Objekt 2125
Protection against the plague
Description
Basel was ravaged by the plague every 14 years on average. When the plague
gripped the city in 1610–11, more than 30 percent of Basel’s inhabitants died.
The last epidemic hit the town in 1667–68. No effective treatment was known
at the time. For this reason, doctors used special protective clothing. The
beak mask contained a sponge with fragrant essences. Fear of the plague was
so strong that the town physician had himself depicted as a plague doctor
even in the period following the last great epidemics. The pathogenic germ
for this illness, Yersinia pestis, was only discovered in 1894.
Object description
The town doctor Theodor Zwinger (1658–1724) as a plague doctor
unknown artist
Basel, c. 1700
oil on copper
donated by A. La Roche-Burckhardt, Basel
Inv. 1908.45.