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Pictured: The Forum Auction sale also includes a book that describes the first autopsy of a plague victim.

An official health advice pamphlet issued during the Great Plague of London of 1665 has been unearthed - and it is strikingly similar to today's government coronavirus guidance.

The 10 page self-help document was produced by the Royal College of Physicians to combat the bubonic plague sweeping through the capital.

Entitled 'Certain Necessary Directions for the Cure of the Plague', it outlines a variety of ways to manage its deadly spread.

People are told to avoid crowded places and not to swap clothes to 'prevent propagating the infection from place to place'. To stop disease being brought in from abroad, they suggest a strict 40 day quarantine where traders would have to stay on their ships.

The pamphlet also offers a range of possible plague remedies targeted at the 'richer sort' involving perfumes and fig medicines. It is being sold with London based Forum Auctions who expect it to fetch £800.