Doctors often contracted the disease despite their best efforts, and were required to quarantine themselves when they were off-duty. Still, very little headway was made treating the plague. During the Black Death epidemic the ban on autopsies was lifted for a select few physicians who showed some promise in understanding and treating the disease. Autopsies were one form of research that was strictly forbidden for religious reasons. Plague doctors were also given permission to conduct experiments and research that would normally be banned under any other circumstances. They were not only responsible for caring for patients during epidemics, but they were also required to keep meticulous public records of deaths and occasionally became witnesses to wills. Even though they had little to no scientific understanding of diseases like bubonic or pneumonic plague, they did what they could to prevent its spread and were desperate to find a cure. Plague doctors have existed as long as plague, long before the Black Death tore through Europe in the 14th century. In the Middle Ages, doctors were so valuable that they were paid handsomely and given special privileges. Unfortunately the cloaked figure, a frightening symbol of Death itself, might be your only hope of survival.ĭer Doctor Schnabel von Rom (The Beak Doctor from Rome): Paul Fuerst The very sight of the “beak doctor” chills you to the core. Nearly half of the city’s population in 1631 will be gone, including a good portion of your family. Little do you know that by the end of the next year, over 60,000 Milanese will perish. His arrival could only mean one thing: the Black Death is nearby. His eyes are large glass domes and his nose is long and pointed, like a raven’s beak. But the most frightening feature of all is the terrible face. A wide-brimmed hat, also black, rests on his hooded head. Walking slowly down the street is a foreboding figure dressed in all black, the coat or gown nearly reaching the ground. The sun is starting to set and movement outside the window catches your eye. Shops are closed, the churches are empty and food supplies are starting to run low. Your friends and neighbors are disappearing one by one and it is anyone’s guess as to where they fled or if they are even still alive. Rumor has it the baker and his family are in mandatory quarantine.
They died within a week of the celebrations. You are still in mourning for the recent loss of two of your cousins who probably were exposed to the Black Death at Carnivale in February. And there you were, centuries later, feeling just as helpless as your ancestors had. It was said that the world had lost a third of its population by the year 1400. You grew up hearing tales of the Black Death wiping out entire towns in the late 1300’s. You live with your family in Milan, Italy, where you were born and raised.
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