During the Black Death, Venice required ships arriving from plague-infected ports to anchor offshore for thirty days before passengers could disembark, creating one of history's first formal maritime quarantines.

Venice's establishment of the first formal quarantine in 1348 shaped literary imaginations around isolation and confinement. Boccaccio's 'Decameron' utilized this framework, while later poets reflected on themes of plague, waiting, and mortality, enriching the literary discourse on human experience.