A physician wearing a seventeenth century plague preventive costume. Watercolour.

Reference:
10115i
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About this work

Description

The costume worn by physicians attending plague patients is described by Jean Jacques Manget in his 'Traité de la peste', Geneva 1721: the gown was made of morocco leather, with underneath a skirt, breeches and boots, all of leather and fitting into one another. The long beak-like nose piece was fitted with aromatic substances and the eyeholes were covered with glass

Physical description

1 painting : watercolour ; sheet 61.6 x 43.9 cm

Related material

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/18/78

Lettering

Plague doctor's costume. Early XVII. century.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 10115i

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