The evidence
Sources and evidence: strasbourg-dancing-plague
In July 1518 a dancing epidemic broke out in Strasbourg, then a free Imperial city: numbers of townspeople danced compulsively in the streets and marketplaces for days, the magistrates intervened, and the afflicted were eventually carted to a shrine of St. Vitus in the hills above Saverne (Zabern) to be blessed and cured. The event is known almost entirely through Alsatian chronicle compilations - Sebastian Brant’s annals, Daniel Specklin’s Collectanea, Hertzog, Kleinlawel, Trausch and Wencker - most of which survive only in nineteenth-century printed editions because the Strasbourg city library and much of the municipal archive burned in the Prussian bombardment of August 1870. Paracelsus, who was in Strasbourg in 1526, discussed the local dancing sickness and coined his own classification for it.
What the record establishes
More than one source close to the events says so, and their independence has been checked against their own wording - so they are not one account reprinted.
Strasbourg was visited by the “Tanzplage” (dancing plague) in the year 1418.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Daniel Smith, ‘100 Things They Don’t Want You to Know: the World’s Conspiracies and Unsolved Crimes’, 2017, page 274
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
At Strasbourg many people who fell ill caused alarm by confused and perverse behaviour and then irresistibly followed the swarms of dancers.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Hecker cites as his source for the Strasbourg dancing plague the chronicle of J. von Königshoven, edited by Schilter, Strasbourg 1698, note 21 ‘von Veitz-Tantz’, page 1085.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
Several hundred people, women and men, began to dance and leap at Strasbourg in the open market, lanes and streets, day and night, many of them not eating.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The Strasbourg dancing continued until the raging subsided of itself.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
The affliction at Strasbourg was given the name St. Vitus’s dance (St. Vits Tanz).
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Many hundreds of people at Strasbourg, women and men, danced and leapt in the open market, lanes and streets, and many of them did not eat day or night until the raging subsided.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The body of St. Vitus was solemnly handed over on 19 March 836 by Abbot Hilduwinus of St. Denys to Abbot Warinus of Corvey, by order of the Pope, the journey lasting three months until 13 June.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
At the beginning of the fifteenth century a legend circulated that St. Vitus, before bowing beneath the sword, prayed to God that all who fasted on his eve and celebrated his day be preserved from the dance, whereupon a voice from heaven answered “Vite, du bist erhöret”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “zu Anfang des funfzehnten Jahrhunderts, vielleicht auch schon im vierzehnten”.
Paracelsus wrote that it should not be conceded that saints can give diseases and have diseases named after them, calling such talk useless chatter behind which lies no true sign but only belief.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus distinguished three kinds of St. Vitus’s dance: one arising from imagination (Vitista, Chorea imaginativa, aestimativa), one from sensual desire “mit Verhengung des Willens” (Chorea lasciva), and one from bodily causes (Chorea naturalis, coacta).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus proposed that in the bodily form of the dancing sickness the blood in certain veins susceptible to an inner tickling, which produces laughter, is brought into ferment by altered vital spirits.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “welche er sich nach einer abenteuerlichen Ansicht so vorstellte”.
Some of the dancers of 1374 stated afterwards that they had felt as though plunged into a stream of blood and had therefore been obliged to leap so high.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “späterhin sagten einige aus”.
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “some of them sfterwaras asserted”.
Others among the dancers of 1374 said that in their ecstasy they saw heaven open with the enthroned Saviour and the Mother of God.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The dancing sickness appeared in Aachen in July 1374 and within a few months spread over the neighbouring Netherlands, appearing in Liège, Utrecht, Tongeren and many other Belgian towns.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
People held that the ineffective baptism administered by unchaste priests was the cause of the dancing affliction, as though innocent children had in later years to atone for the desecration of the sacraments by licentious clergy.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Some physicians declared from the very beginning that natural causes such as a hot temperament underlay the dancing plague, but these views received little consideration.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus wished to remove the dancing illness from the realm of miracles and saints and to derive its causes from his knowledge of the human body.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus expressed himself on the transmission of St. Vitus dance by sympathy, describing sensory impressions that go to the heart and overwhelm the resistance of reason, driving the afflicted to imitate what they have seen.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
For the first kind of St. Vitus dance Paracelsus prescribed that the patient make an image of himself in wax or resin, sink all his oaths and sins into it in thought, and then burn the image.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
For the second kind of St. Vitus dance Paracelsus recommended harsh treatment and strict fasting, depriving patients of their freedom and seating them alone in an uncomfortable place until sorrow brought them to their senses.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus did not exclude coarse bodily chastisement of patients, and where it seemed suitable damped the tickling of the nerves by throwing patients into cold water.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Schenck von Graffenberg wrote of the dancing disease as having been frequent only in the times of his forefathers.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Felix Plater recalled from his youth that the authorities in Basel commissioned several strong men to dance with a dance-stricken girl until she recovered, the cure lasting nearly four full weeks until she collapsed exhausted and was taken to a hospital, where she recovered.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “er erinnere sich noch aus seiner Jugend”.
The Basel girl remained constantly in her clothes and, disregarding the pain of her danced-raw feet, sat down only from time to time to take food or doze, the hopping movement of her body continuing.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
G. Horst saw in the spring of 1623 several women who made an annual pilgrimage to the St. Vitus chapel in Dreffelhausen near Weissenstein in the territory of Ulm to undergo their dancing attacks there.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The women at Dreffelhausen danced day and night like ecstatics until they collapsed exhausted, after which they felt freed of the tormenting restlessness and painful heaviness that had plagued them for some weeks before St. Vitus’s day.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Among the women observed at Dreffelhausen one had presented herself more than twenty times and another had already celebrated her thirty-second St. Vitus’s day at the consecrated place.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Perotti reported that in earlier times the tarantula spider had not been seen in Italy, but that in his century it had become common, especially in Apulia.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Perotti gave as consequences of the tarantula bite that the bitten usually fell into melancholy and were barely in command of their reason, some being so susceptible to music that they leapt up rejoicing at the first notes and danced until they sank exhausted, others weeping constantly, and others casting lustful looks at women.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Deaths were reported to have occurred among the tarantula-bitten amid laughter or weeping.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “man erzählte von Todesfällen, die … erfolgt sein sollten”.
A strange legend repeated throughout the Middle Ages held that those bitten by poisonous spiders excreted cobweb-like matter in stool, urine and vomit.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “der sonderbaren Sage”.
Gariopontus, a Salernitan physician of the eleventh century, described a kind of madness in which sufferers leapt up with wild movements, wounded themselves and others with a sword if one lay to hand, heard voices and instrument sounds, and began a convulsive dance or ran until exhausted.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Gariopontus called the condition he described Anteneasmus and believed it could sometimes be excited by the bite of a mad dog.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wunderlich genug, glaubt”.
