Welcome to Three Interesting Facts About Plague Doctor, a blog about the history of doctors in the Middle Ages. Doctors in the Middle Ages are an often overlooked but fascinating part of history. While they didn’t have the same knowledge that we enjoy today, they did their best under difficult circumstances and often made discoveries that paved the way for modern medicine.
Today we’ll be talking about plague doctors. Plague doctors were a specific kind of doctor who treated victims of the Black Death during Europe’s medieval period. They dressed in heavy robes with a bird-like mask and carried a long staff to keep their distance from patients. You’ll see these costumes at Renaissance fairs, but what did they really look like?
Plague doctors wore long robes made of waxed canvas, which was meant to protect them from contagion. The robes had long sleeves and hoods with glass eyeholes in the beak-like masks. These masks featured leather headpieces with beaks filled with fragrant herbs and spices to stave off infection. The robes also featured a leather belt with pouches containing medicines and tools to care for patients, including sponges and wine vinegar. The outfit also included heavy leather boots and gloves (to protect against dogs), which were sometimes painted with wax or tar
3 Interesting Facts About Plague Doctors
Plague doctors were the medical practitioners who treated victims of the bubonic plague and other infectious diseases. They were first introduced during the 16th century and lasted until the 18th century. These doctors wore a beak-like mask that was filled with aromatic items. The purpose of the mask was to keep away bad smells, which were thought to be the primary cause of the plague. This is one of many theories that came about during this time period; many of them were utterly incorrect! Here are three interesting facts about plague doctors.
1) The outfit was designed by Charles de Lorme.
Charles de Lorme was a physician to King Louis XIII from 1619 until his death in 1678. He is well known for designing the plague doctor outfit, but it is not known if he ever actually wore it himself. Even though some plague doctors never wore masks, de Lorme believed that it was necessary in order to reduce the risk of infection.
The plague doctor costume is one of the most recognizable costumes of the Middle Ages. It has also been one of the most misunderstood as well. As with many things in history, the truth is not always as simple as it seems. Here are three facts on this subject that you may find interesting.
1. The plague doctor costume was not widely used until the 16th century. Before then, most of the time, doctors would wear something more akin to business attire than a long black robe with a beaked mask.
2. Many doctors who wore this costume did not even understand what they were trying to protect themselves from. The idea that germs caused disease was not widely accepted until much later in history, so many doctors simply believed that they could get sick from being exposed to bad air or miasma and that wearing these costumes would help them avoid such illnesses.
3. While wearing this costume for protection against disease is understandable, there was an unfortunate side effect of doing so: often times, patients refused to see doctors in these outfits because they thought that they were too scary and did not want to go near them!
The plague doctor costume is one of the most recognizable costumes of the Middle Ages and was worn by doctors who treated those with the black plague, also known as the bubonic plague. While there are many myths about what this costume looked like, there are also many images and even a few extant samples that give us a good idea of what these protective suits actually looked like.
The beak mask, which was designed to protect the wearer from disease by holding special herbs or perfumes, is usually what people associate with this costume but it is not all that accurate. The beak mask might have been worn by some doctors treating the sick but other doctors wore simple white masks or hoods to protect them from infection.
The picture above shows an Italian plague doctor from 1619 and is one of the earliest images in which we see the beak mask being used. This image is significant because it shows us one of the first instances in which a physician would use a mask to protect himself against disease.
Most people think that plague doctors walked around Europe during outbreaks of deadly plague but this is not true. There were only two cities in Europe where they actually worked: Paris and Rome. Both cities had their own guilds that employed these special physicians who were paid handsomely for their
Throughout the Middle Ages, physicians were called upon to treat some of the most infectious diseases in existence. These medical professionals were a special type of individual with a unique skill set. They were not only doctors but also scientists, engineers, and mechanics.
Plague Doctors: The Medical Professionals of the Middle Ages
What we typically call “medicine” today has evolved over hundreds of years of research, experimentation and technological innovation. In contrast, physicians in the Middle Ages had only a limited knowledge of the human body and little understanding about how infections spread.
Despite these limitations however, medical professionals in Medieval times had been able to develop special techniques for treating individuals infected with dangerous diseases such as the Plague. They were specifically trained as plague doctors and wore unique costumes when attending to patients.
In the mid-17th century, a mysterious disease struck the Mediterranean region, killing nearly 60% of the population. The doctors of the time had no idea what was causing it. So they turned to a theory that had been around since Roman times: miasma. Miasma was a kind of air pollution that came from decaying organic matter and spread through the air in bad smells.
The doctors thought that if they could protect themselves from miasma, they would protect themselves from the plague. So, beginning in Italy and spreading throughout Europe, they began treating their patients while wearing an early form of hazmat suit. It was long and black, with a wide-brimmed hat hiding their whole face except for their eyes. A beak-like mask hung from the front of the hat. It contained herbs to shield them from bad smells (or maybe just make them smell better).
Today we call this costume “the plague doctor.”
The plague doctor was a medical physician who treated victims of the bubonic plague. The role of the physician was not to cure but to observe and record, and possibly evacuate the victim from the general public. The costume worn by the physician was intended to protect him from airborne diseases. The mask had glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak shaped like that of a bird, stuffed with herbs, straw, spices etc. to keep away bad smells thought to be the principal cause of the disease. This consisted of a wide-brimmed leather hat, a waxed overcoat, leather gloves, boots and an umbrella.
The costume has been popularised in modern times as somewhat of an icon in fiction and performances, most notably in Venetian Carnivals where it is still used by several Doctor-themed participants. Perhaps most interestingly though is how this fictitious symbol can also be used in real life as well. A striking example would be when some hospital staffs use it to cheer up their patients during epidemics.