Plague Quarantine Page Menu:    1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      9      10      11      12      13      14      15        Next>>

Quarantining Ships In the Golden Age of Piracy, Page 6

The Mediterranean Lazarettos - Establishment

The first purpose-built quarantine lazaretto was erected by the Venetians in 1423.
Lazaretto Vecchio on Early Map, Wellcome Collection
This was followed in 1468 by another lazaretto, with the original being called Il Lazaretto Vecchio (the Old Lazaretto) and the new one being referred to as Il Lazaretto Nuovo (the New Lazaretto). The new lazaretto served to quarantine those who were only suspected of harboring the plague while those coming from places infected or foul were placed in the old lazaretto for their quarantine. "This Venetian system, introduced primarily to guard against the introduction of plague from the Levant, gained high repute in Europe and served as a model to other countries."¹ Medical historian Guenter Risse notes that "specialized institutions modeled after the Venetian hospice were also proposed for other major Italian cities such as Mantua (1450), Ferrara (1464), Florence (1463), Genoa (1467), Siena (1478), and Milan (1488)."² Of those which Risse lists, only Genoa was used for maritime quarantine; the others were land-based, being used primarily, if not exclusively, to segregate people in the town who were either suspected or proven to have contracted the plague during local outbreaks.

Although lazarettos were seen as desirable for cities, their construction was often slow and haphazard. As frequently happens with governmental will, the desire and money to build lazarettos was present only following an epidemic. Risse suggests that "given the temporary character of both plague epidemics and health boards [created to combat them], the construction of permanent facilities was often delayed for decades in favor of makeshift arrangements that included former out-of-town monasteries and private estates."³
Bubonic Plague Epidemics in the Mediterranean Ports by
Country (and City where indicated) in the 15th - 17th centuries.
Background art: Pesttafel Augsburg anagoria (1607-35)
The first lazarettos often began with temporary wooden huts.⁴ Even when they got built, "many of the buildings stood empty, or needed repairs, their basic inventory of beds, mattresses, blankets and clothes burned"⁵ once the epidemic had ended.

While land-based buildings were used only as lazarettos during outbreaks of the plague, major maritime lazarettos served an ongoing purpose. Merchant ships arrived in port cities from all over and the potential for the plague occurring at one ship's previous stops created an on-going use. By way of example, a listing of some of the major plague epidemics in the Mediterranean during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries is shown at left. Of the fifty-six instances in this chart, nineteen occurred in the fifteenth century, nineteen in the sixteenth century and sixteen in the seventeenth century.

Because they contained people who were either infected or suspected of infection, maritime lazarettos were typically placed outside of the city with which they were connected, preferably in a remote place or on an island. Risse explains that they "were established outside of towns near crossroads and in downwind locations based on similar considerations of easy access and environmental contamination. Given the prevailing winds in Europe, this meant a southeastern or eastern location at a prudent distance from human settlements."⁶ He adds that when placed on islands, those chosen were near port entrances and downstream if possible. Such locations also helped prevent those in quarantine from coming into contact with people in the town it was built to protect.

Something the above data reveals is that bubonic plague epidemics began to taper off in the latter half of the seventeenth century. All but two of the instances in the chart from the seventeenth century occurred before 1660. The remaining two were in the 1670's. No other plague outbreak occurred in the Mediterranean areas under study after 1678 until the 1720-1722 Great Plague of Marseille. This was actually the only major plague outbreak during the golden age of piracy. As Risse observes, "Paradoxically, just as the construction of more elaborate and permanent pest houses [lazarettos] ended, plague gradually vanished from Europe."⁷

¹ Neville M Goodman, International Health Organizations and Their Work, Ch 2, 1971, p. 31; ² Guenter B. Risse, Seventeenth-Century Pest Houses or Lazarettos, Jan. 1999, p. 27; ³ Risse,p. 84; ⁴ Risse,p. 28; ⁵ Risse,p. 32; ⁶ Risse,p. 28; ⁷ Risse,p. 46

The Mediterranean Lazarettos - Bills of Health

"11th October, 1644. We lay at Cannes [France], which is a small port on the Mediterranean; here we agreed with a seaman to carry us to Genoa, and, having procured a bill of health (without which there is no admission at any town in Italy), we embarked on the 12th." (John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, Edited by William Bray, 1901, p. 81)

