What is a Plague Doctor?

Far removed from children's costumes like ninja turtles, cowboys, and fairy godmothers, here stands an intriguing character deserving our most sustained attention! Closer to gothic costumes, vampires, or other creatures of shadow, this mysterious practitioner with their raven's beak constitutes an adult costume of rare mechanical sophistication.

Welcome, dear readers, to the fascinating universe of the plague physician! This curious character, glimpsed among the steampunk masks of Venice's carnival or within ancient historical grimoires, has conquered our retrofuturistic movement through their striking aesthetic. The Plague Doctor theme has become a veritable archetype of our universe, functioning like clockwork connecting past and future.

This plague mask constitutes a unique and original piece that becomes the central element of your ensemble, like the master gear of a complex timepiece!

The Mechanical Anatomy of Pestilential Attire

The Mask: Masterpiece of Protective Engineering

The uniform of these shadow practitioners comprised an ensemble entirely crafted from leather, dominated by the famous mask with its beak filled with fragrant herbs and completed by a majestic top hat. This attire, a veritable protection machine, fulfilled two essential functions in the social mechanics of the epoch.

• It had been meticulously designed to protect the plague doctor from contamination and thus limit the spread of pestilential epidemics. Of course, medicine of that era was hardly more scientific than a deregulated clockwork mechanism, relying on suppositions as hazardous as the gears of a primitive steam engine.
• The terrifying appearance allowed establishing a form of authority and respect, like an intimidating automaton. One must understand that during a terrible epidemic, fear kills as much as disease itself. This secured the physician and enabled them to be heard above the clamor of collective panic.

The Black Death remains the most murderous bubonic plague epidemic in Medieval history, having annihilated some 25 million Europeans in just a few years. Out of desperation, cities hired a new breed of doctors, called plague physicians, who were either second-rate professionals, young medico della peste with limited experience, or even without any certified medical training whatsoever.

What mattered above all was that the plague doctor was prepared to venture into plague-stricken regions and count the number of corpses, like a funereal metronome marking death's cadence. After more than 250 years of fighting plague, hope finally arrived with the invention of a mask supposedly designed to block dangerous miasma, along with pants, a coat, and a hat made of waxed canvas. Unfortunately, this ingenious protective machinery worked hardly better than clockwork in the rain.

The Protective Illusion: When Science Fumbles

Alas, the recommendations of the Pasteur Institute and modern epidemiology were not yet available to guide these practitioners! The primary responsibilities of a plague doctor were not to cure or assist the sick, but rather to accomplish administrative and laborious tasks. They handled tracking of plague victims, attended occasional autopsies, or witnessed the wills of the dead and dying, functioning as apocalyptic clerks.

The attire was therefore primarily a distinction and uniform rather than genuine protective means, like a ceremonial funeral garment. As one might expect, some plague doctors took advantage of their patients' money and fled with their final testaments. The adventures were numerous: these plague accountants were sometimes revered, sometimes held hostage. All situations could present themselves in these zones of death and despair, veritable macabre theaters where humanity's drama unfolded.

Daily Reality: Civil Servants of Death

Besides being isolated for obvious reasons, little is known about these mysterious plague doctors of the 17th century. We know they were municipal physicians, functioning like gears in the great administrative machinery of cities, working for mayors or nobility. They were probably more common in southern European cities like Rome, Milan, and some may have been active in southern France, notably in Marseille.

Practitioners in Service of the Community

Because they were civil servants, they probably had no private clientele, functioning rather as mechanisms serving the community. Instead, they roamed the city during plague epidemics, deciding which houses to lock up or condemn, which neighborhoods to place under quarantine. Plague doctors cared for everyone, regardless of economic status, though they sometimes invented their own cures and tinctures that they provided for compensation to the wealthiest patients.

Charles Delorme: The Genius of Protective Innovation

Physicians and plague victims did not immediately understand how bubonic plague had spread during the Medieval period. However, by the 17th century, practitioners had subscribed to miasma theory, that fascinating idea that contagion spread through foul air. Previously, plague doctors wore various protective clothing, but it was only in 1619 that a "uniform" was invented by the most famous plague doctor, Charles Delorme, attending physician to Louis XIII.