Alexander ab Alexandro saw in a remote village a young man powerfully seized by tarantism, who listened to the drum with staring eyes, danced ever more wildly, collapsed senseless when the music stopped, and was roused again to passionate dancing when it resumed.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Neapolitan Francesco Serao argued against the reality of tarantism and declared it to be a very decided form of melancholy, comparing the effect of the tarantula bite on it to the spurring of a running horse.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Hieronymus Mercurialis repeated the tale that those bitten by the tarantula tend, during their attacks, to do what they had been occupied with when they were injured.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wiederholt das Mährchen”.
Girolamo Cardano held that the effect of tarantula poison is removed not properly by music but by the exertion of dancing.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Domenico Cirillo, in the Philosophical Transactions of 1770, characterised tarantism as a common fraud, as did J. A. Unzer and A. F. Büsching.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Thomas Cornelio, a professor in Naples in the middle of the seventeenth century, held tarantism to be the St. Vitus dance.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Johannes Schenck von Grafenberg was himself an eyewitness of tarantism.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Ludolf’s Ethiopic lexicon records that the Ethiopians, on the testimony of Gregorius, take Astarägaza for a disease in which a person is compelled to move the feet continually and as if to kick, and suggests it is perhaps the dance of St. Vitus.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Fortassis”.
Nathaniel Pearce, who resided in Abyssinia for nine years, stated that the Tigretier occurs more often in women than in men, seizes the body as with a violent fever that passes into a lingering state, and causes complete emaciation and even death if relatives cannot provide the appropriate help.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that during the Tigretier the speech of the afflicted becomes stammering and is said to be understandable only by their fellow sufferers.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “soll nur von ihren Leidensgefährten verstanden werden können”.
Nathaniel Pearce stated that when relatives are convinced a case is true Tigretier they jointly bear the cost of a cure, first engaging a learned Dofter who reads the Gospel of St. John to the patient and sprinkles him daily with cold water for a week, a procedure that often results in death.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that the most effective cure for the Tigretier requires far greater expense: the relatives hire a troop of trumpeters, drummers and pipers, lay in sufficient brandy, and all the young people, girls and women assemble before the patient’s house for a particular kind of festival.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that a neighbour’s young wife afflicted with the disease spoke much that neither he nor her relatives could understand, showed the most decided revulsion at the sight of a book or a priest, shed streams of bloody tears, and had spent three full months in that state with so little nourishment that it was incomprehensible how she remained alive.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that about two minutes after the trumpeters began to play, the emaciated woman’s shoulders, head and breast began to move, that within less than a quarter of an hour she sat upright and then stood, danced, hopped, and at times sprang fully three feet high, and that she gave no sign of fatigue during the whole dance even when the musicians were exhausted.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that on the following day the patient was taken, as is customary, to the marketplace where jugs stood ready for the musicians and dancers, and that she danced there the whole day in the strangest postures.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that towards evening the dancing woman let her borrowed silver ornaments fall from neck, arms and feet piece by piece over three hours, that at sunset she ran a stretch so fast that the best runner could not have caught her and then collapsed like shot game.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that a young man then fired a matchlock over the collapsed woman, struck her on the back with the flat blade of his long knife and asked her name, which she gave without further ado; that this is held to be a sure sign of recovery because the sick do not hear their Christian name for the whole duration of the ailment; and that she was led home where a priest baptised her in the name of the Trinity, completing the cure.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Man hält dies für ein sicheres Zeichen der Genesung”.
Nathaniel Pearce stated that with some patients the dance in the marketplace must be repeated several days in succession and others are wholly incurable, and that he had seen such patients make the most distorted postures during their dancing fits with an open bottle of ‘Maize’ on their heads without it falling or a drop being spilled.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that he first believed the true cause of the disease in his own wife, a Greek by birth, was female vanity and the hope of attracting attention by splendid clothes, display and music, and that he secretly gave her some strokes with a whip as a cure.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that upon being whipped his wife fell to the ground like a corpse with all her limbs, even the fingers, stiff and immovable, and that musicians whose help he had refused in the preceding days soon brought her round again with music.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nathaniel Pearce stated that he would have hesitated to report on the disease had he not been an eyewitness, and would not have held it even possible had he not been taught better by his own wife’s case.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A Shetland preacher told the physician who reported on the illness as an eyewitness that he had forestalled the frequent disturbances of divine service by assuring his congregation that no remedy was more effective than immersion in cold water, and had men stationed to carry any sufferer to the neighbouring lake, whereupon the fear worked like a charm so that not a single cramp patient had to be dipped.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Physicians such as Hecquet and Lorry explained the behaviour of the French Convulsionnaires from natural causes.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Those cured at Liège said that during the hour of their dancing it seemed to them that they were in a river of blood.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “sanati dicebant, quod videbatur eis”.
The common people at Liège said that this plague had befallen the people because they had been badly baptized, above all by priests who kept concubines.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Vulgus autem apud Leodium dicebat”.
At St Bartholomew’s in Liège, in the presence of many people, a demon answered a priest who was exorcising a sufferer, saying that there had been two of them, that its worse companion had gone out before it, and that it had suffered so much in the body that if it were outside it would never again enter a Christian body.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Et haec fuerunt ibi a multis audita et postea a multis narrata”.
The demon at St Bartholomew’s in Liège, asked why it had entered the bodies of such persons, answered that clerics and priests say so many fair words and prayers that demons could not enter their bodies, and that had they been allowed a fortnight or a month more they would have entered the bodies of the rich and then of princes and so destroyed the clergy.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Et haec fuerunt ibi a multis audita et postea a multis narrata”.
Some masters, particularly good physicians, said that part of those who became dancers were of hot nature and affected by other frail natural causes, though such cases were few.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Hierauff sprachen ein Theils Meister”.
Masters of holy scripture exorcised some of the 1374 dancers, holding that they were possessed by the evil spirit.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “die meynten”.
The dancers of 1374, men and women, claimed that they could not bear to see anything red.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “nahmen … sich an”.
Hecker’s study of the great epidemics of the Middle Ages draws on Schilter’s 1698 Strasbourg edition of Königshoven’s chronicle, specifically its note on St Vitus’s dance, as a source.
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck]
Johannes Baptista Friedreich’s bibliography lists a work by Paracelsus titled ‘Schreiben von den Krankheiten, so die Vernunft berauben; so da seyn St. Veits-Tanz, hinfallenden Siechtage, Melancholie u. Unsinnigkeit’, translated by A. von Bodenstein and published at Basel in 1567.
Johannes Baptista Friedreich, ‘Systematische Literatur der ärztlichen und gerichtlichen Psychologie, von J.b. Friedreich’, 1833, page 476
Paracelsus wrote about St. Vitus’s dance (‘St. Veits-Tanz’) as one of the diseases that deprive people of reason, grouping it with falling sickness, melancholy and madness.
