponge, as well as juniper berry, ambergris, cloves, labdanum, myrrh, and Storax balsam. The herb-containing mask would have allowed for the doctor to use both hands in examining the patient.[Irvine Loudon, Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 2001), p. 189.]
The wide-brimmed leather hat helped to indicate a plague doctor's profession.
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, splattered blood, and lymphatic fluid. The robe, being leather or waxed, prevented from clinging to the wearers' clothes and infesting them.
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.
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.
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. This well known costume now is used as common costume in festivals mainly in Europe and within the art of theater.
Contract
Plague doctors were contracted by municipal administrators to treat
bubonic plague patients. These contracts are present in European city archives.
Historical examples of plague doctor contracts show contracts negotiated over questions of pay, housing, citizenship, service period, and scope of service.
Part of the plague doctor's contractual agreement was to
quarantine after seeing a plague patient, essentially living in isolation.
Their contractual responsibility was to treat plague patients and no other type of patient, to prevent spreading the disease to the uninfected.
Notable plague doctors
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In 1479 the city of Pavia contracted Giovanni de Ventura as a community plague doctor.
[King, Margaret L., Western Civilization: a social and cultural history, Prentice-Hall, 2002, p. 339. ]
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Irish physician Niall Ó Glacáin earned deep respect in Spain, France and Italy for his bravery in treating numerous people with the plague.
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French anatomist Ambroise Paré and Swiss Iatrochemistry Paracelsus were famous Renaissance plague doctors.
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Nostradamus gave advice about preventive measures against the plague,
Clifford A. Pickover (2025). 157392895X, Prometheus Books. 157392895X
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John Paulitious was Edinburgh's first plague doctor,
Notes
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Further reading
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Elizabeth Fee, AIDS: the burdens of history, University of California Press, 1988,
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Fitzharris, Lindsey. "Behind the Mask: The Plague Doctor." The Chirurgeons Apprentice. Web. 6 May 2014.
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Haggard, Howard W., From Medicine Man to Doctor: The Story of the Science of Healing, Courier Dover Publications, 2004,
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Heymann, David L., The World Health Report 2007: a safer future: global public health security in the 21st century, World Health Organization, 2007,
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Kenda, Barbara, Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited, Taylor & Francis, 2006,
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Mattie, Herbert J. "In search of Doctor Zero." History, Health & Healing. Web. October 2022.
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Reading, Mario, The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, Sterling Publishing (2009),
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Rosenhek, Jackie. "Doctor's Review: Medicine on the Move." Doctor's Review. Web. May 2011.
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Pavia city archives Envelope, 458
External links
