Plague doctor costume

Clothing worn by plague doctors that was intended to protect them from infection

Paul Fürst, engraving, c. 1656, of a plague doctor of Rome (introduced as 'Dr Beak of Rome'). His nose-case is filled with herbal material, to keep off the plague.[1]

The clothing worn by plague doctors was intended to protect them from airborne diseases during outbreaks of bubonic plague in Europe.[2] It is often seen as a symbol of death and disease.[3] Contrary to popular belief, no evidence suggests that the beak mask costume was worn during the Black Death or the Middle Ages. The costume started to appear in the 17th century when physicians studied and treated plague patients.[4]

## Description

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Plague doctor outfit from Germany (17th century)

The costume consists of a leather hat, mask with glass eyes and a beak, stick to remove clothes of a plague victim, gloves, waxed linen robe, and boots.[2]

The typical mask had glass openings for the eyes and a curved beak shaped like a bird's beak with straps that held the beak in front of the doctor's nose.[5] The mask had two small nose holes and was a type of respirator that contained aromatic items.[6] The beak could hold dried flowers (commonly roses and carnations), herbs (commonly lavender and peppermint), camphor, or a vinegar sponge,[7][8] as well as juniper berry, ambergris, cloves, labdanum, myrrh, and storax.[9] The purpose of the mask was to keep away bad smells, such as the smell of decaying bodies. The smell taken with the most caution was known as miasma, a noxious form of "bad air." This was thought to be the principal cause of the disease.[10] Doctors believed the herbs would counter the "evil" smells of the plague and prevent them from becoming infected.[11] Though these particular theories about the plague's nature were incorrect, it is likely that the costume actually did afford the wearer some protection. The garments covered the body, shielding against splattered blood, lymph, and cough droplets, and the waxed robe prevented fleas (the true carriers of the plague) from touching the body or clinging to the linen.[12]

The wide-brimmed leather hat indicated their profession.[2][13] Doctors used wooden canes in order to point out areas needing attention and to examine patients without touching them.[14] The canes were also used to keep people away[15][16] and to remove clothing from plague victims.[17]

## History

[edit]

The exact origins of the costume are unclear, as most depictions come from satirical writings and political cartoons.[18] An early reference to plague doctors wearing masks is in 1373 when Johannes Jacobi recommends their use but he offers no physical description of what these masks looked like.[19] The beaked plague doctor inspired costumes in Italian theater as a symbol of general horror and death, though some historians insist that the plague doctor was originally fictional and inspired the real plague doctors later.[20] Depictions of the beaked plague doctor rose in response to superstition and fear about the unknown source of the plague.[21] Often, these plague doctors were the last thing a patient would see before death; therefore, the doctors were seen as a foreboding of death.

The garments were first mentioned by a physician to King Louis XIII of France, Charles de Lorme, who wrote in a 1619 plague outbreak in Paris that he developed an outfit made of Moroccan goat leather, including boots, breeches, a long coat, hat, and gloves[22][23] modeled after a soldier's canvas gown that went from the neck to the ankle.[24][25][26] The garment was impregnated with similar fragrant items as the mask. De Lorme wrote that the mask had a "nose half a foot long, shaped like a beak, filled with perfume with only two holes, one on each side near the nostrils, but that can suffice to breathe and to carry along with the air one breathes the impression of the drugs enclosed further along in the beak."[27] Recent research has revealed that strong caveats must be applied with regard to De Lorme's assertions, however.[28]

The Genevan physician, Jean-Jacques Manget, in his 1721 work Treatise on the Plague written just after the Great Plague of Marseille, describes the costume supposedly worn by plague doctors in Rome in 1656. The costume forms the frontispiece of Manget's 1721 work.[29] Their robes, leggings, hats, and gloves were also made of Morocco leather.[30] This costume was also worn by plague doctors during the Naples Plague of 1656, which killed 145,000 people in Rome and 300,000 in Naples.[31][32] In his work Tractatus de Peste,[33] published at Toulouse in May 1629,[34] Irish physician Niall Ó Glacáin references the protective clothing worn by plague doctors, which included leather coats, gauntlets and long beak-like masks filled with fumigants.[35][36]

## Carnival

[edit]

A beaked Venetian carnival mask bearing a picture of a plague doctor, and the inscription Il Medico della Peste ('The Plague Doctor') beneath the right eye

The costume is also associated with a commedia dell'arte character called Il Medico della Peste ('The Plague Doctor'), who wears a distinctive plague doctor's mask.[37] The Venetian mask was normally white, consisting of a hollow beak and round eye-holes covered with clear glass, and is one of the distinctive masks worn during the Carnival of Venice.[38]

## COVID-19

[edit]

Posing with variations on plague masks in New Orleans during the April 2020 pandemic shutdown

During the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020, the plague doctor costume grew in popularity due to its relevance to the pandemic, with news reports of plague doctor-costumed individuals in public places and photos of people wearing plague doctor costumes appearing in social media.[39][40]

