By The European Times | Created at 2026-07-28 08:49:08 | Updated at 2026-08-04 03:02:36
6 days ago
The fruit of rational statesmanship, this event occurred on July 27, 1377 in the Adriatic republic of Ragusa (today’s Dubrovnik).
On that day, the Great Assembly of the city adopted a legal act that forever changed the fight against infectious diseases and laid the foundations of modern epidemiology.
In an era when the Black Death was ravaging Europe, and people were looking for an explanation for the plague in the wrath of God or the movement of the planets, the small maritime republic did something revolutionary – it introduced the world’s first officially organized state quarantine.
The Shadow of the Black Death and the Adriatic Nightmare
To understand the magnitude of this decision, we must go back to the middle of the 14th century. Between 1347 and 1351, the devastating wave of the bubonic plague swept the continent, wiping out between a third and a half of the population of Europe. For a thriving trading hub like Ragusa, whose wealth was entirely due to intensive shipping and land trade, epidemics were tantamount to a death sentence.
At every new rumor of plague, cities in Europe at that time reacted primitively and panicked – they completely closed their gates, interrupted all trade and paralyzed their lives.
For Ragusa, however, complete isolation meant economic bankruptcy. The citizens and rulers of the city realized that a new, more intelligent approach was needed: a way to protect people’s health without destroying trade.
The Law of 1377 and the “Trentina”
On July 27, 1377, the city council of Ragusa voted on the historic decision recorded in the famous “Green Book” of the republic under the title “Veniens de locis pestiferis non intret Ragusium nel districtum” (“Those coming from infected areas shall not enter Ragusa or its district”).
The law stated that all merchants, passengers and ship crews arriving from plague-affected regions had to spend exactly 30 days in isolated places near the city – first on the nearby rocky islands of Mljet and Cavtat. During this period, the imprisoned people were obliged to monitor their health, while the city authorities provided them with food and fresh water.
This 30-day isolation was initially called “trentina” in Italian (from trenta – thirty). Subsequently, based on the accumulated experience and medical observations, the isolation period was extended to 40 days to ensure the complete completion of the incubation period of the disease. It was this forty-day measure that gave rise to the word that the whole world knows today – quarantine (from the Italian quaranta – forty).
The Medical Genius of Ragusa and the Lazaretti
What makes the Dubrovnik model unique for its time is its humanity and stunning organization for the 14th century. While in other parts of Europe the sick were abandoned or burned, Ragusa built the world’s first complete system of specialized isolation wards, called lazarettos.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the grandiose complex of the Lazaretti of Ploce was built right on the coast next to the city – a massive stone structure with separate courtyards, warehouses and living quarters, where goods were fumigated and aired, and people spent their 40-day period in safe and hygienic conditions.
The results were astonishing. Thanks to strict but pragmatic control, Ragusa managed to survive subsequent waves of the plague with significantly fewer victims than its neighboring rivals such as Venice and Genoa, preserving both the lives of its citizens and its economic status on the Adriatic.
A legacy that still saves lives today
Ragusa’s decision of 27 July 1377 transformed a small republic into a pioneer of public health. Their invention was quickly adopted by the Venetian Republic, and later by the entire world, becoming a mainstay of international medical security.
Today, more than six centuries later, when the word “quarantine” has once again become part of the everyday life of all of our time, the walls of the ancient infirmaries in Dubrovnik continue to remind us of that historical moment. The day when human reason and statesmanship prevailed over panic and blind fear of the unknown.