Johannes Baptista Friedreich, ‘Systematische Literatur der ärztlichen und gerichtlichen Psychologie, von J.b. Friedreich’, 1833, page 476
Friedreich’s bibliography cites the collected works of Theophrastus Paracelsus in the Huser edition printed at Strasbourg in 1818, volume 2, pages 164, 169 and 177-179.
Johannes Baptista Friedreich, ‘Systematische Literatur der ärztlichen und gerichtlichen Psychologie, von J.b. Friedreich’, 1833, page 476
Friedreich states that the Paracelsus writing on diseases that deprive of reason is recorded in Haller’s ‘Bibliotheca medica’, volume 2, page 10.
Johannes Baptista Friedreich, ‘Systematische Literatur der ärztlichen und gerichtlichen Psychologie, von J.b. Friedreich’, 1833, page 476
The most notable outbreak of dancing mania occurred in 1374.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “from the supposed bite of a spider”.
The dancers of the 1374 outbreak stated that they had visions of spirits whom they could name.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex] The source’s own wording: “They professed to have”.
The German expression ‘sanct Veits tanz’ is attributed to Paracelsus in 1525, with reference to Kluge’s etymological dictionary.
Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Manuscript. Ms. germ. qu. 1409, ‘Das Königsteiner Liederbuch. : Ms. germ. qu. 719 Berlin’, 1970, page 438 The source’s own wording: “zugeschrieben”.
Agricola, commenting on the proverb wishing St. Vitus’s dance upon someone, wrote that there had been many plagues in German lands, among them that some people were afflicted so that they had to dance, often day and night together, often two days, three days and nights.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
Agricola related, calling it a fable, that St. Vitus, one of the fourteen helpers in need, asked God as he was about to be beheaded that all who fasted on his eve and kept his day be protected from that dance, and that a voice from heaven at once answered ‘Vitus, you are heard’.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590 The source’s own wording: “Es ist eine Fabel”.
Old chroniclers represent the processions of the dancing mania as consisting of bagpipers in front, followed by a crowd of the curious, then the dancing-mad themselves with their extraordinary leaps, and finally the lamenting relatives who made vain efforts to bring the unfortunates to their senses.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228 The source’s own wording: “wird von den alten Chroniften etwa fo dargeftellt”.
Theodor Kirchhoff stated that he would base his discussion of the so-called dancing plague (Tanzplage) on the account given by J. F. C. Hecker in ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Kirchhoff quoted Hecker as stating that an epidemic which went out from Aachen in 1374 aroused astonishment and horror everywhere, and that nobody doubted its devilish origin.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Kirchhoff wrote that at the time of the 1374 epidemic people derived the illness from the bad way of life of the priests.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Kirchhoff counted the dancing plague among the incidents described by Hecker as psychopathies of the Middle Ages.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
The thirteenth lecture of Ludwig Friedlaender’s ‘Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Heilkunde’ lists the dancing plague (Tanzplage) among the diseases and epidemics of the Middle Ages, alongside leprosy, epidemic lewdness, St. Anthony’s Fire and the Black Death.
Friedlaender, Ludwig Hermann, 1790-1851, ‘Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Heilkunde’, 1839, page 510
Wicke separated what is comprised under the name Veitstanz (St Vitus’s dance) into two entirely different species of disease, the great Veitstanz and involuntary muscle movements, and excluded much extraneous material throughout.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wichmann had long before expressed the wish that a man of great experience and insight would supply a monograph on this strange disease.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “längst gethaner Aeuſserung”.
In the first part of his monograph Wicke presents the history of the Veitstanz in general, the great Veitstanz, and remarks on the tarantella dance, passing after a record of the disease’s complete synonyms to the Johannistanz (St John’s dance).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke declares the essential nature of the Johannistanz to be a madness that originally arose out of superstition and that later propagated itself as such.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “erklärt”.
Wicke’s monograph presents the various Veitstanz epidemics, the confounding of all similar afflictions with the Veitstanz, its appearance under various designations including the name Kriebelkrankheit, the transfer of the name Veitstanz to the present-day great Veitstanz and to involuntary muscle movements, the prevailing concept of the Veitstanz in Germany during the eighteenth century, and its appearance in various European and American countries.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke set Wichmann’s view and its erroneous reception in the proper light and thereby made clear the confusion that had grown greater and the consequences of the increasing indefiniteness of the concept of the Veitstanz in the nineteenth century.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke investigated the antiquity of involuntary muscle movements and of the great Veitstanz, and in doing so considered the relations of the present-day Veitstanz to the original Veitstanz, the oldest observations, and the differences between Veitstanz and involuntary muscle movements.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke declares the great Veitstanz in general to be an affliction appearing in paroxysms, with disturbances of the mental powers, of the general sensation and of the senses, accompanied by tonic and clonic cramps, catalepsy and paralysis, with absent recollection of what happened after the attack.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “erklärt”.
Wicke appended as doubtful several cases that he was unable to subordinate to his definition of the essential nature of the great Veitstanz.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
In presenting the tarantella dance Wicke relies especially on the statements of Baglivi, described as a famous eyewitness.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke regards the tarantella dance in the main as a madness, consisting in the belief of those bitten by a tarantula that they could be restored from the consequences of the bite only by dancing performed to particular musical tunes, with bodily sufferings renewing themselves annually, to which in other, unbitten persons was added the delusion of having been bitten.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “er sieht denselben in der Hauptsache für”.
Wicke characterises involuntary muscle movements as a chronic disease marked by convulsive movements of several or all voluntary muscles which nevertheless never wholly abolish the voluntary activity of the parts concerned.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
The author of the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance cast doubt, against J. Frank and Schaeffer, on the Hippocratic indications of the disease, and the reviewer considered him probably wrong to do so.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “wohl nicht mit Recht”.
K. Sprengel and Haase placed the true origin and name of St. Vitus’s dance in the year 1574.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
Sprengel and Haase are accused in the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance of an error regarding the name of the disease, because the source from which Sprengel claimed to have drawn was not found on searching.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
The German designation ‘Veitstanz’ is criticised in the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance as unsuitable and as not describing the disorder.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
The author of the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance locates the proximate cause of the disease in a general or partial affliction of the spinal cord, brought about by a disturbance of the relation between vegetation and organic movement.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “nicht mit Unrecht”.
The reviewer faulted the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance for indulging in excessively minute subdivisions of the disorder, for example a St. Vitus’s dance with convulsions and a non-continuous kind alongside a remitting and an intermittent kind.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Wir missbilligen z. B.”.
The reviewer noted that the literature cited in the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance is complete except for J. G. Wagner’s pathological and therapeutic treatise on Veitstanz (Nuremberg) and the inaugural dissertation ‘De Chorea St. Viti’ by J. Fr. Wilhelm (Leipzig, 1825).
