Developed throughout early modern Europe, lazaretti, or plague hospitals, took on a central role in early modern responses to epidemic disease, in particular the prevention and treatment of plague. The lazaretti served as isolation hospitals, quarantine centres, convalescent homes, cemeteries, and depots for the disinfection or destruction of infected goods. The first permanent example of this institution was established in Venice in 1423 and between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries tens of thousands of patients passed through the doors. Founded on lagoon islands, the lazaretti tell us...

Developed throughout early modern Europe, lazaretti, or plague hospitals, took on a central role in early modern responses to epidemic disease, in particular the prevention and treatment of plague. The lazaretti served as isolation hospitals, quarantine centres, convalescent homes, cemeteries, and depots for the disinfection or destruction of infected goods. The first permanent example of this institution was established in Venice in 1423 and between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries tens of thousands of patients passed through the doors. Founded on lagoon islands, the lazaretti tell us...

Tracing Hospital Boundaries explores, for the first time, how the forces of both integration and segregation shaped hospitals and their communities between the eleventh and twentieth centuries in Europe, North America and Africa. Within this broad comparative context it also shines a light on a number of case studies from Southeastern Europe. The eleven chapters show how people’s access to, and experience of, healthcare institutions was affected by social, cultural and economic, as well as medical, dynamics. These same factors intersected with developing healthcare technologies to shape...