Not all incoming ships had to perform a full quarantine at every Mediterranean port city.
Bill of Health Issued By Naples in 1632 to the Captain of a Felluca, From Direzione
Generale Della Sanita Pubblica, p. 32 (1910)
This would have been onerous for both the ship's crew and for the merchants who were trying to get products into the city before they spoiled or were ruined by the elements. "To avoid quarantine and obtain free pratique, ships had to produce a clean bill of health, i.e. an official document certifying that the last port of call was free from these diseases, and this bill of health in many cases had also to have the visa of the consul of the country of arrival, since this was a guarantee that the information was correct."¹

Bills of health or health certificates for ships may be even more ancient than maritime quarantine. Military researcher John Macauley Eager notes that in the archives of the 'Conservatori di Mare di Genoa' [Conservatory of the Sea of ​​Genoa] there is a "writing, dated 1300, makes mention of bulletins of health (bullettones sanitatis) with which ships from the littoral [shore region] of Corsica and Sardinia were required to be provided."²

Lazaret d'Aranc, Marseille (1848)
A long period of time was to pass before these documents were next mentioned in use, however. "Bills of Health... were instituted [in Venice] in 1527; but they did not become general till 1665."³ Patrick Russel says that the Levant Company, an English chartered company formed to trade with the Ottoman empire, was using bills of health by at least 1596; "an English traveller who was at Aleppo in 1596, mentions his having a clean patent, Syria being then free from the plague."⁴

Once bills of health came into general use, a clean bill of health did not necessarily guarantee that a ship would completely avoid quarantine. The 1716 Marseille quarantine instructions provide an example; passengers arriving on a ship with a clean bill of health were to serve eight days in quarantine. To further complicate the process, the instructions state that passengers coming from Constantinople and the Barbary Coast had to serve two extra days for a total of ten.⁵ The ship itself had to serve twenty days.⁶

Bills of health were sometimes forged (even by English surgeons, as we shall see) and it was necessary for health officials to try and discern real bills from fake. With this in mind, the 1695 instructions for the health officials who served the Brazilian port of Belém and the lazaretto at Trafaria across from Lisbon gave a description of these documents:

Bill of Health Issued By Algiers (1670)

Letters of health are printed or handwritten: the printed ones bear stamps, and on top are the prints of the coat of arms of the provinces or cities and are assigned by the ministers of health; they include the name of the vessel and the person who governs it, and sometimes the appearance of their face, stature and other descriptions, the number of the people in their service, and when they do not bring the number and names of passengers, each of them is obliged to bring a private passport, and these descriptions are most often used.

Some manuscripts bear stamps, others do not: the ones that bring them are passed by the health officials, and the ones that do not are passed by the residents, or sent by His Majesty, and assigned by them... in every case there is such a variety that no rule can be given to know the certainty of them, and since they are all ordered by the guard in the power of the Clerk of Health, the best way to verify them seems to be by examination, to confer with others from the same party, and, if they differ, there is just reason to suspect they are false.⁷

Passengers on ships which had bills of health determined to be either suspect (coming from places that might be infected but not proven so) or foul (arriving from locations known to be plague infected) had to serve longer quarantines. The Marseille instructions said that passengers coming from places with
Artist: Claude Lorrain - The Sun Rising in the Levant (1650)
a suspect bill of health were to serve fifteen days of quarantine while those with a foul bill were to serve twenty.⁸ Passengers aboard ships where someone had died of the plague were to serve twenty days quarantine; if someone died during this period, the quarantine was extended for a period determined by the Bureau of Health in Marseilles. The ship they arrived on had to serve thirty days quarantine if the bill of health was suspect and forty if it was foul. Ships with the plague aboard had to serve even longer quarantine, with the Bureau sending them to "the Isle de Jarre for quarantine; and before unloading any Goods they must open their hatches, keeping them open for ten days to let fresh air into the ship".⁹ After this the normal forty day quarantine was applied. Other locations had different rules - see the section titled Quarantine at the Mediterranean Lazarettos: Goods on page 9 for more on this.

