Doctors of Death
The plague doctor is a figure who has come to be associated with the Black Death and the late Middle Ages, but the first mention of such a profession actually came significantly later, in the 1619 notes of King Louis XIII’s physician, Charles de Lorme.
Plague doctors were hired by individual European cities to treat the infected, and their practices included bloodletting and using leeches or frogs to treat buboes, the swollen lymph nodes which gave the disease its name. By contract, they could only treat those who were infected, and because the plague could only be treated (not cured), their main job was to compile public records for deaths from the disease. At times, they were also asked to perform post-mortem examinations.
The famous depiction that we know today first appeared during the Naples and Rome outbreaks of 1656, in Paulus Fürst’s Doctor Schnabel von Rom (Doctor Beak of Rome). That illustration was copied from a piece by German engraver Gerhart Altzenbach and it was meant to be satirical. The work alleged that all plague doctors really did was scare people and take the money of the dead and dying.
The plague doctor’s outfit consists of an ankle-length black overcoat, wide-brimmed hat, boots, gloves, a silk hood, and most famously, a bird-beak mask with glass eyes. Its origins have been traced to France and Italy, but it should be noted that this costume was not worn by all plague doctors.
The clothing served to protect the doctor from bodily fluids, and the mask was for practicality as opposed to aesthetics. Its wearer would fill the holes of the beak with things like dried flowers, peppermint, camphor, juniper berries, cloves, and lavender to combat miasma or “bad air.” Many people of the time believed that bad air originated from rotting organic matter and caused infectious diseases like the plague and cholera. Plague doctors were often the last thing patients saw, therefore, this dark ensemble has come to be seen as a general symbol of death.
The plague doctor’s mask is also associated with Italian theatre, namely a character known as Il Medico della Peste (The Plague Doctor). This particular mask is usually white and is often worn during the annual Carnival of Venice. Some historians argue that Il Medico actually inspired the plague doctor’s ensemble, instead of the other way around.
