Venice's plague islands and the birth of quarantine

As plague kept returning, Venice turned a lagoon island into one of the first permanent plague hospitals in 1423 and opened a second, the Lazzaretto Nuovo, in 1468 for ships, crews and cargo suspected of infection. Goods and travellers were held for forty days, the quaranta giorni behind the word quarantine. Vows made during later epidemics gave the city two great churches, the Redentore and the Salute.