The iconic cloaked and beaked plague doctor is often associated with Venice, but there is no documentation that the figure ever existed in Venice.
The plague doctor with the beaked mask might not have much to do with Venice — that figure is more likely to be French.
Quarantine was the main method of prevention of the black plague in Venice, and the lazzaretti served that purpose.
Full transcription of the Venetian text from the publication “Capitoli Da osservarsi nelli Lazaretti”, from 1674.
Bad air was believed to be a major cause of sickness in the past, based on Aristotle’s idea of miasma as the cause of disease.
On October 10th, 1423, exactly six hundred years ago, the Venetian state decided to create the first lazaret in the world.
The Lazzaretto Vecchio was open for visits this weekend. Openings are occasional and this was only occasion to see the island this year.
On this day, six hundred years ago, the Senate of the Republic of Venice decided to create the first ever permanent plague hospital, the Lazzaretto Vecchio
A chronology of the Lazzaretto Nuovo, the first permanent quarantine station for the bubonic plague in the world, founded in 1468 by the Republic of Venice.
The quarantine station on Lazzaretto Nuovo was for three centuries one of the main Venetian defences against the black plague.