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “jedoch vermissen wir darunter”.
Dr Franz v. Erdmann, in his work on the Veitstanz (Kazan 1843), derived the name ‘Veitstanz’ from the old Persian word ‘Feisz’
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Paracelsus distinguished three kinds of Veitstanz and called the condition generally not Chorea St. Viti but Chorea lasciva
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The Limburg Chronicle reports that the dancers went two by two, with wreaths on their heads and their bellies girded with a cloth fitted with a stick for tightening it, dancing in houses and streets and especially in and by churches and at all consecrated places until they fell to the ground exhausted, crying that they must die if their bellies were not laced tight
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “berichtet die Limburger Chronik”.
Some of the 1374 dancers had their bellies trodden on with feet or beaten with fists, came to themselves again, and then said it had seemed to them as though they had been in a stream of blood and that this was why they had leapt so high
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “gaben dann an”.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “Sie erzählten, es sei ihnen gewesen”.
Many people danced for the sake of the money given as alms to those stricken by the epidemic, and others only to commit lechery, so that in Cologne and other places many maids and women became pregnant out of wedlock
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “es wird berichtet”.
According to legend St Vitus was born in Sicily, emigrated during the Diocletianic persecutions, suffered martyrdom in the year 303 and was buried at Florence
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “Der Legende zufolge soll”.
It is told that shortly before his execution St Vitus prayed to God to free from the dance all who solemnly kept his feast day, and that a voice called down from heaven, ‘Vitus! Thou art heard’
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “wird erzählt”.
Wicke, in his monograph on the Veitstanz (Leipzig 1844), precisely defined both the nature of the earlier dancing mania, now called Chorea magna, and that of the involuntary muscle movements, now called Chorea St. Viti, and set out the differences between them
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Heinrich Haeser’s history of medicine discusses Sydenham’s views on St Vitus’ dance (Veitstanz) at page 518 and following.
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog]
Sydenham held that St Vitus’ dance appears to rest on an irritation of the nerves by a morbid fluid.
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog] The source’s own wording: “scheint”.
Sydenham regarded repeated venesections and purgatives, followed by tonics for the nerves, as the most suitable means of curing St Vitus’ dance.
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog] The source’s own wording: “hält sydenham … für die passendsten mittel”.
Sydenham hoped that epilepsy might perhaps also be removed by the same course of treatment he prescribed for St Vitus’ dance.
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog] The source’s own wording: “schmeichelt sich derselbe vielleicht”.
Heinrich Haeser characterised Sydenham’s views on St Vitus’ dance as a further noteworthy example of that physician’s hypotheses.
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog]
In Laurinda Dixon’s ‘Perilous Chastity’, an unnamed writer is said to have applied the name ‘chorea lasciva’ to a disease under discussion.
Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334
Paracelsus used the term “chorea lasciva” for a dancing disease.
Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334
c. lilian temkin, george rosen, gregory zilboorg, and henry e. sigerist, ‘four treatises of theophrastus von hohenheim called paracelsus’, 1941, page 284
The disease category “chorea lasciva” was accepted as a recognized disease.
Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334 The source’s own wording: “useful to acknowledge”.
Scholarly literature on the dancing mania includes Backman’s ‘Religious Dances’ and Bartholomew’s ‘Rethinking the Dancing Mania’.
Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334
Paracelsus took credit for the disease chorea away from St. Vitus, as Hippocrates had deprived the gods of their role in the formation of epilepsy
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
Paracelsus suggested that the name chorea lasciva be adopted and that the unconscious (unwissende) suggestibility of children be considered
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
Paracelsus refused to follow the traditional assumption that children do not possess an imagination
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
Paracelsus called the dancing epidemics ‘chorea sancti viti’ and ‘chorea lasciva’.
Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x]
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
Charcot stated that an annual pilgrimage of dancers, in perpetuation of the custom, is still made to the church of St. Willibrod.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] The source’s own wording: “as Charcot states”.
Hirsch says a ‘procession of the jumping saints’ is still commemorated at Echternach in Luxemburg.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] The source’s own wording: “possibly the same as”.
Hecker stated that Paracelsus, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, made the dancing disorder a subject of special study and gave to it the name chorea.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] The source’s own wording: “He there states that”.
Cyriacus Spangenberg wrote in his ‘Adels-Spiegel’, in the chapter ‘vom Münchs-Adel’, that in 1373, in the time of Emperor Karl IV, whole crowds of men and women, young and old, ran together and danced from one town, village or hamlet to another.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
The 1373 dancers said that they saw and knew nothing other than that they were dancing in sheer blood.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “und gesagt”.
Petrus de Herentals, Trithemius and Bzovius report that where the dancing sickness was fully developed the attacks began with epileptic-type convulsions (‘fallsüchtigen Zuckungen’).
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “berichten weiter”.
Pistorius writes that this ‘daemoniaca pestis’ afflicted above all the poor and the credulous (‘pauperes et levis opinionis’).
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “wie PISTORIUS schreibt”.
G. Theodor Valentiner announced that elsewhere in his work he would attempt to demonstrate that in the epidemic dancing mania, among the Convulsionnaires, the Trembleurs des Cévennes, the Jumpers and similar groups, the nervous system had been in a condition quite similar to hysteria.
Valentiner, G. Theodor, 1820-1877, ‘Die Hysterie und ihre Heilung’, 1852, page 134 The source’s own wording: “werden wir dort ferner versuchen werden nachzuweisen”.
J. F. C. Hecker published a book titled ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’ at Berlin in 1832.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
Ginneken, Jaap van, 1943-, ‘Crowds, psychology, and politics, 1871-1899’, 1992, page 298
Hecker’s 1832 work treats especially of the St. John’s Dance and the St. Vitus’s Dance, and traces the origin of these conceptions, the practices to which they led, and their gradual discontinuance.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
The authorities of some German towns held the opinion that music and dancing alone could effectively cure the dancing affliction.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “were of opinion”.
William of Malmesbury’s ‘Chronicle of the Kings of England’ records a miraculous occurrence said to have taken place in the year 1012, given as a statement by one of the sufferers, a man named Ethelbert.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “which is recorded … as having taken place”.
Serious authors have doubted the existence of chorea, others have believed it feigned, and some have held it to be supernatural and magical.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
Cullen appears to incline to the view that imagination plays a large part in chorea.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144 The source’s own wording: “semble incliner à penser”.
Lieutaud, never having observed chorea, allowed himself to deny its existence.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
Around the 14th century a legend was fabricated and it was recounted that Saint Guy, before offering his neck to the executioner, prayed God to preserve from chorea all who should celebrate the anniversary of his death, and that after this prayer a voice from heaven was heard saying ‘Guy, thou art granted’.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144 The source’s own wording: “on forgea une légende, et on raconta que”.
Some authors have claimed that the disease was named the dance of Saint Guy because Saint Vitus had himself been attacked by it.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396 The source’s own wording: “comme quelques auteurs l’ont prétendu”.