While bills of health made the system work more smoothly, they weren't always effective in preventing the plague. The only large scale outbreak of plague during the golden age of piracy began in May of 1720. The ship Grand Saint-Antoine had sailed from Cyprus after being issued a clean bill of health and cleared for France. She decided to stop at Livorno, Italy to get supplies. Five people died during the voyage from Cyprus to Livorno including the ship's surgeon, so the ship was ordered to stay out of Livorno harbor and put into quarantine. During this time three men who were ill when she arrived died. The bodies were brought ashore and diagnosed as having 'a malignant pestilential fever' rather than the plague, so the authorities of Livorno endorsed the Grand Saint-Antoine's bill of health.

A new surgeon was hired and the Grand Saint-Antoine headed for her original destination: Marseille. There, another man fell ill,
Artist: Michel Serre - Scene de la peste de 1720 a la Tourette (Marseille) (18th c.)
and the ship was treated as if it had a foul bill of health. The cargo was initially to be sent to a distant island to be fumigated with perfumed smoke in order to remove any infection, but the Marseilles Health Office changed their minds and instead sent her to the lazaretto. One of the guards watching the ship died, although it was reported to be from causes other than the plague. Ten days later by the ship's cabin boy died "and events gathered a grisly momentum. In vain did the Health Office send the ship to [the Island of] Jarre for a further fumigation. Six porters who had handled the cargo, a priest who had delivered last rites, and the surgeon of the lazaretto quickly succumbed."¹⁰ Thus began the Great Plague of Marseille, which was to kill about 100,000 people before it ended. The bill of health, certified or not, did not materially affect the outcome since the ship had been treated as infected at both Livorno and Marseille. However, the fact that she was twice issued a clean bill of health doesn't suggest much confidence in the system.

This seems to have been understood elsewhere. John Howard noted that during the 18th century, "the Venetians very justly conclude that it is precarious and highly dangerous to trust to any certificates of health what ever, whether from their own consuls or others, in places where, although the contagion do not openly appear, it may lie lurking in bales of merchandise transported from other parts."¹¹

¹ Neville M Goodman, International Health Organizations and Their Work, Ch 2, 1971, p. 31; ² John Macauley Eager, "The early history of quarantine," Yellow Fever Institute Bulletin No. 12, March, 1903, p. 18; ³ Johannes Noel, The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague, C. H. Clark, Translator, 1971, p. 73; ⁴ Patrick Russell, A Treatise on the Plague, Vol. 2, 1791, p. 318; ⁵ Daniel Panzac, "Appendix 1: INSTRUCTION POUR LES INTENDANTS DE LA SANTE SUR LES USAGES & COUTUMES DU BUREAU", Quarantines et Lazarets, 1986, p. 136 - translated by the author; ⁶ Panzac, "Appendix 1", p. 134; ⁷ Eduardo Freire de Oliveira & Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Elementos para a historia do municipio de Lisboa, Tomo X, 1899, p. 426-7; ⁸ Panzac, "Appendix 1", p. 136; ⁹ Panzac, "Appendix 1", p. 134; ¹⁰ John Booker, Maritime Quarantine: The British Experience c. 1650 -1900, 2007, p. 87; ¹¹ John Howard, An Account of the Principal Lazarettos In Europe, 1791, Vol. 2, p. 18

The Mediterranean Lazarettos - Inspectors

As already suggested, ships arriving in Mediterranean ports were assigned one of three designations: clean, suspect or infected/foul. These designations were based in part on the last port of call of the vessel, the health of the crew and the ships' bill of health. The 1695 Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina provides some insight into how this was done.

A ship coming to Messina was approached by a guardian who asked the captain "where they come from, where they have stayed, and with whom they have traveled, and finding, that they come from parts where there is
Artists: Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg
Map of the Port of Messina, Italy - Prospectus Freti Siculi, Vol. 1 (1575)
no suspicion [of disease], nor that there is any quarantine to do, he takes the health certificates"¹. These were then sent to the local health officials who examined them to make sure the ship had a clean bill of health. If it didn't "come from the Levant, or from a suspicious place, and they had not been sheltered anywhere where there may be a suspicion [of the plague], then they have to give [it] free pratique"².

