Quarantine in the 1600s

The Black Plague was a recurrent scourge in the 1600s, and one of the common precautions in Venice was to quarantine persons suspected of carrying the contagion. That meant anybody who had been in close contact with a plague infected person or place.

Quarantining people and goods was one of the main purposes of the Venetian lazzaretti islands.

Over the three centuries the Venetian lazzaretti operated, tens of thousands of persons must have gone through quarantine on the two islands.

How did that work? How was it being locked up like that for a month or more, between tall walls, under armed guards, on a tiny lagoon island?

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