Plague Quarantena Created Modern Quarantine

After the Black Death, Mediterranean authorities, dealing with recurrent outbreaks of plague, made travelers and arriving ships wait before entering port communities. The Republic of Ragusa, now Dubrovnik in Croatia, introduced a 30-day isolation period called a trentino in 1377. In 1448, the Venetian Senate extended the wait to 40 days, or quarantena in Venetian, giving possible infections time to appear. That 40-day rule gave the English language the word "quarantine."

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