[Ansteorra] Plague Doctor's Mask Documentation?

[Sir Lyonel]

Salut cozyns,

I'm afraid that's not entirely true, Rose. You are correct about the masks' contents and purpose. However, the miasma theory still left the question, "from whence this bad air?" Birds, cats, and dogs were variously blamed. Ironically, this led to the wholesale slaughter of dogs and cats, allowing the rat population to explode.

En Lyonel


Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 22, 2012, at 9:20 AM, Rose <rose_welch at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The idea of animals carrying diseases is based on germ theory, which wasn't really around until the late 1800's. Previously, people believed in the miasasmatic theory of illnesses, according to which the plague and other illnesses were caused by 'bad air'. The beak masks held smelly-good stuff, which was thought to act as a filter. So, early gas masks, lol. Also, I don't think that their design is any more intentionally reminiscent of diseased birds than our gas masks are intentially reminiscent of diseased insects.
> 
> 
> -Rose the Obnoxious
> 
> 
>  
> *     *     *     *     *     *     * Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile. ~Hippocrates
> 
> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: ~*Rhiannon <ahuvabasyah at gmail.com>
>> To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org> 
>> Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 9:10 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Plague Doctor's Mask Documentation?
>> 
>> Thank you for all the good leads, especially on Bosch and Durer.  (And I
>> thought the troubling art of Salvador Dali was original ;)  I read
>> somewhere that people thought the plague was brought or carried by birds,
>> hence the birdlike mask of the doctors to "carry it away".  I can
>> definitely see that theme in some of Bosch's art - the depictions of hell,
>> etc. in period (the bird with the cooking pot on its head devouring
>> people).  I don't plan on stopping till I reach the end of this.  Just
>> hopefully not the end portrayed in the dancing death paintings ;)
>> 
>> On Sat, Jan 21, 2012 at 6:42 AM, Casey Weed <seoseaweed at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> The most famous depiction is at the end of our period but it is by no means
>>> the earliest:
>>> 
>