Description

Book Synopsis

Forty Days: Quarantine and the Traveller, c. 1700 1900 provides a timely reminder that no traveller in past centuries could return from the East without spending up to 40 days in a lazaretto to ensure that no symptoms of plague were developing. Quarantine was performed in virtual prisons ranging from mud huts in the Danube basin to a converted fort on Malta, evoking every emotion from hatred and hostility through to resignation and even contentment. Drawing on the diaries and journals of some 300 men and women of many nationalities over more than two centuries, the author describes the inadequate accommodation, poor food and crushing boredom experienced by detainees. The book also draws attention to comradeship, sickness, and death in detention, as well as Casanova's unique ability to do what he did best even in the lazaretto of Ancona. Other well-known detainees included Hans Christian Andersen, Mark Twain and Sir Walter Scott. Lavishly illustrated, the work includes

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Reasons, Regimes and Routes 2. Quarantine: the Social Leveller 3. First Impressions 4. Passing the Time 5. Reckoning and Departure Gazetteer: Quarantine Stations and Lazarettos

Forty Days

    Product form

    A Paperback / softback by John Booker

    £39.99

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      Book details

      Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
      Published 31 May 2023
      ISBN-13 9781032050355
      978-1032050355
      ISBN-10 1032050357
      Also in:
      Epidemiology and Medical statistics

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Forty Days: Quarantine and the Traveller, c. 1700 1900 provides a timely reminder that no traveller in past centuries could return from the East without spending up to 40 days in a lazaretto to ensure that no symptoms of plague were developing. Quarantine was performed in virtual prisons ranging from mud huts in the Danube basin to a converted fort on Malta, evoking every emotion from hatred and hostility through to resignation and even contentment. Drawing on the diaries and journals of some 300 men and women of many nationalities over more than two centuries, the author describes the inadequate accommodation, poor food and crushing boredom experienced by detainees. The book also draws attention to comradeship, sickness, and death in detention, as well as Casanova's unique ability to do what he did best even in the lazaretto of Ancona. Other well-known detainees included Hans Christian Andersen, Mark Twain and Sir Walter Scott. Lavishly illustrated, the work includes

      Table of Contents

      Introduction 1. Reasons, Regimes and Routes 2. Quarantine: the Social Leveller 3. First Impressions 4. Passing the Time 5. Reckoning and Departure Gazetteer: Quarantine Stations and Lazarettos

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