The Italian Plague of 1629–1631 was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague which ravaged northern and central Italy. This epidemic often referred to as the Great Plague of Milan; claimed possibly one million lives or about 25% of the population.
The plague ravaged large cities and provincial towns, killing more than 45,000 people in Venice alone and wiping out more than half the population of cities like Parma and Verona. Out of ninety- seven communities, only nine (9 per cent) were entirely spared by plague during the seventeenth century. But a city named Ferrara in the northeastern Emilia -Romagna region, northern Italy, situated on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the Po River, northeast of Bologna managed to prevent the spread of the plague, and any death after the year 1576.
Cities like Venice and Florence, communicated with smaller towns like Farrara to warn, keep track of the plague outbreaks as well as to take necessary action and set threat levels. Researchers credit fararra's success to a combination of border surveillance, sanitation, public hygiene measures that made use of the cleansing properties of oils, herbs and even snake venom. A medicinal oil called Composito was kept prepared and was only distributed in times of need.
The secret recipe for Composito was made by Pedro Castagno a physician, who wrote: “Reggimento contra la peste” (“Regimen against the plague”), in which he described how the concoction should be applied to the body.The ingredients of Composito were never disclosed, but researchers claim that the balm contained myrrh and saffron as well as venom from both scorpions and vipers.
The gates of the city were closed and identification documents and proof of where the arrivals were coming from ensured the quarantining of the town. Streets were cleared of garbage and animals like cats, dogs and chickens. Lime powder was spread surfaces that may have come in contact with an infected person. Residents tried to disinfect surfaces by burning damaged articles of furniture and heating valuable object and money. Perfumes were sprayed continuously in houses and clothes were left in the sun.
It’s hard to confirm that these methods were the secret to fararra's success in fending itself from the plague. Most Italian cities also applied the same rules and regimens, yet were captured by the talons of the plague. The difference might have lied in the level of enforcement says John Henderson, a professor of Italian Renaissance history at Birbeck, University of London, and author of Florence under Seige: Surviving Plague in and Early Modern City.
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