Discover what it actually cost to summon a plague doctor during the Black Death — in silver pennies, shillings, and today's dollars.
During the Black Death (1347–1353), cities like Venice and Florence paid contracted plague doctors a salary — Venice offered Giovanni de Ventura 4 florins per month in 1348 (roughly 2–3 months of a skilled craftsman's wages). Individual treatments were charged separately, with costs varying by remedy: theriac (an antidote paste) could cost 10–20 silver pennies, while bloodletting or bubo lancing was 2–8 pennies. The iconic beaked mask wasn't common until the 17th century; 14th-century doctors instead wore waxed leather cloaks and carried aromatic herbs. English silver pennies weighed approximately 1.4g of sterling silver, and 12 pennies made one shilling.
Select your historical region to work in the local currency of the era (English pennies, French deniers, Italian soldi, etc.). Choose the number of patients, plague severity, which treatments the doctor would administer, how many visits you need, and the physician's rank. Click "Calculate Treatment Cost" to see an itemized bill in period-accurate currency, a modern dollar equivalent, and a comparison to typical medieval wages.
Understanding the cost of medieval medical care gives us a visceral connection to the fear and desperation of plague survivors. Plague doctors weren't altruists — they were paid professionals, and their fees put treatment completely out of reach for the peasant majority.
Consider: a typical English agricultural laborer earned about 1–2 pennies per day in the 1340s. A single visit from a licensed surgeon might cost 6–12 pennies — equivalent to nearly a week's wages. A full course of theriac treatment (the most prestigious remedy, containing up to 64 ingredients including viper flesh) could cost 15–25 pennies in England, or 1–2 gold florins in Italy. Only wealthy merchants, nobles, and the church could realistically afford ongoing care.
Cities like Catania, Venice, and Florence paid doctors municipal salaries specifically so poorer citizens could access some care — but these contract physicians were often overwhelmed, and many fled. This calculator uses documented price data from medieval household accounts, civic records, and medical contracts to reconstruct what treatment actually cost.
Each treatment has a base cost in English silver pennies (the common unit across medieval Europe, adjusted regionally):
Doctor rank multipliers: Apprentice ×0.6 | Licensed Surgeon ×1.0 | University Physician ×1.8 | Royal Court Physician ×3.2
Formula: Total Cost = Σ(treatment_base × severity_mult) × doctor_mult × visits × patients
Modern equivalent uses the purchasing-power value of silver: 1 silver penny contained ~1.4g of sterling silver (92.5% pure). At current silver spot prices (~$0.90/g), 1d ≈ $1.26 in silver content — but using skilled-wage parity gives a higher, more realistic modern equivalent of approximately $8–12 per penny.
Almost entirely ineffective by modern standards. Medieval medicine was based on Galenic humoral theory — the idea that disease resulted from imbalances in blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. None of the treatments addressed Yersinia pestis, the bacterium causing bubonic plague. Bloodletting and purging likely weakened patients further. The only marginally useful practice was isolation, which some doctors did recommend.
Municipal contracts varied significantly. Venice offered Giovanni de Ventura 4 florins/month in 1348 (roughly 48 florins/year, equivalent to about 2,400 English pennies annually). Catania contracted plague doctors for food, lodging, and a salary. By contrast, a skilled English mason earned around 3–4 shillings (36–48d) per week. City-contracted doctors earned comfortably middle-class wages, but many still fled — the mortality risk was real.
Theriac (also called Venice Treacle) was the most prestigious cure-all of the medieval world, originating with the Greek physician Galen. It contained up to 64 ingredients including dried viper flesh, opium, honey, cinnamon, and dozens of rare herbs and spices. Preparation took months of aging. High-quality Venetian theriac was exported across Europe; cheaper knock-offs existed but were considered medically inferior. Its cost reflected rare ingredients and a physician's time, not actual efficacy.
Rarely, and even then it was minimal. Some cities (Venice, Florence, Ragusa) paid municipal physicians whose services were theoretically available to all citizens. Monasteries provided basic care through infirmaries. In practice, the poor relied on folk remedies, prayer, flagellant processions, and neighborly help. Jewish communities were sometimes accused of poisoning wells (a paranoid scapegoating) partly because their tight community networks and dietary laws gave them slightly better plague outcomes in some regions.