Other authors hold that Saint Vitus was invoked against the disease because he was regarded as its cause.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396 The source’s own wording: “D’autres pensent, sans plus de raison”.
Paracelsus wrote in his ‘Defensiones’ that he had written about the senseless dance which the common man calls St. Vitus’s dance, about those who kill themselves, about false diseases arising through sorcery, and about possessed people.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus stated that the diseases he described, including the senseless dance called St. Vitus’s dance, had never before been described by medicine.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus stated that it was astrology (‘die Astronomey’) that taught him to recognise such diseases.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus’s opponents accused him of describing and putting forward new diseases that had never before been written about.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “die ihm unter anderem auch vorgeworfen haben sollen”.
J. F. C. Hecker, in his monograph on the dancing sickness, definitely assigned Paracelsus priority for first introducing the disease into medical literature.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “wenigstens schreibt ihm … die Priorität bestimmt zu”.
Proksch was himself unable to find any medical writer older than Paracelsus who wrote on the dancing sickness.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “auch mir ist es nicht gelungen”.
Paracelsus wrote that those who fall into the disease rejoice and howl, shout for joy, sing, leap, and do whatever their habit has been.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus wrote that there also occurs a dance with laughing rather than with howling, screaming or leaping, in which sufferers merely laugh and walk and cannot sit still.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus wrote that those sufferers who merely laugh and walk are under no great compulsion to dance, whereas the other dancers are compelled by their disease to dance, leap and scream with all their gestures.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus wrote that the disease recurs from time to time, lasting sometimes long and sometimes short.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus inveighed at the start of his chapter on St. Vitus’s dance against theologians who ascribe the condition more to God than to Nature, calling such talk useless chatter behind which there are no true signs, only belief.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus conceded at the close of his chapter that the ‘gods’ hold punitive power over this disease as over all others, but denied that this takes away or falsifies the natural origin of the disease.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus always assumed a ‘natural’ direct or indirect disease of the brain for his Lunatici, Insani, Vesani and Melancholici, and for his hysteria (Caducus Matricis), epilepsy (Caducus), mania and Chorea St. Viti.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus wrote in his ‘De Morbis Amentium’ and elsewhere that the devil and his company do not enter a mindless body.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Proksch was unable to find the slightest trace in Paracelsus’s writings of the ‘false diseases arising through sorcery’ that Paracelsus claimed in his ‘Defensiones’ to have described.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “wenigstens habe ich … nirgend die mindeste Spur auffinden können”.
What was claimed, and by whom
Reported here as claims rather than facts, with whoever made them named.
In the Rhenish cities the dancing affliction could only be brought under control after four months of deceit and depravity.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Deceit and depravity had dangerously aggravated the original malady of the dancing epidemic in the Rhenish cities.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Once called into being, the dancing sickness spread further and persisted through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and, in diminished form, into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a standing mental illness.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
The dancing sickness found overabundant nourishment in the mentality (Sinnesart) of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
In cities whose inhabitants were newly exposed to it, the dancing sickness produced scenes as marvellous as they were abominable.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The madness among the people at Strasbourg was the same as that in the Lower Rhenish and Belgian cities.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
People at Strasbourg fell ill after being seized by the sight of those already afflicted.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
Swarms of dancers moved through the streets of Strasbourg day and night, accompanied by bagpipers playing and by countless curious onlookers.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
Distressed parents and relatives joined the crowds following the dancers at Strasbourg in order to see how their own afflicted family members were faring.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Deceit and depravity also carried on their dark game in Strasbourg during the dancing plague.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Those afflicted by the dancing sickness were equally inaccessible to the exorcisms of the priests and to the remedies of the physicians.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106
Deception and depravity also played a dark part in the Strasbourg outbreak, but the morbid delusion appears to have predominated.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450 The source’s own wording: “scheint wohl … vorgewaltet zu haben”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “doch scheint wohl der krankhafte Wahn vorgewaltet zu haben”.
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454 The source’s own wording: “scheint wohl … vorgewaltet zu haben”.
Because the morbid delusion predominated at Strasbourg, only religion could bring provisional help to the sufferers.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The Strasbourg city council took charge of the sufferers in a humane, philanthropic spirit.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The Strasbourg sufferers were divided into separate groups and given responsible overseers so that no harm should come to them.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The Strasbourg sufferers were escorted, on foot and by wagon, to the chapels of St. Vitus at Zabern and Rotestein.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
After the service the Strasbourg sufferers were led in solemn procession around the altar and made to offer a small part of their alms.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454
The Strasbourg affliction was given the name ‘St. Vitus’s dance’.
Asserted by: Verse quoted by J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450
An epidemic of St. Vitus’s dance (danse de saint Guy) occurred at Strasbourg in 1418.
Asserted by: Etienne Trillat, ‘Histoire de l’hystérie’.
Trillat, Etienne, 1919-, ‘Histoire de l’hystérie’, 1986, page 302
A dancing epidemic at Strasbourg is classed among collective phenomena (‘phénomènes collectifs’).
Asserted by: Etienne Trillat, ‘Histoire de l’hystérie’.
Trillat, Etienne, 1919-, ‘Histoire de l’hystérie’, 1986, page 302
At the time of the Strasbourg pilgrimage the dancing mania did not renew itself at the altars of St. Vitus; help was only entreated of the saint and healing hoped for from his miraculous power.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus was a boy in Sicily who attained martyrdom in the year 303, during the Diocletianic persecutions of Christians, together with Modestus and Crescentia.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus became the patron saint of those afflicted with the dancing sickness.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus was placed among the fourteen holy “Nothhelfer” or “Apotheker” (helpers in need), a group Hecker lists as Georgius, Blasius, Erasmus, Vitus, Pantaleon, Christophorus, Dionysius, Cyriacus, Achatius, Eustachius, Aegidius, Margaretha, Catharina and Barbara.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A German proverb recorded by Johann Agricola in 1537 wished the dancing affliction on enemies and adversaries: “Das dich Sanct Veitstantz ankomme.”
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Only at the beginning of the sixteenth century was St. Vitus’s dance subjected to medical investigation, and this was done by Paracelsus.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus wished to withdraw the dancing sickness from the realm of miracles and saints and to derive its causes from his knowledge of the human body.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus’s category of dancing sickness arising from imagination (Chorea imaginativa) denotes the original dancing plague.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Blood set into ferment by altered vital spirits in veins susceptible to an inner tickling produces involuntary attacks of intoxicating joy and dancing mania.
Asserted by: Paracelsus, as reported by Hecker, Paracelsus, reported by Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “nach einer abenteuerlichen Ansicht”.
Paracelsus was led to his bodily explanation of the dancing sickness by his observation of a milder form of St. Vitus’s dance accompanied by involuntary laughter, which was not rare in his time.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ohne Zweifel”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ohne Zweifel”.