In cases where a vessel was suspect, the guardian questioned those on the ship from a distance, asking "the Captain, Passengers, and Mariners where they came from, the ship's entire itinerary and the places where they have touched, giving detailed receipts" as well as obtaining their bills of health, "which the guardian was not to receive by hand, so as not to cause any disorder, but using a long cane to retrieve them and then had the bills of health perfumed"³. (Perfuming of papers with scented smoke was used to eliminate any contagion.) This information was put into a written report and given to the Messina Bureau of Health, who examined the ship's documents and itinerary and compared it with the health status at the locations where the ship had stopped.

Surgeon John Howard says that a guardian boarded his ship when they were at Venice in the 18th century to perform an inspection. Howard had intentionally joined a ship
Artist: Claude-Joseph Vernet - Interieur du port de Marseille (1754)
with a foul bill of health in order to experience the full quarantine process there. He explained that when the guards come aboard, "they must take an exact roll of all the ship's crew, which they transmit to the office, and they must see them all mustered every day, that no sickness be concealed, nor elopement [escape from the ship be] made."⁴ They were then to make sure that no one aboard left the ship until its status and quarantine duration had been determined.

A second guard was also assigned to a ship who was to "assist in the transport of the goods or people which will enter the Lazaretto and when finished, must return to the vessel, & there guard it during the period established for its quarantine."⁵ There is no evidence here that either of these guardians were doctors or that they had any medical training. However, in 1728, the rules at Messina were changed so that after the information and bills of health were taken to the health officials, a "necessary re-examination by the physicians is to be carried out"⁶.

It is not always clear that these inspectors had any medical training. In his journal, 17th century sea surgeon James Yonge gives an account of an inspector at the port at Messina, Italy from January of 1665.

Artist: Frédéric de Haenen
A medical officer examining a ships crew for bubonic
plague, Wellcome Collection (1906)

After we had been a while there, no one suffered to come ashore, we are all hands called out of the ship and directed to a small quadrangle, where an old fellow, perusing the bill of health we had from Genoa, puts on a great pair of spectacles as big as saucers and, making each man expose his groins and armpits [for bubos, a sign of the plague], he looks into them and with a stick thrusts in them, where, finding nothing, we are allowed prattick [pratique - permission to go on land], and then went into the town. One of our men who came from Genoa with a bubo [from Gonorrhea] was quite cured, for I purged and sealed it off [probably with cautery irons], so as he was well and nothing showed but the want of hair, tho our man earnestly lookt into it and see if he could find what he suspected.⁷

From Yonge's account, the inspector's background isn't clear, even though he was looking for medical symptoms. It seems possible that this was just one of the guards who had been told what to look for. Historian Carlo Cipolla explains that

in general the Health officers had no medical background. It might be surprising but it was not absurd that people totally unacquainted with medical theory or practice would be appointed to such an office. In the main towns, the officers could consult with the College of Physicians for technical advice. The officers of the minor centres could consult with the local physicians, reported to the central Health officers of their respective capitals and received from the latter both instructions and information.⁸

Some accounts do indicate that the inspectors had a medical background.
Artist: Phillip Hackert - Port of Livorno (1778)
When navy sailor Samuel Atkins arrived at Livorno, Italy on February 7, 1682, he said as much. "This day being ye 22nd from our arrivall here, the Doctor of the Sanita with some other officers came to ye side, and after demanding a few impertinent questions, gave us prattick with ye Assistance and 4 Merchants."⁹ This doctor was likely a physician. When anchored in the harbor at Cadiz, Spain, Father Jean-Baptiste Labat noted that "an ill-conditioned badly-dressed official came alongside in a boat with the Spanish flag at her stern, and forbade anyone to land before the doctors and health officers visited the ship."¹⁰

Eduardo Buono says that the Alicante, Spain lazaretto relied on three 'doctors' who served the city, upon arrival of a ship, provided "the sanitary inspection of the sailors in the ships verifying that there were no signs of infection among the crew. ...When the isolated ships finished their quarantine, they received another medical visit to verify that the crew was healthy."¹¹ These 'doctors' appear to have been physicians, because Buono adds that "surgeons occasionally participated in the exams."¹² It seems almost certain that other-mentioned inspectors had been trained to recognize signs of the plague and may even have been assistant physicians or surgeons, although this cannot be stated with certainty.

