Definition
A term of medieval English and Saxon law with two distinct uses:
1. A linear and area land measure equal to one furlong — that is, forty perches in length, or the equivalent square measure derived from that unit. In this sense, quarentena denotes a fixed quantity of land used in the description and conveyance of real property in early English legal instruments.
2. A widow's right of quarantine — the right of a widow to remain in her deceased husband's chief dwelling house for forty days after his death, during which time her dower was to be assigned to her. This right, rooted in Magna Carta, was sometimes called her "quarentine" or "quarantine," and the term quarentena was used interchangeably with that right in Latin legal texts of the period.
The word derives from the Latin root for forty (quadraginta), and both meanings share that numerical foundation: forty perches as a unit of land, and forty days as a period of legal protection.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A synonym for the Mount of Temptation — the hill in the Judean Desert associated with Jesus's forty-day fast, named for the same Latin root meaning forty days.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently defined; related terms appear under "quarantine" and "furlong."
The common usage — a geographic and religious landmark — shares only an etymological ancestor with the legal term. A researcher encountering quarentena in a medieval English deed, writ, or treatise should not associate it with the biblical or geographical sense. The legal term is a technical instrument of land law and widow's rights, not a descriptive or religious reference.
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Common Confusion
Quarentena (the land measure) and quarentena (the widow's right) are etymologically and textually identical but functionally distinct. Context determines which meaning applies: when quarentena appears in descriptions of acreage, furlongs, or field boundaries, it is a measure of land. When it appears alongside dower proceedings, the death of a husband, or the right of a widow to remain in the mansion house, it refers to the forty-day period of protection. Burrill's entry conflates the two without a clean separation, which can mislead researchers reading the source quickly.
Additionally, quarentena should not be confused with the modern legal or public health concept of quarantine, even though both terms descend from the same root and both concern a period of forty days. The legal sense of quarantine as disease-control isolation is a later, separate development.
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Why It Matters in Research
Quarentena is a term that surfaces almost exclusively in pre-modern English legal texts — Bracton, Fleta, and statutes of the early English Parliament — and in land records from the Saxon and early Norman periods. Researchers working in those sources should be alert to two traps.
First, the term's dual meaning creates misreading risk. A passage in Bracton or a medieval conveyance using quarentena may be measuring land or describing a widow's rights, and the surrounding context must be read carefully. Burrill's entry gestures at both but is not organized to make the distinction clear.
Second, the forty-day widow's right referenced by this term connects directly to Magna Carta (1215, Chapter 7 in standard numbering), which guaranteed that a widow shall tarry in her husband's house for forty days after his death while her dower is assigned. The Latin texts underlying that provision use quarentena in the temporal sense. Researchers tracing the history of dower rights in English law will encounter this term as a functional legal period, not merely a descriptive one.
Third, the land-measure sense of quarentena overlaps with furlong and with perch as units, and researchers should cross-reference those terms when working through boundary descriptions in early deeds. Historical land records often chain these units together, and understanding their relationship is necessary for accurate interpretation of acreage.
The term is rare in American legal sources and essentially absent from post-colonial common law materials. It belongs almost entirely to the English legal historical corpus.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the primary historical source that defines quarentena in an English-language legal reference context. Burrill identifies both meanings — the furlong-based land measure of forty perches and the widow's right to remain in the mansion house — and connects the term to its Latin and Law French roots. He cites Bracton and Fleta as primary text sources for the Latin usage, and references Statute of Westminster I (c. 28) for the procedural context of related terms.
Burrill's entry is notably compressed and appears to be extracted from a longer passage that also addresses quarantine and related terms. This means the entry as it appears in the dictionary is somewhat fragmented, and researchers relying on Burrill alone may not fully appreciate that the two meanings are legally distinct applications of the same word rather than variant spellings of a single concept.
No major American legal dictionary — Black's, Bouvier's, or Rapalje and Lawrence — treats quarentena as a standalone entry of significance, reflecting that the term's operative legal life was confined to English law before the common law was transplanted to the American colonies.
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Jurisdictional Note
Quarentena has no operative significance in American law and is not in use in any common law jurisdiction today. Its relevance is confined to English legal history, particularly the period from the Norman Conquest through the early Plantagenet era. Researchers working in Scottish or Welsh historical legal records may encounter variant forms.
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