In the milder form of the dancing sickness observed in Paracelsus’s time the howling, screaming and leaping of the more severely afflicted was absent, sufferers felt no excessive urge to dance, and obeyed instructions during their attacks although not fully in command of their reason.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A mitigation of the dancing plague had evidently set in at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “offenbar”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “offenbar”.
The affliction was called the dance of St. John or of St. Vitus, on account of the bacchanalian leaps with which the sick, screaming and foaming with rage, presented the appearance of the possessed.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing affliction excited the astonishment of contemporaries for more than two hundred years and has not been seen since.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the year 1374 crowds of men and women from Germany were seen arriving in Aachen who, united by a common delusion, performed their strange spectacle in the streets and churches.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The dancers of 1374 formed circles hand in hand and danced for hours in wild frenzy until they fell down exhausted, then complained of great oppression and groaned as if at the point of death until their abdomens were bound tightly with cloths, whereupon they recovered until the next attack.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nobody doubted the devilish origin of the dancing sickness when it appeared in the towns of the Netherlands.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In Liège the priests resorted to exorcisms against the dancing sickness, and a special ordinance was issued that no shoes other than blunt ones be made, because the possessed had shown a morbid aversion to pointed shoes that had come into fashion after the great mortality of 1350.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger, J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The sight of the colour red excited the dancers of 1374 still more than pointed shoes.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Fanatical penitential sermons by zealous priests could easily have produced the adventurous aversion of the St. Vitus dancers to fashionable pointed shoes.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “konnten daher … leicht hervorgerufen haben”.
After ten or eleven months no more St. John’s dancers were seen in the Belgian towns, either because exorcism was a powerful remedy in the fourteenth century or because the insane over-excitement ended in spontaneous exhaustion.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “oder es fand auch”.
The dancing mania appeared in Cologne a month later than in Aachen, where the number of the possessed grew to more than five hundred.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press, Die Limburger Chronik, J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Eleven hundred dancers filled the streets of Metz at about the same time as the outbreak in Cologne.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “haben sollen”.
During the 1374 outbreak countrymen left the plough, artisans their workshops and housewives their hearths to join the wild round dance, and girls, boys and servants ran away from parents and masters to take part.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Many beggars, oppressed by vice and misery, exploited the new dancing sickness of 1374 as a means of easy gain, and troops of idlers who could imitate the gestures and convulsions of the sick travelled from place to place and spread the convulsive disorder like an epidemic.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The wild celebration of St. John’s Day in the year 1374 gave the occasion for the mental epidemic of dancing.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “so liegt die Vermuthung nahe”.
The wild celebration of St. John’s Day in 1374 only brought to outbreak an evil long prepared by flooding of the Rhine and Main in February, by lawlessness and feuding in western and southern Germany, by Jewish persecutions, and by consciences tortured from atrocities committed during the Black Death.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “mit gutem Grunde anzunehmen”.
The abdomen, weakened in many by hunger and poor nourishment, was attacked with anxious suffering in most of the dancers, and the resulting tympanites points the prudent physician to a root of the malady worth noting.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the year 1237 more than a hundred children in Erfurt were suddenly seized by the dancing sickness and covered the road to Arnstadt dancing and leaping, falling exhausted on arrival; according to an old chronicle many of them died after being fetched back by their parents, and the rest retained a persistent trembling until death.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “sollen … befallen worden sein; nach dem Bericht einer alten Chronik”.
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
Two hundred dancers on a bridge in Utrecht on 17 June 1278 refused to stop dancing until a priest carrying the body of Christ to a sick man passed by, and as punishment for their sacrilege all drowned when the bridge broke.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Einen andern Vorfall erzählte man sich”.
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
At the monastery church of Kölbigk near Bernburg in the year 1021, eighteen peasants disturbed the Christmas night service by dancing and noise in the churchyard, and the priest Ruprecht laid on them a curse to dance and scream unceasingly for a whole year, which was fulfilled until two pious bishops obtained their release, after which they fell into a three-day sleep, four died, and the rest retained a trembling of the limbs for life.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Nach einer oft wiederholten Sage sollten”.
It is not worth the trouble to determine what in the Kölbigk story of 1021 is true and what was added by sanctimonious priests, but the tale was believed throughout the Middle Ages and retold with astonishment and horror.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Baptism administered by unchaste priests was ineffective and caused the dancing affliction.
Asserted by: Popular opinion of the fourteenth century as reported by Hecker and by Cyriacus Spangenberg.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Das ward darnach von etlichen also gedeutet”.
Only few and insignificant reports of St. Vitus’s dance survive from the second half of the fifteenth century, though no ascertainable fact justifies the assumption that any essential symptom of the disease, not even the tympanites of the afflicted, had receded.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “es berechtigt keine irgend zu ermittelnde Thatsache zu der Annahme”.
Physicians did not concern themselves at all with the treatment of the dance-afflicted throughout the fifteenth century, since according to prevailing notions their care belonged to the servants of the church alone.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “so scheint es”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “so scheint es”.
Natural causes such as a hot temperament underlie the dancing plague.
Asserted by: Unnamed physicians of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as reported by Hecker, unnamed physicians, reported by Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The peculiar disposition of minds in the Middle Ages, since given way to better civilisation and popular education, explains the origin and long persistence of the extraordinary mental disease of dancing.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing disease spread over all Germany and the neighbouring north-western countries, prepared by the prevailing cast of mind and transmitted by the sight of the sufferers, like a demonic popular disease.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing epidemics show a vulnerable spot in man, the drive to imitation, and are diseases that spread on rays of light and on the wings of thought, shaking the mind through sensual stimulus.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Non-medical contemporaries recorded the necessary particulars of the dancing disease only incompletely, being accustomed to confuse the observation of natural events with their notions of the spirit world.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ohne Zweifel”.
Few and insignificant reports of the St. Vitus dance survive from the second half of the fifteenth century.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing sickness had not diminished in intensity during the fifteenth century, as shown by strongly drawn descriptions from the sixteenth century.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The first of Paracelsus’s three kinds of St. Vitus dance, Chorea imaginativa, refers to the original dancing plague.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus dance was transmitted by sympathy, the afflicted being driven to imitate what they saw through initial consent and overmastering imagination.
Asserted by: Paracelsus, reported by Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus’s wax-image procedure was not his own invention but imitated a common form of bewitchment by wax images.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The second kind of St. Vitus dance, from sensual stimulus, affected far more women than men.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Paracelsus makes no further mention of the tympany (Trommelsucht) during the attacks.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wiewohl sie noch hin und wieder vorgekommen sein mag”.