Charles Delorme wrote about the garments: "Under the coat, one wears boots of Moroccan leather (goatskin)... and a tunic with short sleeves of smooth leather... The hat and gloves are also made of the same leather... with spectacles over the eyes..."

Convinced that noxious vapors could infiltrate clothing fibers and transmit diseases, Charles Delorme designed a revolutionary uniform composed of a waxed leather coat, leggings, boots, and gloves designed to deflect miasmas from head to toe. This combination was then coated with tallow, that white and hard animal fat, to repel bodily fluids like alchemical armor. The plague doctor also donned a prominent black hat to indicate their particular function.

These practitioners also carried a long wooden staff they used to communicate with their patients, examine them, and occasionally ward off the most desperate and aggressive. According to other accounts, patients believed plague was divine punishment and asked the plague doctor to whip them in repentance. The foul air was combated with sweet herbs and spices like camphor, mint, cloves, and myrrh, piled into this grotesque mask with its bird's beak. Sometimes herbs were ignited before being placed in the mask so smoke could further protect the physician against bubonic plague.

The plague doctor also wore round glass spectacles over the masks. A hood and leather straps held these protective glasses and mask to the physician's head. Besides the terrifying exterior, the costume was profoundly flawed since ventilation holes were drilled in the beak. Consequently, many doctors contracted plague and died, victims of their own imperfect protective mechanism.

Though Delorme was fortunate to live to 96 years, most plague doctors had very short lifespans. The deadly flea bites were unforgiving, even with their thick suits. And those who weren't ill often lived in constant quarantine. In short, they led solitary and thankless existences, veritable martyrs of nascent science.

The Therapeutic Arsenal: When Medicine Gropes in Darkness

Because the plague doctor was confronted only with horrible symptoms without deep understanding of the disease, they were often permitted to conduct autopsies. These, alas, yielded nothing conclusive, like dismantled clockwork without instruction manuals. The plague doctor therefore resorted to dubious, dangerous, and debilitating treatments. They were largely unqualified, possessing less medical knowledge than "real" doctors who themselves subscribed to erroneous scientific theories.

Treatments Between Strange and Horrible

Their therapeutic practices ranged from strange to horrible, like torture mechanisms disguised as care. They practiced covering buboes (those pus-filled cysts the size of eggs found on the neck, armpits, and groin) with human excrement that probably spread infection further. They also turned to bloodletting and bubo removal to drain pus. Both practices were excruciatingly painful, but worst was pouring mercury on victims and placing them in ovens, veritable torture machines disguised as therapy.

As expected, these attempts often accelerated death and infection spread by covering wounds with burns and cysts that became further infected. Today, we know that bubonic plagues and accompanying diseases like pneumonia were caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria, carried by rats, very common in urban environments of the time. The last urban plague epidemic in the United States occurred in Los Angeles in 1924, and we have since found cures with common antibiotics.

This combination of protection against miasma and these horrible treatments fortunately remain in the past, but the plague doctor's willingness to separate the sick from healthy people, burn the contaminated, and experiment with treatments nevertheless saved many lives. The plague that had sown terror and death throughout medieval Europe, that had toppled mighty empires, was thousands of years older than previously thought. But this constitutes another story, dear readers!

Though the famous plague doctor costume was not worn during the infamous Black Death, historians assert it was commonly used "during the 1656 plague, which killed 145,000 people in Rome and 300,000 in Naples." The effectiveness of the costume and mask remains entirely relative. Nevertheless, the frightening beak-shaped mask of the plague doctor found another use in theater and popular culture. The figure of the beaked doctor became a character in commedia dell'arte, and the mask is still worn today during Venice Carnival in Italy.

Why Do Steampunks Adopt This Mysterious Character?

Engraving by Paul Fürst depicting the first documented cases of smallpox, a veritable machine for representing death of the era.

The Costume and Mask: Charged with the History of Millions of Deaths

Though we consider the plague doctor's appearance relatively formidable today, even at Venice carnival, they were originally just physicians with a mask, and they have existed since time immemorial, perhaps even since ancient Rome. Our first reports of plague specialist doctors date to around 400 AD, well before germ theory of disease. These doctors were hired by the Roman senate to treat all plague sufferers. They became a symbol of death and calamity itself, like a perpetual funerary mechanism.

