Great Plague of Vienna

From contemporary descriptions, the disease is believed to have been bubonic plague, which is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, carried by fleas associated with the black rat and other rodents.

In addition, warehouses for trade goods, which held items such as clothing, carpets, and grain for months at a time, were heavily infested with rats.

Conditions in the city were considered so unhealthy and filthy, even for the time, that the plague often carried the title "Viennese death" in other parts of Europe.

A religious order operating in Vienna, the Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, created special hospitals for both children and adults during the 1679 epidemic.

The basic nursing care offered in the hospitals was simple, but was generally a vast improvement over other medical and public health measures in the city.

The Great Plague of London of 1665–1666, which is believed to have originated from the Netherlands in the 1650s, killed around 100,000 people, and was the first major epidemic in a series of outbreaks.

Augustin was a popular street musician, who, according to the legend, fell into a pit with bodies of plague victims, late at night when he was drunk.