author
Charles de Mertens
1737–1788
An 18th-century Belgian physician, he is best remembered for a vivid account of the plague that struck Moscow in 1771. His writing brings together eyewitness detail, medical observation, and a clear sense of how epidemics unsettled whole cities.
1 Audiobook
An account of the plague which raged at Moscow, in 1771
by Charles de Mertens
About the author
Charles de Mertens was a Belgian physician who lived from 1737 to 1788. Contemporary editions of his work describe him as a member of the medical colleges of Vienna and Strasbourg, a former imperial and royal censor, and a corresponding member of the Medical Society of Paris.
He is chiefly known for his study of the Moscow plague of 1771. That work was first published in Latin and later circulated in French and English, helping readers across Europe follow one of the century's most feared public-health disasters.
For modern listeners, de Mertens is interesting because he writes not just as a doctor, but as a careful observer of panic, policy, and everyday suffering during an outbreak. His book remains a valuable window into how disease was understood and managed in late eighteenth-century Europe.