Plague apparatus from a lazaretto in Venice: an oil cloth mask with a bronze beak and a terracotta model of a foot and leg. Photograph.

1 photograph : photoprint, albumen ; sheet 17.5 x 20.2

M. Bib. Marciana Venezia. Cerurgia cauteriurum, secundum Rugerium, Brunum et Rolandum. Membranaceo del sec. XIV. Pag 22 recto Lettering hand-written in black ink on verso. Lettering on verso continues in pencil, probably written at a later date: "1. Mask of oil cloth with bronze beak used at the time of plague (see description and fig in Muratori's work on plague) from Lazaretto of Venice. Then taken to Rome and placed in Museum of Hygiene from which it has disappeared"

Jonathan Ferguson, 'Beaky blinders: in search of the plague doctor', Fortean times, 1 June 2020, pp. 34-41

Wellcome Collection 34777i