quarantine – My Blog

All Ancient Worlds Epidemics Through Time Societies & Responses Lessons for Today Connections. Comparisons. Context.

A cloaked watchman holding a lantern beside a door marked with a red cross and the words Lord Have Mercy Upon Us, a cobbled London street and St Paul's dome behind him.

Societies & Responses

The Red Cross on the Door

Inside London's plague houses, where a public-health order could turn a family home into a place of confinement.

11 Sep 2026 · 15 min read

An illustration of a harbour official at Ragusa recording arrivals at a desk, with a guard holding back travellers and merchants at a rope barrier, ships and the walled city in the background.

Lessons for Today

The Invention of Quarantine

Six centuries before germ theory, a small Adriatic city decided that waiting was worth the cost — and gave the world the number forty.

11 Sep 2026 · 8 min read