Johann Schenck von Graffenberg, born 1530, promoted 1554 at Tübingen, spent most of his life as town physician at Freiburg im Breisgau and died in 1598.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
People of every rank and occupation were seized by St. Vitus dance, especially those with sedentary occupations such as shoemakers and tailors, and vigorous countrymen also abandoned their fieldwork.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The afflicted gathered from time to time at particular places to dance without rest to their last breath unless prevented by bystanders.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Many of the afflicted dashed their heads to pieces against corners and walls or threw themselves blindly into rushing rivers, where they met their death.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wie hier und da”.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “sollen … haben”.
Bystanders could subdue the roaring and foaming dancers only by surrounding them with benches and chairs so that high leaps would exhaust their strength sooner, whereupon they fell to the ground as if lifeless.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The attacks were necessary crises of an inner morbid condition which threw itself from the seat of the disordered mind onto the nerves of movement.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In many the cure through stormy attacks was so thorough that they returned to workshop and plough as if nothing had happened, while others were so utterly destroyed in strength that they never regained their former health.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Physicians were astonished that women far advanced in pregnancy could be seized by the disease without the slightest harm to the foetus, which they secured only by binding the abdomen, and such cases were not rare in Schenck’s time.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
City authorities hired musicians in order to bring the attacks of the St. Vitus dancers to a quicker end, and had strong men mix among the crowds to make their exhaustion complete, with often good results.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Authorities forbade the wearing of red clothing, because the sight of that colour drove the sick into such a rage that they rushed at people wearing red to do them harm.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The afflicted frequently tore their own clothes during attacks, so that the wealthier among them had themselves accompanied by reliable minders.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
By Schenck’s time the wanderings of St. Vitus dancers from town to town had long ceased to occur.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Most of the sick were by then visited by attacks only once a year, feeling an insuperable restlessness throughout June before the feast of St. John, and expecting relief from dancing at the altars of St. John or St. Vitus.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
If the unconditional belief in the magical power of the saints could have been taken from the sufferers, the whole malady would no longer have arisen in them at all.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
After three hours of dancing and raving the annual sufferers remained untroubled for the rest of the year.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Two chapels in the Breisgau were visited by St. Vitus dancers: the St. Vitus chapel at Biessen near Breisach and the St. John chapel near Wasenweiler.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing disease continued in south-western Germany into the seventeenth century.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “es ist wahrscheinlich”.
The dancing attack at Dreffelhausen was brought on by music, by which the sick felt themselves put into a state of rapture.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wie wahrscheinlich auch anderer Orten”.
Many concordant accounts prove that music contributed much to maintaining the St. Vitus dance, stimulating, worsening or sometimes soothing the attacks.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Already in the fourteenth century the swarms of St. John’s dancers were accompanied by musicians with noisy instruments.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Overly lively melodies and the cutting tones of pipes and trumpets raised a perhaps slight ecstasy in many patients to the utmost fury.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “es ist glaublich”.
Gentle music was also used to calm the agitation of the sick, the tunes played to St. Vitus dancers for this purpose being characterised as passing gradually from faster to slower time and from high to lower tones.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “es wird als Charakter … angegeben”.
No trace of the music played to the dancers has come down to the present day.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
No trace of the dancers’ music survives because of the destructions of the seventeenth century and because the matter was so entirely a popular affair, appreciated only in passing by foreign-speaking scholars.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the St. Vitus dance was observed only here and there in outdated forms.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The thirty years of war that shook western Europe brought about the spiritual rebirth of the Germans, after which superstition never returned in its old form and the spirit-realm of the Middle Ages lost its power for good.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The choice of a popular patron saint was of great advantage to the St. Vitus dancers, since they were held to be innocent victims of the devil’s power and were commended to general compassion.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The German masters in Prussia not infrequently had burned those madmen who imagined themselves to be werewolves.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Tarantism first arose in Apulia and then prevailed as a great popular disease in other regions of Italy for several centuries, and is now, like the St. Vitus dance, disappeared at least in its original meaning.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The first report of tarantism is given by the scholar Nicolaus Perotti, born 1430 and died 1480.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nobody doubted that tarantism was caused by the bite of the tarantula, a ground spider common in Apulia.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Fear of the tarantula became so general that its bite was probably far more often suspected, or the sting of another insect taken for it, than it had actually occurred.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wahrscheinlich”.
The name Tarantula is the same as Terrantola, the Italian name for the Stellio of the old Romans, a lizard held to be poisonous.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wahrscheinlich”.
The ignorant country people of Apulia confused the feared ground spider with the fabled star-lizard and transferred the name of the latter to the former.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “so kann man sich um so weniger wundern”.
The derivation of Tarantula from the city of Taranto or the river Thara in Apulia appears to have no grounds in its favour.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “scheint keine Gründe für sich zu haben”.
Perotti deserves no considerable trust as a naturalist and has remained in debt for the proof of his statement about the tarantula’s recent appearance in Italy.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The genus of spiders is little or not at all susceptible to the cosmic influences which at times wonderfully multiply locusts and other winged insects and compel them to migrate.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Tarantism cannot have arisen only around the middle of the fifteenth century, to which Perotti’s report is to be traced, because he speaks of it as a wholly familiar malady.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The neglect of tarantism by older writers must be ascribed to the lack of education in Apulia, to which country it was probably still confined at that time.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wohl nur … zugeschrieben werden mufs; wahrscheinlich”.
The ancients described discoloration of face and body, impeded speech, trembling, chills, white urine, sadness, headache, weeping, nausea, vomiting, excited sexual drive, tympany, fainting, dysuria, wakefulness, sleepiness and even death as consequences of the bite of poisonous spiders.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Nowhere in the ancient accounts of spider bite is dancing mentioned, neither an irresistible urge to it nor accidental cure by it.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Constantine of Africa, living five centuries after Aetius, knows nothing of a dancing turn to the poisoning illness and merely repeats the statements of his Greek predecessors.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The sufferers described by Gariopontus were held to be a host of the devil.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The origin of tarantism is to be placed between the middle and the end of the fourteenth century, contemporaneous with that of the St. Vitus dance in 1374.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, Thomas Cornelio.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “mit der höchsten Wahrscheinlichkeit … anzunehmen”.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The influence of Roman Christianity, with its processions, public penances and countless customs that powerfully stirred the imagination of believers, put minds into a state extremely favourable to nervous diseases.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ohne Zweifel”.
