Made entirely of wax-coated leather and constructed so none of the physician's skin would be exposed, this outfit would be impervious to body fluids. The garb included boots connected to breeches, a shirt tucked in at the waist, and gloves, with an overcoat worn over the entire outfit. In 1619, de Lorme had an idea for a head-to-toe protective garment that would shield doctors working with plague patients from infection. Plague doctor costumes are worn at the Venetian Carnival. Why not use the advances that had been made in the field of medicine to protect doctors themselves? He was practising medicine at the height of the Scientific Renaissance, when scientific principles were being applied to solve a wide range of problems. Of 18 plague doctors who worked in Venice during the Black Death of the 14th century, five died and 12 fled.įrench royal physician Charles de Lorme believed there must be steps that could be taken to make the occupation of plague doctor safer. Tending to plague patients paid well but was risky business.
During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, European cities employed plague doctors - physicians who were tasked with treating plague victims, and plague victims only, to avoid spreading the disease. The plague, an illness caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, circulated Eurasia and North Africa for thousands of years, occasionally exploding into devastating pandemics that killed millions. His outfit, though, was actually an early example of personal protective equipment.Ĭlothing Against Death (1656) by Gerhart Altzenbach. If today's protective clothing is impersonal, its 17th-century equivalent was downright sinister.Įven if you've never heard of a plague doctor, you've almost certainly seen an image of one: an imposing figure in an ankle-length cloak, a wide-brimmed hat and, most strikingly, a beak-shaped mask.įar from your approachable family physician, the plague doctor looks like something out of a nightmare. Our modern equipment, though, has nothing on the medical garb of the Renaissance. Some have even taken to wearing photographs of themselves on their gowns to help their charges, many of whom are facing a life-or-death struggle, feel less alienated, less alone. Since the onset of the pandemic, doctors, nurses and other medical practitioners who find themselves working closely with COVID-19 patients have traded their familiar white coats and scrubs for plastic gowns, vinyl gloves, respirator masks and face shields.Ī number of physicians have written about how much more difficult it is to build rapport with patients through the barrier of all this personal protective equipment.
#THE PLAGUE DOCTOR RENAISSANCE VS VICTORIAN FREE#
(Anagoria/GNU Free Documentation License)
This is a 17th-century German or Austrian plague doctor mask, from the collection of the Deutches Historisches Museum.
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