1/7/2024 0 Comments The plague doctor originalAlong the way, we learn a bit more about early measures the city took against the plague (including the invention of the concept of shipping quarantines along with coinage of the word). Mask in Berlin Museum of German HistoryĪs there are reasons to doubt the authenticity of these, we next look at evidence of plague masks associated with the island of Poveglia in the Venice Lagoon. Next we look at other evidence for the character in the form of actual artifacts, including two masks exhibited in museums in Berlin and Ingolstadt, Germany. “Dr Schnabel/Beak of Rome, Paul Fürst, 1656 As this image was copied and recopied for centuries, it raises the question as to whether the birdlike mask was in fact drawn from life or created strictly in the service of this original broadsheet’s metaphor. Beak” and lampooned (along with doctors in general) for being greedy as carrion crows. His first appearance is in a German broadsheet from 1655, in which the crow-like character identified as “Dr. We also clear up the misunderstanding that the plague doctor is a medieval character (since he only appears in the 17th century). We begin with a few clips from horror films in which plague doctors figure, including the 2008 film The Sick House in which the spirit of a plague doctor menaces an archeologist, and the 2019 film The Cleansing in which a malevolent bird-masked “Cleanser” stalks through 14th-century Wales.Īs most listeners are somewhat familiar with the plague mask and its presumed function, we get that out of the way first, noting the mask’s connection to the antique belief in miasma, or disease-carrying air as the cause of the plague and other ailments. This episode sorts things out while seeking particular evidence for such handsomely dressed character in the historical record. The figure of the masked plague doctor is an object of intense fascination but also the subject of much misinformation. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Stitcher | Podchaser | Email | RSS | More So, for all the bizarreness of the ‘beak doctor’ costume, it does make sense given the theories of the time.Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:50 - 53.6MB) They could prod or move clothing about from further than at arm’s length. A final practical use a doctor had for a cane was to keep a patient (and, during the plague, suspected plague carriers in the street) at a distance. Such canes could also be a vessel for a pomander within the handle. If they could afford a good cane they were clearly successful. The final element a plague doctor’s costume is given in the poem as:įor centuries a cane was a symbolic accoutrement for a physician – a well-crafted cane, with a fancy handle would give a patient confidence in the abilities of their doctor. The oiled and waxed, often floor-length coats worn by the doctors, along with hoods, hats and gloves, would have been effective barriers against the biting of fleas, as well as being easier to wipe clean. We know that the disease was spread so virulently by fleas, borne on rats (recent reports suggest that gerbils were the original carriers in Asia) that flourished in what was described as London’s ‘most beastly durtie streets’. The rest of the costume was, ironically, more likely to be effective during the Great Plague of 1665. They could be stuffed with herbs and good smells to combat the disease in the air. How would you do this? Have nice smells to hand – or, rather, to nose! Thus the doctors wore beak-like masks. This theory was called miasma theory.Īvoiding breathing in this disease-bearing stench was vital. If you walked into a bad-smelling room the foulness was caused by the presence of disease – the air was polluted. There was a longstanding belief that diseases travelled through the air. So what was the thinking behind an outfit that might actually frighten the more delicate patient?
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