In the 17th c, during the bubonic plague in Europe, plague doctors took to wearing a costume to protect them from the miasma or "bad air": a leather or wax-canvas garment, crystal glasses, and a snout or bird beak, containing aromatic spices dried flowers, or a vinegar sponge.
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Photograph of 17th-century plague doctor mask from Austria or Germany
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Theodore Zwinger III (1658-1724): coat of arms with portrait. Oil painting.
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Color copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel [i.e Dr Beak], a plague doctor in 17th-century Rome, published by Paul Fürst, ca. 1656
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1) A Plague Doctor, from Jean-Jacques Manget, Traité de la peste (1721)
2) Doctor in plague costume during the plague epidemic of 1720 in Marseille. Drawing first published in 1826 in the Guide sanitaire des gouvernemens européens by Louis-Joseph-Marie Robert
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1) Jan van Grevenbroeck (1731-1807), Venetian doctor during the time of the plague. Pen, ink and watercolor on paper.
2) Black-and-white copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel [i.e Dr Beak], a plague doctor in 17th-c Rome, ca. 1656
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1) IJsbrand van Diemerbroeck, Dutch plague doctor
2) Satirical engraving by Johann Melchior Füssli of a doctor of Marseilles clad in cordovan leather equipped with a nose-case packed with plague-repelling smoking material. With the wand he is to feel the pulse
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1 & 2) A physician wearing a 17th-century plague costume, as imagined in 1910
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And the mask thread from a few days ago:
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Lee Miller, 'David E. Scherman dressed for war’ London, 1942
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