Plague doctor plush3/12/2024 ![]() The plague doctor's costume is first mentioned by Charles de L'Orme, physician to King Louis XIII of France, who, writing about the 1619 plague outbreak in Paris, developed a costume made of Moroccan goat leather that included boots, breeches, a long coat, hat and gloves imitating a soldier's canvas robe from neck to ankle. In this satirical work, Fürst describes how doctors do nothing but terrorise people and take money from the dead and dying. After De Lorme, the German engraver Gerhart Altzenbach published a famous illustration in 1656 on which the publisher Paulus Fürst based his iconic Dr Schnabel von Romm. The cane was also used to keep people away and to undress without touching the victims of the plague.Īccording to Michel Tibayrenc's Encyclopaedia of Infectious Diseases, the iconic plague doctor was first mentioned in the written writings of Charles de Lorme, the royal physician then in the service of King Louis XIII of France, during the outbreak of the plague in Paris in 1619. ![]() Wide-brimmed leather hats indicated their profession, and they used wooden canes to point out areas that needed attention and to examine patients without touching them. The doctors believed that these herbs could combat the 'stench' of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected. the purpose of the mask was to prevent the foul odour, known as miasma, which was thought to be the main cause of the disease. The beak could hold dried flowers, herbs, camphor or vinegar sponges, as well as juniper berries, ambergris, cloves, laudanum, myrrh and storax. The mask has two small nostrils and is a breathing apparatus containing aromatic substances. ![]() This advice varied from patient to patient and, after the Middle Ages, the nature of the relationship between doctor and patient was governed by an increasingly complex code of ethics.Ī typical costume consists of an ankle-length coat and a beak mask, usually filled with a sweet or strongly scented substance (usually lavender), as well as gloves, boots, a wide-brimmed hat and an outer garment costume.Ī typical mask has glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak, shaped like a bird's beak, with straps to hold the beak in front of the doctor's nose. Plague doctors became witnesses to countless wills during plague epidemics and advised their patients on their conduct before death. The plague doctor's main task, in addition to treating people suffering from the plague, was to compile public records of plague deaths.
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