ABSTRACT
For many historians of disease and medicine, the first months of the coronavirus pandemic were disorienting and sobering. The question “What can history teach us about COVID-19?” seemed omnipresent in print and digital media. Yet historical perspectives on the crisis not only came with the standard caveats—that each epidemic and historical era is distinct and should not be generalized—but also quickly made clear that even protocols based on lessons learned from the influenza pandemic in 1918/19 or SARS in 2003 had limited value. Nonetheless, what history does offer is a trajectory to understanding a modern approach to epidemics which was shaped by events centuries ago. During the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pandemic cities in Europe responded by introducing quarantines anticipating the steps taken during COVID-19. This essay argues that the histories of infectious diseases and modern cities have been intertwined, not only because cities foster the spread of disease but also because accounts of urban events have framed our understanding of epidemics and epidemics effected enormous changes in the cities.