^1,2 Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina per la scala franca, 1695, p.6 - translated by the author; ³ Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina.., 1695, p.7; ⁴ John Howard, An Account of the Principal Lazarettos In Europe, 1791, p. 17; ⁵ Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina.., 1695, p.7; ⁶ Istruzioni per il governo della deputazione di Sanita, e lazaretto della nobile, fidelissima, & esempl. citta di Messina, 1728, p. 10; ⁷ James Yonge, The Journal of James Yonge [1647-1721] Plymouth Surgeon, 1965, p. 75; ⁸ Carlo M. Cipolla, Cristofano and the Plague, 1973, p. 48; ⁹ Samuel Atkins, "A Sailor's Journal", Colburn's United Service Magazine, Part 2, 1854, p. 544; ¹⁰ Pere Jean-Baptiste Labat, The Memoirs of Pére Labat 1693-1705, 1970, p. 261; ^11.12 Eduardo Bueno, “Safeguarding Health, Maritime Trade And Bourbon Centralism: The Case Of The Port Of Alicante In The 18th Century”, Comercio Y Cultura en La Edad Moderna, 2015, p. 1234

The Mediterranean Lazarettos - Processing Incoming Ships

As noted in section on the inspectors, a ship arriving in a port which practiced martime quarantine was first approached by personnel from the lazaretto who kept a respectable distance from those aboard to avoid any chance of being infected. They took the ship's documents, purified them and then brought them to the local Board of Health. This was followed by interviews with the captain and others aboard the ship where a variety of questions were asked. Based on all this information, the ship's status was assigned (clean, suspect or foul/infected) and the ship was sent to do a preselected amount of quarantine based on that assignment.

Artist: Willem van de Velde the younger
Ships Riding Quietly at Anchor (17th century)
John Howard explained, "it is an established rule, to treat all ships and merchandise on their arrival at Venice from these suspected places, with the same caution and reserve, as if they were actually infected; and to obviate all danger before their arrival"². Howard, who served the type quarantine reserved for infected ships in Venice, said that on such a ship "a guardian is dispatched on board, whose office and duty commences from that moment, and continues till the ship has performed quarantine"³.

He goes on to describe the process of a ship reporting for quarantine and being interviewed in the Venice health office in some detail. He explains that a vessel filled with soldiers is sent to the ship, keeping its distance,

to observe that nothing is done against the established laws. Then one of the messengers goes to conduct the captain to the health-office; his boat keeps a proper distance before that of the captain, clears the way, and takes care that no communication is held between those in the suspected boat and others. When they arrive at the landing place of the office, which is so contrived that the captain and people may talk with those on shore without approaching too near, he is forthwith conducted into an enclosed entry for that purpose, adjoining to the office, where his report is taken by a clerk, from a window at due distance; the usual questions are asked, such as, from whence he comes ; when he left his port; whether he has a clean bill of health or not; what kind of voyage he has made; if he touched intermediate ports; if he had product in them, or not; if he met vessels at sea; and of what nation; if he were aboard of them, or they of him; how many hands he has on board, and if any passengers; if they have been all the voyage in health, or if any be dead, or sick; what his loading consists of; if he took it in all in one port: this report is written down by the clerk, and then all his papers and letters are demanded.⁴

Simona Olivieri reproduces the 1661 instructions for the Serenissima Republic (the Venetian Republic was traditionally known as the La Serenissima) which give very specific instructions for what was to be asked of the captain or owner of a vessel as well as some of the sailors who arrived in Corsica, Caprara Island and Genoa. These include:

Which location did they leave from and on what day? Which goods or merchandise were loaded and where? At which ports, places or beaches did they stay? With which vessels did they trade during their journey? Have the captain, sailors and passengers been healthy during the voyage? If anyone died during the voyage, the length and type of the illnes shall be sought in detail. How many people have boarded and in the time of the exam how many there are. Was the ship denied or granted pratique at any of the places it stopped? Were they given anything while at sea or in deserted places?⁵

The instructions for the lazaretto at Trafine across from Lisbon, Portugal asked all of these questions in addition to several others. Among those others were: "What is your name? What position do you have on that boat? Her name?... Did you get off your boat, or did you receive from them [other boats encountered], cloth, papers, people, animals, or anything else? How many people left? How many [people] are you bringing, in the service of the vessel, passengers, or garrison if you go to war?"⁶ They also asked if anyone had any swellings (buboes - a possible indication of bubonic plague) on the ship.

