Zalta Blažina Tomić & Vesna Blažina
Expelling the Plague / The Health Office and the Implementation of
Quarantine in Dubrovnik, 1377-1533
By Zlata Blazina Tomic and Vesna Blazina, McGill
Queen’s University Press, 2015
A ground-breaking study about plague control measures in medieval and
early modern Croatia.
A vibrant city-state on the Adriatic sea, Dubrovnik,
also known as Ragusa, was a hub for the international trade between
Europe and the Ottoman Empire. As a result, the city suffered frequent
outbreaks of plague. Through a comprehensive analysis of these
epidemics in Dubrovnik, Expelling the Plague explores the increasingly
sophisticated plague control regulations that were adopted by the city
and implemented by its health officials.
In 1377, Dubrovnik became the first city in the world to
develop and implement quarantine legislation, and in 1390 it
established the earliest recorded permanent Health Office. The city’s
preoccupation with plague control and the powers granted to its Health
Office led to a rich archival record chronicling the city’s experience
of plague, its attempts to safeguard public health, and the social
effects of its practices of quarantine, prosecution, and punishment.
These sources form the foundation of the authors’ analysis, in
particular the manuscript Libro deli Signori Chazamorbi, 1500-30, a
rare health record of the 1526-27 calamitous plague epidemic. Teeming
with real people across the spectrum, including gravediggers,
laundresses, and plague survivors, it contains the testimonies
collected during trial proceedings conducted by health officials
against violators of public health regulations.
Outlining the contributions of Dubrovnik in conceiving and establishing
early public health measures in Europe, Expelling the Plague reveals
how health concerns of the past greatly resemble contemporary anxieties
about battling epidemics such as SARS, avian flu, and the Ebola virus.
- Zalta Blažina Tomić & Vesna Blažina: Expelling the Plague / The Health Office and the
Implementation of Quarantine in Dubrovnik, 1377-1533, McGill
Queen’s University Press, 2015
- Zlata Blažina Tomić: Kacamorti i kuga: utemeljenje i razvoj zdravstvene službe u Dubrovniku, Zavod za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Dubrovniku, Posebna izdanja Monografije, knj. 27, Zagreb-Dubrovnik 2007.