The first quarantine lasted thirty days, not forty.

1377

In 1377 Ragusa (Dubrovnik) made arrivals from plague areas wait 30 days; later the period was extended to 40, quaranta in Italian.

◍ Show on the globe

The event

• Black Death1347–1351 · Messina. Genoese galleys from Caffa brought plague to Messina in Sicily, from where it swept across Europe. Within a few years the Black Death killed an estimated third to half of the continent's population, reshaping its economy and society.

14th century

More amazing facts

• 1373 · 1386 · 1943 An alliance made in the 14th century was invoked in the Second World War. In 1943 Portugal, citing its treaties with England of 1373 and 1386, let the British use bases in the Azores.
• 1377 · 1450 Korean monks printed the Jikji with movable metal type in 1377, some 70 years before Gutenberg's press.
• 1377 Robin Hood first appears as the hero of songs known to a lazy priest.
• 1377 · 1401 The great historian Ibn Khaldun met Tamerlane.
• 1378 · 1409 In 1409 Catholics had three popes at once.
• 1378 · 1737 · 1798 Napoleon's soldiers did not shoot the nose off the Sphinx.

All amazing facts (1058) →