## See also

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* Gas mask – Protection from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases
* Hazmat suit – Protective suit against chemical, bacteriological, and nuclear risks
* Medical gown – Type of personal protective equipment worn by medical professionals
* N95 respirator – Particulate respirator meeting the N95 standard
* NBC suit – Type of military personal protective equipment

## References

[edit]

### Footnotes

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1. ^ Mattie, Herbert J. (2025). "The Raven and the Plague". Nuncius: 1–24\. doi:10.1163/18253911-bja10152.
2. ^ a b c
* Pommerville (Body Systems), p. 15
* Bauer, p. 145
* Byfield, p. 26
* Glaser, pp. 33-34
3. ^ Andrew Whalen On 3/19/20 at 1:31 PM EDT (2020-03-19). "Are surgical masks the new plague masks? A history of the not-always-helpful ways we've reacted to pandemics". Newsweek. Retrieved 2021-03-09.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
4. ^ Black, Winston; May 2020, All About History 19 (19 May 2020). "Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts". livescience.com. Retrieved 2021-03-09.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. ^ Ellis, p. 202
6. ^
* Time-Life Books, pp. 140, 158
* Dolan, p. 139
* Ellis, p. 202
* Paton
* Martin, p. 121
* Sherman, p. 162
* Turner, p. 180
* Mentzel, p. 86
* Glaser, p. 36
* Hall, p. 67
* Infectious Diseases Society of America, Volume 11, p. 819
* Grolier, p. 700
7. ^ O'Donnell, p. 135
8. ^ Stuart, p. 15
9. ^ Byrne 2006, p. 170.
10. ^ "Plagues of the Past". Science in the News. 2014-12-31. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
11. ^ Irvine Loudon, Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 2001), p. 189.
12. ^ Smith, Kiona. "A Look Behind the Plague Doctor Mask". Forbes. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
13. ^ Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts, p. 83
14. ^ "Imagery From the History of Medicine". art-bin.com. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
15. ^ Association, American Medical (1900). JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. American Medical Association.
16. ^ Byrne 2008, p. 505.
17. ^ Pommerville, p. 9
18. ^ "17th-century Plague Doctors Were the Stuff of Nightmares". HowStuffWorks. 2020-02-12. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
19. ^ Samuel Cohn's The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe, pg 209
20. ^ Black, Winston; May 2020, All About History 19 (19 May 2020). "Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts". livescience.com. Retrieved 2021-03-09.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
21. ^ Mussap, Christian J. (May 2019). "The Plague Doctor of Venice". Internal Medicine Journal. 49 (5): 671–676\. doi:10.1111/imj.14285. ISSN 1445-5994. PMID 31083805.
22. ^ Black, Winston; May 2020, All About History 19 (19 May 2020). "Plague doctors: Separating medical myths from facts". livescience.com. Retrieved 2021-03-09.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
23. ^ Timbs, p. 360
24. ^ Boeckl 2000, p. 15.
25. ^ Carmichael, A.G. (2009), "Plague, Historical", in Schaechter, Moselio (ed.), Encyclopedia of Microbiology (3rd ed.), Elsevier, pp. 58–72, doi:10.1016/B978-012373944-5.00311-4, ISBN 9780123739445
26. ^ Iqbal Akhtar Khan (May 2004). "Plague: the dreadful visitation occupying the human mind for centuries". Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 98 (5): 270–277\. doi:10.1016/S0035-9203(03)00059-2. PMID 15109549. "Charles de Lorme (1584—1678), personal physician to King Louis XIII, was credited with introducing special protective clothing for plague doctors during the epidemic in Marseilles. It consisted of a beak-like mask supplied with aromatic substance, presumed to act as filter against the odour emanating from the patients, and a loose gown covering the normal clothing. On occasions, a drifting fragrance such as camphor was used."
27. ^ Vidal, Pierre; Tibayrenc, Myrtille; Gonzalez, Jean-Paul (2007). "Chapter 40: Infectious disease and arts". In Tibayrenc, Michel (ed.). Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases: Modern Methodologies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 680\. ISBN 9780470114193.
28. ^ Mattie, Herbert J. (2023). ""Men in Tights: Charles De Lorme (1584–1678) and the First Plague Costume"". European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health (Published Online Ahead of Print 2023). 81: 1–13\. doi:10.1163/26667711-bja10033.
29. ^ Manget, p. 3
30. ^ Timbs, p. 360
31. ^ G. L. T. (July 1965). "The Plague Doctor". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. XX (3): 276. doi:10.1093/jhmas (inactive 12 July 2025). Retrieved 2024-07-21.`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
32. ^ Boeckl 2000, p. 15, 27.
33. ^ Full title: Tractatus de Peste, Seu Brevis, Facilis et Experta Methodus Curandi Pestem ('A Treatise on Plague, or A Short, Easy, and Expert Method for the Curing of Plague')
34. ^ Moore, Norman (1895). "O'Glacan, Nial" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42\. p. 33.
35. ^ Newmann, Kate (March 2021). "Nial O'Glacan (c.1590 - 1655)". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
36. ^ Murphy, David (October 2009). "O'Glacan (Ó Glacan), Nial". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006763.v1. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
37. ^ Killinger, p. 95
38. ^ Carnevale
39. ^ "Coronavirus: Hellesdon plague doctor given advice by police". BBC News. 2020-05-04. Retrieved 2023-03-03.
40. ^ "'Terrifying' plague doctor: U.K. police search for person in full 17th century outfit stalking suburb". nationalpost. Retrieved 2023-03-03.

