For the plague, there is an houſe of many lodgeingꝭ [lodgeinges], two miles from Venice, called the Lazaretta, vnto the which all they of that houſe, wherin one hath been infected of the plague, are incontinẽtly ſent, and a lodgeyng ſufficiente appoincted for theim till the infection ceaſſe, that they may retourne.

They are in their Method of Devotion, pious and charitable, their ſtately Temples, and Monaſteries demonſtrat the one, and their Lazarettos, or Houſes for the Poor do verify the other, ſpecially that of Monte de pietà, an Hoſpital of 60000.

The Lazaretto is a vaſt Building, carrying in compaſs a thouſand and eight hundred yards. It ſtands near the Tovvn VValls, yet out of the Tovvn, and is to receive into it thoſe that are ſick of the Plague.

It is planted with ſhady trees; and in the center is a building, vvhich ſerves for a hoſpital, or lazaretto, for perſons afflicted vvith the leproſy, or other incurable diſeaſes, vvho are ſent thither from Batavia.

Miss Rossignol lived in the lazaretto / For Roman Catholic crones; she had white skin, / And underneath it, fine, old-fashioned bones; […]

And they led me to visit a suspended street recently opened over a bamboo grove, a shadow-theater under construction in the place of the municipal kennels, now moved to the pavilions of the former lazaretto, abolished when the last plague victims were cured, […]

Reader take pity on me, in the greatest of my sufferings. I can swear to you that all the bodily torments which are of necessity suffered in the lazaretti cannot compare even to the fleas, for they do not leave me even in the coldest depths of winter.
Translated from a 17th-century Italian text by Antero Maria de San Bonaventura.

It is probable that from their inception the lazaretti did not house all plague victims. Wealthier victims were probably "quarantined" in their homes.

[T]he idea of an isolated, specialized treatment facility like the leprosarium for plague victims caught on. These buildings would be known as pest houses, lazar houses, or lazaretti (Italian, singular lazaretto; variously spelled in different languages), named, as were many leprosaria, for Lazarus, the poor man with sores in the Gospel parable whom the rich man ignored at the peril of his soul (e.g., Luke 16:19–31).

The lazaretti need to be kept clean and tidy and not left with dead bodies locked inside. Rubbish and filth must be regularly and immediately removed and the rooms perfumed daily or ‘even more than once a day’. He [Hieronimo Donzellini] then discussed in detail the types of perfumes and how to dispense them in the lazaretti. Finally, like [Giovanni Filippo] Ingrassia, he discussed the architectural organization and construction of the lazaretti, the need for different rooms to treat different types of patients.

If Lazarettoes were made here in England, that is, if Places were ſet apart and appointed for the Reception of infected Perſons and Goods, or of Perſons and Goods coming from infected Places; […] ſince Perſons and Goods in a Lazaretto muſt be as liable as otherwiſe to receive Infection; it follows, that whenever they are diſmiſs'd, tho they have got rid of their own, yet they muſt in all probability have received, and bring with them, ſome part of the new come Infection.

Theſe eſtabliſhments of Lazzarettos, under wiſe regulations, would have more than one good effect; for while they remove the great inquietude, which is occaſioned by our continual apprehenſions of the Plague, and ſave a populous kingdom, as well as other ſtates connected with us, (who are likewiſe endangered by the accidents of navigation and the imprudence of plunderers) they will ſecure the property of the trader from invaſion; […]

Passengers may perform quarantine on board if they choose, but it is not advisable to do so if they arrive by a merchant ship, as in that case the term is longer than for a person who goes into the lazzaretto; the day he enters the lazzaretto is reckoned as one, and pratique is given at the earliest hour of the day when the period expires. […] The best lazzarettos are those of Malta, Leghorn, Marseilles, Ancona, and Trieste.

It was the time of the plague at Messina. The English fleet had anchored there, and searched the felucca I was on. That subjected us to a quarantine of twenty-one days upon arriving at Genoa after a long and troublesome crossing. They gave the passengers the choice of undergoing it on board, or in the lazaretto in which they warned us that we would find only the four walls, because they had not yet had time to furnish it.

By the middle of the eighteenth century when it was becoming easier, and safer, to visit the east, they were anxious to visit the Greek and Roman lands of Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa from which they had been deterred by the lure of Italy, fear of the plague and of having to spend quarantine in a noisome Levantine lazaretto.

After a large quantity of proviſions had been hoiſted up to get out the powder, the ſmoke was ſtill found to aſcend from below; this circumſtance, […] convinced them that the fire muſt be in the lazaretto below, where ſome purſers beds were now recollected to have been very improperly ſtowed; […] no doubt was entertained that theſe beds had got wet and had taken fire.

Lazaretto

Meaning

Noun

Origin

Synonyms