Artist: Gaspar van Eyck - Port Scene (17th century)
These questions closely reflect those which Howard reported sailors were asked over a century later.

A couple accounts mention the care observed in keeping those processing incoming sailors at a distance before their status was determined. Howard explains that at Marseille, France, the Heath Office (Le Bureau de Sante) had an outer room, where ship captains were taken to report. "At two feet distance there is an iron lattice with a door, which is opened only by the servants of the intendants, or directors, who are here in waiting"⁷. At Livorno, navy man Samuel Atkins reported in February of 1681 that "wee were suffered to speak with ye merchants at a distance, who told us wee were not to expect prattick they being very scrupulous to give it any coming from ye westward, the plague being at Cadiz."⁸

The documents of the ship were then examined after they have been fumigated with perfume to prevent their carrying infection. According to historian Daniel Panzac, the bill of health was of utmost importance in determining the fate of the ship. "This document fixes the duration and conditions of the quarantine which ships, passengers and goods which arrive from the Levant and Barbary must undergo."⁹

Ships with a clean bill of health either did not have to serve time in the lazaretto once they had been certified by the board or health or served only a short time. Writing in October of 1644, John Evelyn said that when they arrived at Genoa, Italy with a clean bill of health, they anchored at the breakwater outside the city.
Artist: Robert Nanteuil - John Evelyn (1850)
"Toward evening we adventured, and came on shore by the Prattique-house, where, after strict examination by the Syndics [government officials], we were had to the Ducal Palace, and there our names being taken, we were conducted to our inn"¹⁰. So, in Evelyn's case at Livorno, the whole process seems to have been initiated by the crew with little ceremony and the bill of health carried them right into the city.

People and goods on ships determined to be suspect were to serve quarantine. In this case, Howard explains that "the captain is re-conducted on board with the same formality as he came."¹¹ The guardian on the ship then takes a head count, noting this and the possessions found aboard the ship, sending his report back to the office to be compared with what the vessel's captain said in his interview. Once the ship's status was officially decided, the ship's cargo and passengers would be unloaded to serve out their quarantine.

If no bill of health was brought, "it is the unalterable rule of the office, to oblige ship and cargo to perform full quarantine."¹² The documents were then compared to what is known and what the captain reported. Once the ship's documents and sailors had been examined, the ships was placed into one of three categories noted previously: clean, suspect and infected/foul.

The duration of quarantine varied between different locations. Howard explained that ships from suspected place, including their own Ionian island holdings "are always liable to a quarantine of thirty days, or three weeks at least, and frequently to forty days"¹³. At the lazaretto on Malta, historian Charles Savona-Ventura says, "Passengers arriving from ports in the East and the North African coast were particularly suspect, and the period of quarantine varied from approximately nine to fourteen days."¹⁴ This may have been what Howard reports clean ships arriving at Malta had to perform, which he called "petty quarantine, [which] lasts eighteen days, and the ships which perform
Artist: Howard Pyle (1893)
it lie at the entrance of the port near the health-office."¹⁵ At the Manoel Island lazaretto in Malta, Howard reported that, "Ships with foul bills are required to perform quarantine eighty days: but at the end of forty days they may change their station [to the apparently more comfortable lazaretto at , and the captains are allowed to come on shore."¹⁶

Ships with a foul or infected status were either sent away (to prevent them from violating the cordon sanitare) or, if admitted, given a full, traditional quarantine of forty days. The instructions for quarantine at Messina state 'infected' boats "should not be admitted pratique, or to quarantine, but they must immediately be ordered away, under pain of death."¹⁷ They also note that if such ships require provisions, they would be provided, following 'the usual precautions'. These appear to have been putting the provisions on land at a place far from any inhabitants where the sailors could retrieve them, being sure not to leave any "ropes, threads, pieces of cloth, or anything else infected, using due regard & attention."¹⁸

