The first large account of an epidemic was that of the Plague of Athens in 430 BC described by Thucydides, of which the Library of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova has an English translation from 1752 attached to a work by Hippocrates, which also includes a treatise on epidemics. From the description, it is assumed that the disease could have been epidemic typhus or smallpox rather than the bubonic plague.

A local example is the work of Girolamo Mercuriale, De pestilentia, from 1601 (digital copy), in which the Paduan professor describes the 1575 plague of Padua and Venice. It is curious that Mercuriale, when called to consult with other illustrious doctors of Venice, had not identified the epidemic at its outset. As a follower of Hippocrates, the author attributed the quality of air as the origin of the plague: this was the classic theory regarding miasma, prior to the scientific theory of the contagion, which ascribed the origin of the plague to a change of air in substance, which involved putrification. The use of the beak mask containing a mixture of aromatic herbs for doctors dealing the pest resulted from this.

The Library of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova has the 1805 edict (digital copy) containing the provisions from the Emperor of Austria to the government and health authorities (the Magistrato di Sanità) of the Imperial Royal Governor General of Venice in the event of an outbreak: to ensure the effectiveness of "preventive measures" (p. 15) a thick network of public health authorities is organised, a cordon sanitaire is instituted to control trade and the movement of goods and people and for the prevention of infections, and lazarets to quarantine those infected. The edict also describes the communication chain in the case of a plague, penalties in the event of resistance or in omission of a health alarm, compensation for expulsions and forced requisition and awards for "extraordinary service": "they can absolutely count on a special subsidy from His Majesty due to His major recognition, as for the above mentioned Doctors and Politicians, in form of pensions and other benefits, to widows and orphans after the death of those relatives who died for the common good” (p. 7).
Severe penalties were established, sentries are obliged to shoot and "prison from five to ten years" (p. 11), for anyone violating the Cordon Sanitaire with the illegal importation of goods, outside of the allowed access points and ports, "neglecting to show up at the designated Health Offices as scheduled" (p. 10) or falsification of transportation documents or sanitation documents. In the case of "evident inadvertence... the penalty may be reduced, depending on the circumstances to a punishment of a beating by sticks" (p.11). Same punishment for anyone escaping the lazarets and one to five years of prison for those "guilty of concealing anything dangerous with regards to Public Health" (p. 13).