Far from children's costumes like ninja turtles, cowboys and other Tinkerbell. Closer to witch, vampire or Vader costumes... here is an intriguing character suitable for an adult costume.
Welcome Steamer, we are going to talk about a doctor, and not just any doctor, since it is the plague doctor wearing a mask with a long crow's beak . We see this curious character among other masks of the Venice carnival or Mardi Gras, in old history books or many steampunk works, so much so that the theme of the Plague doctor (for English speakers) has become an emblematic archetype of our retro-futurist movement .
This plague mask is a unique and original piece that will become the central element of your outfit!
1) Why are the Black Death Doctor's clothes so creepy?
a) The Plague Doctor Mask.
The uniform consisted of an all-leather ensemble with the plague doctormask in the shape of a beak filled with fragrant herbs and atop hat . This attire served two functions.
- It was designed to protect the plague doctor from contamination and thus limit the spread of plague epidemics. Of course this was not the case, medicine at that time was not very scientific and was based on risky assumptions.
- The frightening aspect allowed a form of authority and respect. It must be understood that during a terrible epidemic, fear kills as much as the disease. This reassured the doctor and allowed him to be listened to.
The Black Death was the most deadly bubonic plague epidemic of the Middle Ages in history. It wiped out some 25 million Europeans in just a few years. Out of desperation, cities hired a new breed of doctors, called plague doctors , who were either second-rate professionals or young medico della peste with limited experience or no certified medical training at all.
First of all, what was important was that the plague doctor was willing to venture into the regions affected by the pandemic and count the body count. After more than 250 years of fighting the plague, hope finally arrived with the invention of a mask that would block the dangerous fumes, as well as a pair of pants, a coat, and a hat made of oilcloth . Unfortunately, it didn't work very well.
b) How did the plague doctor's clothes protect against the Plague?
Unfortunately, the recommendations of the Pasteur Institute and INSERM were not yet available. The main responsibilities of a plague doctor were not to cure or assist the sick . Their tasks were more administrative and laborious since they took care of the follow-up of plague victims, attended occasional autopsies or were witnesses to the wills of the dead and dying.
The attire was therefore primarily a distinction and a uniform rather than a real means of protection. As one might expect, some plague doctors took advantage of their patients' money and fled with their final wills. The adventures were numerous, however, these plague accountants were venerated but also sometimes held hostage. Any situation could arise in these zones of death and despair.
c) The reality of the life of a plague doctor
Apart from the fact that they were isolated for obvious reasons, not much is known about 17th century plague doctors. We do know that they were municipal doctors, working in large cities for the mayor or the nobility. They were probably more common in southern European cities like Rome, Milan, and some may have even been active in southern France like Marseille .
Because they were civil servants, they probably didn't have any clients.
Instead, they would roam the city during a plague outbreak, deciding which houses to lock up or condemn, which neighborhoods to quarantine , etc. Plague doctors treated everyone, regardless of economic status, although they sometimes invented their own cures and tinctures that they provided for a fee to wealthier patients.
d) Charles Delorme the genius doctor.
Doctors and plague victims did not immediately understand how the bubonic plague had spread during the Middle Ages. However, by the 17th century, doctors had subscribed to the miasma theory, which was the idea that the contagion was spread through foul-smelling air. Previously, the plague doctor wore various protective clothing, but it was not until 1619 that a "uniform" was invented by one man, the most famous plague doctor, Charles Delorme, Louis XIII's most experienced physician .
Charles Delorme writes about the clothes: "Under the coat, one wears boots made of Moroccan leather (goat leather)...and a short-sleeved blouse made of smooth skin...The hat and gloves are also made of the same skin...with glasses above the eyes..."
Because he believed that the foul fumes could seep into the fibers of their clothing and transmit disease, Charles Delorme designed a uniform consisting of a waxed leather coat, leggings, boots, and gloves intended to deflect the miasma from head to toe. A plague doctor's overalls were then coated with tallow, a hard white animal fat, to repel bodily fluids. The plague doctor also donned a prominent black hat to indicate that they were, in fact... a plague doctor.
Plague doctors also carried a long wooden staff that they used to communicate with their patients, examine them, and occasionally ward off the most desperate and aggressive ones. According to other accounts, patients believed the plague was a punishment sent by God and asked the plague doctor to whip them as they repented. The foul air was also combated with sweet herbs and spices such as camphor, mint, cloves, and myrrh, packed into a grotesque mask with a bird's beak. Sometimes the herbs were set aflame before being put into the mask so that the smoke could further protect the doctor from bubonic plague.
The plague doctor also wore round glass goggles over the masks. A hood and leather straps held the goggles and mask to the doctor's head. In addition to the sweaty and horrifying exterior, the costume was deeply flawed as there were air holes cut into the beak. As a result, many doctors contracted the plague and died.
Although Delorme was lucky enough to live to the age of 96, most plague doctors had very short life expectancies, the deadly flea bites were unforgiving, even in their thick overalls. And those who were not sick often lived in constant quarantine. In short, they led a lonely and thankless existence for doctors sent to the front lines who were often willing to help with the care of plague victims at the cost of their lives.
2) The doctors' horrible treatments for the plague.
