![]() ![]() Furthermore, plague doctors were often summoned to testify and witness wills of the dead and dying. Plague doctors were also responsible for tallying the number of casualties in logbooks for public record, and documented the last wishes of their patients. In theory, the primary duties of a plague doctor were to treat and cure victims of the plague, and to bury the dead. Plague doctors were public servants hired by villages, towns, or cities when a plague struck. These were European physicians who specialized in treating victims of the plague, the best known example being the Black Death. The plague doctor is arguably one of the most enigmatic figures to have emerged from the Middle Ages. But what does it mean? The Various Roles of Plague Doctors While plague doctors have been plying their trade since the Middle Ages, it was only after this period, during the 17th century, that they acquired their creepy trademark costume. Though the image is iconic the relationship may be a little anachronistic. ![]() It is possible that he, intentionally or not, attributed to de Lorme the invention of an object that, most likely, originated instead in Rome during the plague epidemic of 1656.The plague doctor mask is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Black Death. Saint-Martin obtained this information second hand, since he was a child in 1619. The biographer tells us that during the 1619 Paris plague, de Lorme designed a special costume made of Moroccan leather, which “he wore, pants-like, from his feet to his head, with a mask of the same leather where he attached a nose, half foot long, to divert the bad air”. The only contemporary reference to De Lorme’s alleged invention comes from an often inaccurate biographical account, published in 1682 by Michel de Saint Martin. De Lorme’s own writings, however, do not mention any mask or other kinds of protection for plague doctors. That year, so the story goes, Charles de Lorme (1584-1678), personal physician to various members of the French royal household, invented the mask. The myth of the plague doctor mask dates its origin Muratori recommended a gown, preferably made of leather or, in its absence, waxed silk or taffeta, and then mentioned that that “some sometimes have covered their face with a mask, or bautta, to which they added two crystal eyes” In 1714, he published On the Management of Plague in which he discussed the protective equipment that doctors and surgeons assisting plague patients should wear. One of the earliest mentions of masks is in the work of the Italian scholar Ludovico Muratori. Protective masks started to appear in the seventeenth century. It is possible that they protected themselves with cloths impregnated with scented substances, which they kept near their mouth. Medieval plague doctors did not use any mask. ![]() If you browse the web, you will find websites dedicated to the history of Venetian masks that claim that the plague doctor mask differs from all others because it was not just a costume but a real protective equipment used by doctors in time of plague epidemics. When you think of a plague doctor you most likely picture in your mind someone wearing a bird-like beak mask, similar - if not the identical - to the Venetian masks that populate many window shops in Venice.
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