The city of Ragusa enacted a law requiring travelers from plague areas to spend forty days in isolation before entering the city, the first legislation codifying the quarantine period that gave the practice its modern name.

The introduction of a forty-day quarantine in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in 1377 provided poets and writers with a powerful symbol of separation and fear of contagion. This theme persisted through Romantic and modern poetry, illustrating the emotional and psychological impacts of isolation.