Because the plague doctor was only faced with the horrific symptoms and not with a thorough understanding of the disease, they were often allowed to perform autopsies. These, however, tended to yield nothing. The plague doctor therefore resorted to questionable, dangerous, and debilitating treatments. They were largely unqualified, so they had less medical knowledge than the "real" doctors who themselves subscribed to flawed scientific theories.
The doctor's treatments ranged from the bizarre to the horrific.
They practiced covering buboes (egg-sized pus-filled cysts found on the neck, armpits, and groin) with human feces, which likely spread the infection. They also turned to bloodletting and removing the buboes to drain the pus. Both practices were very painful, but the worst was probably pouring mercury on the victim and placing him in an oven.
As might be expected, these attempts often accelerated death and the spread of infection by covering burn wounds and cysts that became infected. Today, we know that bubonic plagues and accompanying diseases such as pneumonia were caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that was carried by rats, which were very common in urban environments. The last outbreak of urban plague in the United States occurred in Los Angeles in 1924, and we have since found a cure with common antibiotics.
This combination of protection against the fumes and these horrible treatments remain fortunately in the past, but the plague doctor's willingness to separate the sick from the healthy, to burn the infected and to experiment with treatments also saved many lives. The plague that sowed terror and death throughout medieval Europe, that brought down powerful empires is thousands of years older than what was thought. But that is another story.
Although the famous plague doctor costume was not worn during the infamous Black Death, historians claim that it was often used by plague doctors "during the plague of 1656, which killed 145,000 people in Rome and 300,000 in Naples." The effectiveness of the costume and mask is quite relative. However, the creepy beak-shaped plague doctor mask has found another use - in theater and popular culture. The figure of the beaked doctor became a character in the commedia dell'arte and the mask is still worn during the Venice Carnival in Italy.
3) Why do Steampunks use the plague doctor costume and mask so much?
Engraving by Paul Fürst depicting the first documented cases of smallpox.
The costume and mask of the plague doctor charged with the history of millions of deaths.
Although we today consider the appearance of the doctor to be quite fearsome even at the Venice carnival... they were originally just doctors with masks, and they have been around since the dawn of time, perhaps even since ancient Rome and plagues apparently. Our first record of plague doctors dates back to around 400 AD, long beforethe germ theory of disease . These doctors were hired by the Roman Senate to treat anyone with the plague. They became a symbol of death and calamity. This is not surprising, given that the protective measures they took were almost completely ineffective.
Overall, 90% of plague doctors, despite the mask, died from the diseases they were trying to treat.
Meanwhile, the most distinctive part of the costume, the mask, was designed to hold incense or herbs that ostensibly kept out the "bad air," and thus prevented the plague doctor from getting sick. Ideally, at least, because it didn't really work in practice. The end effect, of course, was somewhat terrifying, but it's important to note that beneath these strange costumes were men who were trying to heal the sick. Their pay was high (nearly four times that of a regular doctor, by some accounts), but their mortality rate was also high.
We think of 17th century masks as a kind of ornament, but for the plague doctor they were strictly functional and very unpleasant. In fact, wearing the plague doctor's outfit with his mask must have been an absolutely horrible experience, but they did it anyway. If it weren't for their fearsome appearance, the plague doctors could have been considered heroes. Sure, many of them were crooks trying to take advantage of the high salaries, but some of them were genuinely trying to help.
So why is Steampunk flooded with Plague Doctor Cosplay?
On the surface, the plague doctor seems to be ideologically opposed to Steampunk . First of all, with the popularization of the germ theory of disease in the mid-1800s, plague doctors became more or less a thing of the past. Or at least, the "crow-beaked" plague doctor costume became very outdated. So plague doctors don't really fit into the Victorian period often associated with Steampunk.
Second, the plague doctor was in many ways a superstitious rather than scientific person. Smelling incense to ward off disease? This seems rather silly to a modern audience, and seems much more like nonsense than science. Killing fleas on animals and realizing that it was the black rats carrying them that were the worst vector of the disease was completely impossible for the time.
However, it is important to remember that at the time the plague doctor costume and mask was invented, this was science at its best. These people weren't shaking sticks and praying for a cure, they were actively trying to treat patients using the latest medical knowledge at their disposal. Granted, it was usually something like "drink this mixture of herbs and cloves I found in my garden," but it was still the beginning of public health.
Another thing that adds to their credibility as scientists and objects of terror is that plague doctors were allowed to perform autopsies on plague victims in hopes of curing the disease. This may not seem like much in today's times, but at the time, autopsies were considered blasphemous, evil, terrible, etc. So, in all likelihood, they were doing solid work toward our understanding of anatomy, and it greatly advanced the medicine of the time.
From this perspective, one can almost consider the plague doctor a champion of science, or perhaps the martyrs of science would be more appropriate, given their mortality rate.
Another thing that Steampunks love is costumes, and few historically accurate costumes are as impressive as the plague doctor's. Of course, it's a far cry from the Venice carnival with its Venetian half-masks, jesters and other jokers, the costume is dark and ultimately closer to gothic .
The plague doctor looks like a terrifying bird with a Halloween mask from centuries before his time.
The same goes for clothing and equipment: besides the mask, goggles and gadgets, they had the power to save people as well as to keep them away from terror. That's why it's no wonder the plague doctor captured the imagination of the Steampunks. They were outcasts who already had a retro-futuristic style of sorts. Men of science who were viewed with suspicion by the public, and who are now an obscure and forgotten part of history.