However, a report given by physician and gentleman from Florence who had inspected the lazaretto at Genoa, Italy in 1652, people from ships were given "quarantena brutta (ugly quarantine). The quarantena brutta derived its name from the fact that it was applied to people defined as brutti because they had caught the infection or had been in close and direct contact with infected people or merchandise. It meant complete isolation for 40 days or more, plus a further period of isolation described as 'convalescence.'"¹⁹ Professor Carlo Cipolla explains that such 'convalescence' was "intended not so much to help the convalescents in their recovery as to keep them isolated for a father period after they had been removed from the ranks of the [infected] sick."²⁰

In regard to quarantine at Venice, Howard explains "that all ships and merchandise coming from any part of the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire from 1691-1791, Original Image: Wiki User Esemono
dominions, are indispensably subjected to the full quarantine of forty days; for, as the Turks take no precautions to prevent this dread fill calamity, or to preserve or deliver themselves from it"²¹. In addition, "ships from Zante, Cephalonia, and the other Venetian islands are always liable to a quarantine of thirty days, or three weeks at least, and frequently to forty days; because [of its'] lying so near the Morea, and having daily communication with its inhabitants"²². Venice owned Moria at the beginning of the golden age of piracy, but the Ottoman Empire took it in 1715, long before Howard was writing. So it is probable that ships coming from those places when they were held by the Venetians did not have to perform quarantine.

For those passengers required to serve quarantine in order to land, the people and their goods were brought into the lazaretto on the incoming vessels launches, according to the 1695 Messina lazaretto instructions. The vessel's sailors were then to take their launch(es) directly back to their ship without stopping, deviating from the direct route back or talking with anyone on the way. The guardians were to observe them until they arrived back at their ship. If the sailors didn't follow these instructions, the guardians were to warn them three times, after which they were authorized to shoot them.²³

Howard's description of this process while he was at the lazaretto in Venice in the 18th century contains further details of this process. He explains that no passenger is allowed to serve quarantine on the ship. He notes that "if any [passenger] should remain on board in sailors' disguise, he or they must be sent to the lazaretto, and the ship begins her quarantine anew from the day after their departure; which happens in the same manner if goods should be concealed on board, after the rest of the cargo is sent to the lazaretto."²⁴ From this, it can be seen that the sailors were to undergo quarantine on their vessel at Venice. This may have been so that they could earn a clean bill of health, something they could use later in the trip if the location of the quarantine was not considered suspicious or infected by those at the other ports. The Messina instructions state that a guard must be posted on a vessel serving quarantine, at a cost of 'six Carlini per day for the whole quarantine'.²⁵

¹ For more on such rules, see Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina per la scala franca, 1695; ² John Howard, An Account of the Principal Lazarettos In Europe, 1791, p. 18; ³ Howard, p. 17-8; ⁴ Howard, p. 19; ⁵ Simona Olivieri, "Istruzione ed ordini per la Sanità da osservarsi in tutti quei luoghi che hanno giurisdizione al mare, nell'una e l'altra Riviera della Serenissima Repubblica, compreso il Regno di Corsica, ed isola di Caprara", La Berio, Jan-Jul, 1999, p. 24-5; ⁶ Eduardo Freire de Oliveira & Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Elementos para a historia do municipio de Lisboa, Tomo X, 1899, p. 425; ⁷ Howard, p. 3; ⁸ Samuel Atkins, "A Sailor's Journal", Colburn's United Service Magazine, Part 1, 1854, p. 206; ⁹ Daniel Panzac, Quarantines et Lazarets, 1986, p. 41 - interpreted by the author; ¹⁰ John Evelyn, The Diary of John Evelyn, Edited by William Bray, 1901, p. 83; ¹¹ Howard, p. 19; ¹² Howard, p. 19; ¹³ Howard, p. 18; ¹⁴ Charles Savona-Ventura, Knight Hospitaller Medicine in Malta [1530-1789], 2015, p. 48; ¹⁵ Howard, p. 8; ¹⁶ Howard, p. 9; ^17,18 Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina..., p.8 - translated by the author; ¹⁹ Carlo M. Cipolla, Fighting Plague in Seventeeth-Century Italy, 1981, p. 38; ²⁰ Cipolla, p. 72; ^21,22 Howard, p. 18; ²³ Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina.., 1695, p.23; ²⁴ Howard, p. 17; ²⁵ Instruzzioni e gouerno del lazzaretto di Messina..., 1695, p.14

Plague Quarantine Page Menu:    1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      9      10      11      12      13      14      15        Next>>