The Fatal Tribute: When Science Demands Martyrs

Generally, 90% of plague doctors, despite their protective mask, died from the diseases they tried to treat, veritable sacrificed gears in nascent medicine's great machine.

Meanwhile, the most distinctive part of the costume, the mask, had been created to contain incense or herbs that ostensibly prevented "bad air," and thus prevented the plague doctor from falling ill. Ideally, at least, as this hardly worked in practice, like a faulty mechanism. The final effect was somewhat terrifying, but it's important to note that beneath these strange costumes were men trying to heal the sick. Their salary was high (nearly four times higher than a regular physician's), but their mortality rate was also dramatically elevated.

We consider 17th-century masks as decorative ornaments, but for the plague doctor, they were strictly functional and profoundly unpleasant. In fact, wearing the plague doctor outfit with its mask must have been an absolutely horrible experience, yet they endured it nonetheless. Were it not for their formidable appearance, plague doctors might have been considered heroes. Certainly, many were charlatans attempting to profit from high salaries, but some truly tried to help suffering humanity.

The Steampunk Paradox: When History Inspires Imagination

In appearance, the plague doctor seems ideologically opposed to Steampunk, like a gear that wouldn't fit into our aesthetic machinery. First, with the popularization of germ theory in the mid-1800s, plague doctors gradually became obsolete. The "raven-beaked doctors" plague costume became outdated. Plague doctors don't really fit into the Victorian period often associated with Steampunk.

Second, the plague doctor in many ways embodied superstition rather than science. Breathing incense to ward off disease? This seems rather primitive to a modern audience, resembling magical practices more than true science. Eliminating fleas on animals and understanding that black rats were the true disease vectors was totally impossible for the era.

However, it's important to remember that when the plague doctor costume and mask were invented, this was science at its best level! These people weren't shaking magic sticks and praying for cures, they were actively trying to treat patients using the latest medical knowledge at their disposal. Granted, this was generally something like "drink this mixture of herbs and cloves I found in my garden," but it was still the beginning of organized public health.

Another thing reinforcing their credibility as scientists is that plague doctors received authorization to perform autopsies on plague victims hoping to cure the disease. This might not seem like much today, but at the time, autopsies were considered blasphemous and terrible. In all likelihood, they accomplished remarkable work toward our understanding of anatomy, contributing considerably to medical development.

From this perspective, one can almost consider the plague doctor a champion of science, or perhaps martyrs of science would be more appropriate, given their dramatic mortality rate. Another thing Steampunks appreciate are costumes, and few historically accurate costumes are as impressive as the plague doctor's. Of course, we're far from Venice carnival with its half-masks, jesters, and other jokers. The costume is dark and ultimately closer to gothic style.

The Terrifying Bird: A Medieval Halloween

The plague doctor looks like a terrifying bird with a Halloween mask centuries before its time! Their clothing and equipment - besides the mask, spectacles and gadgets - gave them as much power to save people as to drive them away through terror. This is why it's unsurprising that the plague doctor has captivated Steampunks' imagination. They were outcasts who already had a retrofuturistic style in some ways. Men of science who were regarded with suspicion by the public, and who now constitute an obscure and forgotten part of history, like ancient clockwork found in a dusty attic.

The Legacy of the Raven-Beaked Doctor

Dear enthusiasts of the extraordinary, the plague doctor remains a fascinating figure that transcends epochs to enrich our steampunk imagination. These mysterious practitioners, with their raven-beaked masks and leather attire, embody humanity's eternal quest against unknown scourges.

Their clumsy but courageous attempts to combat disease, their dedication unto death, and their striking aesthetic make them perfectly suited characters for our retrofuturistic universe. They represent that pivotal era when nascent science attempted to pierce nature's mysteries, armed only with hazardous theories and admirable courage.

Don't forget that our steampunk shop offers a vast choice of costumes inspired by these historical figures, as well as irresistible gothic steampunk style creations. Explore our collection of steampunk accessories to complete your transformation into a mysterious plague doctor!

For remember, in the steampunk universe, we don't simply wear costumes: we embody history and give life to time's forgotten mechanisms!

Sources and References

• Historical archives on medieval plague epidemics
• Studies on the evolution of 17th-century medicine
• Documentation on Charles Delorme and the invention of the plague costume
• Analyses of the plague doctor's influence in popular culture
• Research on the integration of historical figures into steampunk aesthetics