Plague Doctor (hand drawing, engraving) – Memoring Editions
- Between the Middle Ages and the 18th century, Bordeaux was hit by several waves of plague epidemics.
- The disease usually came from the hinterland, more than from the port.
- The historian’s book shows us the differences and similarities, with the Covid-19 epidemic.
Of course, there are those extravagant costumes of the plague doctors with their bird heads. Or the remedies used, potions with questionable compositions, which often worsen the patient’s condition more than they improve it … But reading Preserve us from Evil !, The Bordelais facing the plague-14th-18th centuries, is much more “than a change of scenery in bygone ages”, as Anne-Marie Cocula-Vaillières underlines in her preface. The Covid-19 pandemic puts the work of historians Stéphane Barry and Marie Fauré back in the news, and shows us the similarities between the first plague that struck Bordeaux in May 1348, and the epidemic that started there. a little over a year ago. Stéphane Barry answered questions from 20 minutes.
You recall the commercial importance of Bordeaux between the 14th and 18th centuries, the rows of boats along the quays … Was Bordeaux a gateway to the plague?
Bordeaux was one of the largest port cities in France in the Middle Ages and then under the Ancien Régime, but it does not appear that the epidemic arrived by ships from the Atlantic. Bordeaux is not Marseille, which receives buildings from the Levant and which can be infected, since the great plague of 1347-48 in particular, would come from Eurasia. In Bordeaux, plague epidemics mainly come from the hinterland. The route would certainly be Marseille-Toulouse-Agen, then Bordeaux. It is therefore certainly more by the river, which is a major axis of circulation, that the disease is spread. There were a few cases of plague which threatened by the port, but which were very quickly controlled.
You also remember that Bordeaux in the Middle Ages was a city with dark, winding and dirty streets… Which must have helped the disease accelerate, right?
Yes, especially since the plague is a disease in its bubonic form which spreads via fleas, which leave the dead rat that we do not see, because the black rat has the characteristic of nesting in houses, it is discreet, and his death is just as discreet. But indeed the insalubrity and the lack of hygiene were extreme. In Bordeaux, the low door is half full of filth, we close the fountains filled with excrement… The authorities are however aware of it, and are increasing the number of stops in times of plague to clean up.
It seems that the treatment of affected populations differs, between the rich and the poor?
The plague is spreading a lot around the working-class districts, in particular Sainte-Croix, quite simply because they are the most inhabited districts, and that people do not necessarily have the possibility to leave. They are put away in a plague hospital, or in the house. The well-off flee. But even the rich were affected, the best-known example being Montaigne, who in 1586 saw his entire estate ravaged by the epidemic.
Just like today with the coronavirus pandemic, we must maintain economic activity, even in times of plague. For this, we set up health tickets, what did they consist of?
These are documents issued at your place of departure, certifying that it is free from plague. He is presented to the custody, or to the jurade in the case of Bordeaux. This reminds us of the certificates put in place for more than a year … The idea is the same for boats arriving from the Atlantic, which must pass a control at the level of the island of Patiras from the 17th century, and for small boats sailing on the Garonne, controlled at Langon. If you come from an infected region, your goods are unpacked to ventilate them, and the crew remains stranded. But all this is the official version. In reality, we know that there are a lot of sprains, and people try to benefit from valid certificates to continue trading. We do everything, in particular, to maintain fairs, which are essential for cities. And we must also continue to bring in the grain, to feed the city and its poor who remained, because among the great fears of the time, there is that of revolt.
Medically speaking, what is being done to fight epidemics?
Medicine is totally powerless. We do not know how to bring any comfort to the plague victims. In his treatise on the plague in 1599, the Bordeaux doctor Guillaume Briet, like other doctors of the time, proposed an incision of buboes, the application of various and varied plasters, we will try to drink potions in which we have integrated elements that would have therapeutic virtues such as bezoard stone… We are in a mix between popular beliefs and scientific treatments… But all of this turns out to be ineffective. There is also the famous episode of the plucked squab’s bottom applied to the bubo to “suck the venom.” We always have this idea that the plague is a corruption of the body and that we have a venom to release. This is why the baths will be gradually prohibited, because the heat made it possible to open the pores of the skin, and therefore the disease to penetrate into the individual … The fires that we set up respond to this same idea of purifying the air.
Did the plague doctors wear the traditional costume as you show in your book?
It is the image of Epinal, but it is not known if the doctors wore this costume in Bordeaux. We know that they were dressed in a large leather apron, with a wand to signal themselves, and generally it was rather the surgeons from elsewhere who went to the patients, the doctor being there to check from the top of his know.
Do we know the human toll of plague epidemics?
In Bordeaux, no, we do not know it exactly. The chroniclers advance figures which are not necessarily credible, they rather give an idea of the scale of the epidemics. For that of 1585, we put forward a figure ranging between 14,000 and 18,000 dead, while the city has about 30,000 inhabitants. This epidemic was certainly extremely violent, and in a city like Bordeaux it must have been an absolutely terrible atmosphere, but it was probably in the order of several thousand deaths, not 14,000.
In the end, although there are of course a lot of differences between the plague and the Covid-19 pandemic, there are also similarities, right?
Yes, because the plague is one of the founding elements of the health policies that have been put in place. When we look at the reactions to the Covid, the words are different, but when we tell a population to stay at home, it is called a quarantine, which was put in place in times of the plague. What changes completely is the speed of spread, the understanding that we have of pathologies, and the means that we have to react with essentially vaccination.
Preserve us from Evil! Memoring Editions, 28 euros.