### Works cited

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* Bauer, S. Wise, The Story of the World Activity Book Two: The Middle Ages : From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, Peace Hill Press, 2003, ISBN 0-9714129-4-4
* Boeckl, CM (1 December 2000). Images of Plague and Pestilence: Iconography and Iconology. Truman State University Press. ISBN 978-0943549859.
* Byfield, Ted, Renaissance: God in Man, A.D. 1300 to 1500: But Amid Its Splendors, Night Falls on Medieval Christianity, Christian History Project, 2010, ISBN 0-9689873-8-9
* Byrne, JP (30 August 2006). Daily Life During the Black Death. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9780313332975.
* Byrne, JP (30 September 2008). Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0313341014.
* Carmichael, Ann G., "SARS and Plagues Past", in SARS in Context: Memory, history, policy, ed. by Jacalyn Duffin and Arthur Sweetman McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-7735-3194-7
* Center for Advanced Study in Theatre Arts, Western European stages, Volume 14, CASTA, 2002,
* Dolan, Josephine, Goodnow's History of Nursing, W. B. Saunders 1963 (Philadelphia and London), LCCN 16--25236, OCLC 2882574
* Ellis, Oliver Coligny de Champfleur, A History of Fire and Flame, London: Simkin, Marshall, 1932; repr. Kessinger, 2004, ISBN 1-4179-7583-0
* Goodnow, Minnie, Goodnow's history of nursing, W.B. Saunders Co., 1968, OCLC Number: 7085173
* Glaser, Gabrielle, The Nose: A Profile of Sex, Beauty, and Survival, Simon & Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0-671-03864-8
* Grolier Incorporated, The Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 8; Volume 24, Grolier Incorporated, 1998, ISBN 0-7172-0130-9
* Hall, Manly Palmer, Horizon, Philosophical Research Society, Inc., 1949
* Hirst, Leonard Fabian, The conquest of plague: a study of the evolution of epidemiology, Clarendon Press, 1953,
* Infectious Diseases Society of America, Reviews of Infectious Diseases, Volume 11, University of Chicago Press, 1989
* Kenda, Barbara, Aeolian winds and the spirit in Renaissance architecture: Academia Eolia revisited, Taylor & Francis, 2006, ISBN 0-415-39804-5
* Killinger, Charles L., Culture and customs of Italy, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0-313-32489-1
* Nohl, Johannes, The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague, J. & J. Harper Edition 1969, LCCN 79--81867, OCLC 34505
* Manget, Jean-Jacques, Traité de la peste recueilli des meilleurs auteurs anciens et modernes, Geneva, 1721, online as PDF, 28Mb download
* Martin, Sean, The Black Death, Book Sales, 2009, ISBN 0-7858-2289-5
* Mentzel, Peter, A traveller's history of Venice, Interlink Books, 2006, ISBN 1-56656-611-8
* O'Donnell, Terence, History of life insurance in its formative years, American Conservation Company, 1936
* Paton, Alex, "Cover image", QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 100.4, 4 April 2007. (A commentary on the issue's cover photograph of The Posy Tree, Mapperton, Dorset.)
* Pommerville, Jeffrey, Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology: Body Systems, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009, ISBN 0-7637-6259-8
* Pommerville, Jeffrey, Alcamo's Fundamentals of Microbiology, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010, ISBN 0-7637-6258-X
* Reynolds, Richard C., On doctor[i]ng: stories, poems, essays, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-7432-0153-1
* Sandler, Merton, Wine: a scientific exploration, CRC Press, 2003, ISBN 0-415-24734-9
* Sherman, Irwin W., The power of plagues, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, ISBN 1-55581-356-9
* Stuart, David C., Dangerous garden: the quest for plants to change our lives, frances lincoln ltd, 2004, ISBN 0-7112-2265-7
* Timbs, John, The Mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction, Volume 37, J. Limbird, 1841
* Time-Life Books, What life was like in the age of chivalry: medieval Europe, AD 800-1500, 1997
* Turner, Jack, Spice: The History of a Temptation, Random House, 2005, ISBN 0-375-70705-0
* Walker, Kenneth, The story of medicine, Oxford University Press, 1955

## External links

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* Debunking Popular Misconceptions about Plague Doctor Costumes and How They Were Used
* Doctor Schnabel's Plague Museum

Media related to Plague doctors at Wikimedia Commons

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