The Plague Doctor

The plague doctor Pestarzt (Italian: physici epidemiie) is a well—established definition of a doctor in medieval and Renaissance Europe, whose main duty was to treat patients with bubonic plague, or the "black death", especially during epidemics.
A distinctive feature of plague doctors was a special protective suit with an original "nosy" mask resembling a bird's beak.
The mask itself had the properties of a gas mask of that time: various "odorous" herbs were put into the beak of the mask.

In the first half of the 14th century, Europe was going through a difficult period of its existence. For forty years now, almost all of its regions have suffered from crop failures and unknown causes of natural disasters. In addition, wars raged — in addition to the Hundred Years, in almost all countries there were some kind of civil wars, often very bloody. The cities were surrounded by mighty fortress walls. The urban growth they were holding back led to overpopulation, which, coupled with the actual lack of hygiene, produced incredible unsanitary conditions. All this led to the fact that the bubonic plague, introduced in the late 1340s from the territory of modern Mongolia through Crimea and Byzantium, quickly grew to the scale of a terrifying pandemic, which, like the disease itself, received the ominous name "Black Death".

And finally, the last factor that ruined Europe's ability to somehow withstand the pandemic was the extremely poor state of medicine at that time, which actually did not have any effective treatment methods. Even the concepts of most diseases often had very little to do with reality. In most cases, medicine was a kind of fusion of theological ideas with frankly quack practices. Nevertheless, the profession of a doctor existed, although society's attitude towards it was very ambiguous.
With the outbreak of the "Black Death" pandemic, attempts by doctors to resist the dangerous disease began, but until then there were no specialized "plague doctors". It is believed that the precedent of hiring doctors specifically to cure the plague was created by Pope Clement VI, who invited several doctors in 1348 to treat the residents of Avignon affected by the "black death". After that, the example of the Pope was followed by the suzerains or city councils of large cities suffering from the plague, and for the next four centuries plague doctors became an integral part of European life.

Pretty quickly, plague doctors took a special place in the society of that time. The economic damage from the pandemic was obvious, along with a direct threat to the lives of not only ordinary people, but also those in power. In addition, the doctors, apparently, still managed to achieve some success, or at least the appearance of such. Anyway, plague doctors soon began to be regarded as very valuable specialists, and in many cities they received additional privileges — for example, permission to dissect the corpses of those who died of the plague. In addition, plague doctors were highly paid. It is known that in the same year 1348, the Italian city of Orvieto hired the plague doctor Matteo Angelo with an annual salary of 200 florins, which was 4 times higher than the annual fee of the usual Edinburgh doctor George Ray was 110 scots, while initially the city council planned to hire him for only 40 scots per month. Another vivid illustration of the high value of plague doctors is an episode that took place in 1650 in Spain, when Barcelona sent two doctors to the plague-stricken city of Tortosa. On the way, the doctors were captured by bandits, and Barcelona was forced to pay a considerable ransom for their release.

In the Middle Ages, the plague was practically not treated, actions were limited only to cutting out or cauterizing plague bubons. Plague doctors practiced bloodletting and other measures, such as putting frogs on buboes, to "balance the juices of a normal life." Plague doctors could not interact with the general public due to the nature of their activities and the possibility of spreading the disease; they were often quarantined.

Some plague doctors wore a distinctive protective suit. It is important, however, to keep in mind that the plague doctor's costume in its final form appeared only in 1619, when the French physician Charles de Lorme proposed a complete set of protective clothing for doctors dealing with plague patients. Until that time, there was no single protective suit, and plague doctors wore a variety of clothes, which is confirmed by graphic sources.

The costume proposed by de Lorme was made with an eye to the leather armor of the light infantry. In addition to the characteristic "beaked" mask, he included a long raincoat from neck to ankles, tight trousers, gloves, boots, and a hat. All the elements of the costume were made of waxed leather or, at the very least, from coarse canvas, also soaked in wax.

Michel de Nostradamus, better known as the predictor Nostradamus, was also a famous plague doctor.

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