Oriental bubonic plague ravaged Italy sixteen times between 1119 and 1340.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The black death of 1347 to 1350 spread boundless misery over Italy and raised the sufferings of its people to the incredible.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The bite of a poisonous spider, or rather the morbid fear of its consequences, excited in a people hard-pressed by the terrors of death a violent nervous disease which spread by sympathy, as the St. Vitus dance did in Germany.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
By the end of the fifteenth century tarantism had spread beyond the borders of Apulia and fear of the poisonous spider’s bite had increased.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Many of the bitten became weak-sighted or hard of hearing, some lost the use of speech, and all were insensible to ordinary stimuli; only the flute or the zither brought them help.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
During summer towns and villages resounded with pipes, clarinets and Turkish drums, and everywhere there were sick people who expected their salvation from dancing.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
It was generally noticed that coarse countrymen ignorant of music showed unusual grace while dancing under tarantism.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
It was the general conviction at that time that the tarantula’s poison was distributed through the whole body by music and dance and driven out through the skin, and that any smallest remnant left in the veins would be a continuing tinder of the malady.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus’ dancers became gloomy and shy of human company before St. Vitus’ day.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Inexplicable impulses, strange cravings and morbid sensory excitement of all kinds occurred in the St. Vitus’ dance as in other great nervous disorders.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus’ dancers abhorred the colour red, whereas Italian sufferers of tarantism generally loved it.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Aversion to certain colours and pleasurable excitement by others appeared far more distinctly among the lively Italians than among the less mobile Germans in the St. Vitus’ dance.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
St. Vitus’ dancers, on seeing red objects, fell into the utmost rage and could scarcely be restrained from tearing the clothes off bystanders.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancers of St. John (Johannistänzer) in the fourteenth century saw heaven open in spirit, with all the splendour of the saints.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Among the dancers of St. John, swelling of the abdomen was seen in not a few sufferers.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
By the seventeenth century the frenzy of the St. Vitus’ dance had long since died out in Germany.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
There were false St. Vitus’ dancers whose contortions were imitated by others.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A form of St. Vitus’ dance still existed in Hecker’s own time and had probably always existed, standing to the original dancing mania of the dancers of St. John as recent tarantism stands to the original Italian malady.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Man könnte mit einigem Rechte behaupten”.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Both the St. Vitus’ dance and tarantism were products of their age and could never have arisen in other centuries under the same climate, because the circumstances that prepared them never coincided in the same proportion at any other time.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In nervous diseases of the dancing kind the organs of movement are withdrawn from their usual state and become wholly subject to the overstrained mind.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wie es denn Nervenkrankheiten dieser Art eigenthümlich ist”.
Critics of tarantism drew conclusions about the whole phenomenon too hastily from isolated instances of deceit and dissimulation, not knowing that the phenomenon had persisted for nearly four hundred years and that its roots reach into the remotest Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Tarantism is a very decided form of melancholy, upon which the tarantula bite acts as spurs act upon a running horse.
Asserted by: Francesco Serao.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
By shaking the already wavering belief in tarantism, Serao succeeded in making the disease rarer and in putting an end to the deception.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “soll es ihm wirklich gelungen sein”.
A case reported by Mercurialis shows that already in the sixteenth century people knew how to distinguish deceivers from the genuinely sick in cases of tarantism.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The effect of tarantula poison is removed by the exertion of dancing rather than by music.
Asserted by: Girolamo Cardano.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A disease in Abyssinia comes very close to the original dancing mania of the St. John’s dancers, in that it presents a quite similar ecstasy with the same powerful effect on the motor nerves.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Abyssinian dancing disease occurs most frequently in the country of Tigre, is named Tigretier after it, and is probably the same ailment called Astarägaza in the Ethiopic language.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ist wahrscheinlich dasselbe Uebel … Dies mag jedoch nur als eine Vermuthung gelten”.
Female vanity and the hope of attracting attention through fine clothes, display and music are the real cause of the Abyssinian dancing disease.
Asserted by: Nathaniel Pearce.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Zuerst glaubte ich”.
Pearce is entirely reliable and his credibility is not exposed to the slightest suspicion, because with his slight education he had no knowledge of the historical phenomena of the St. Vitus dance and tarantism and his work shows an unpretentious impartiality.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Arbitrariness, insecurity and the influence of a very crude priesthood are the mighty causes which acted on the Germans and Italians in the Middle Ages just as they continue to act on the Abyssinians of the present day, and their effects in Europe and Africa are entirely the same.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The condition of the present-day Abyssinians in the domain of superstition is a mirror of the condition of the European peoples in the Middle Ages, as is confirmed by the occurrence in Abyssinia of Christian flagellants and of a belief in zoomorphism matching medieval lycanthropy.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Abyssinian flagellants are called Zackarys, form a closed Christian brotherhood, make processions with great noise through towns and villages scourging themselves bloody and wounding themselves with knives, claim descent from St. George, and are most numerous in Tigre, the homeland of the Abyssinian dancing mania.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Nathaniel Pearce.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Near Axum the Abyssinian flagellants have their own church dedicated to their patron saint Oun Arvel, where an eternal lamp burns which they maintain is not tended by human hands, and where they keep a holy water said to be healing for those seized by the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “das den von der Tanzwuth Befallenen heilsam sein soll”.
Among the Abyssinians the iron workers and potters form a caste-like guild, called Tebbib in Tigre and Buda in Amhara, which is held in contempt and excluded from communion because it is believed they can transform themselves into hyenas and other beasts of prey.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Nathaniel Pearce.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “weil man von ihnen glaubt”.
The Abyssinian smiths and potters maintain the superstition about themselves with great cunning because the separation it brings protects them in their lucrative trade.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
As a badge the Abyssinian smiths and potters wear a golden earring, which is very frequently found in the ears of slain hyenas without anyone having ever been able to discover how they catch these animals to furnish them with the ornament.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Nathaniel Pearce.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Budas of Abyssinia are also credited with the power of bewitching, chiefly of causing illness by their glances, yet they live unmolested and are not brought to the stake by zealous priests as the werewolves of the Middle Ages were.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “schreibt man den Buda’s auch die Kraft der Bezauberung … zu”.
Morbid sympathy, in which the drive to imitation is joined by a loss of will once the sensory impression has taken root, is distinguished clearly from all lower degrees of imitation, and it is on its wings that the dancing mania of the Middle Ages rose to a true popular disease.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Great religious and political passions, which have so powerfully shaken peoples of old and modern times, can pass, in Paracelsus’s phrase ‘after an initial consent’, into complete loss of will and soul-sickness.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, quoting Paracelsus.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “können”.
In an English spinning mill a girl into whose bosom another had mischievously put a mouse fell into violent convulsions lasting twenty-four hours without remission; three other girls fell into the same cramps the next day and six more on the third day, causing such terror in the establishment of some three hundred workers that work came to a standstill.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1787, and F. B. Osiander.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the English spinning mill outbreak of February 1787 a rumour spread that a contagious disease had been brought into the establishment by a bale of cotton, and on the fourth day a physician, Dr. Clare, was called in.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Of the twenty-four people seized by convulsions in the English spinning mill in February 1787, twenty-one were girls, the two youngest only ten years old, and one was a man who had assisted the sufferers with much sympathy; five of the girls had not seen the sick at all and took the cramps merely from hearing the incident related.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the English spinning mill outbreak of February 1787 the cure succeeded very soon through electricity, the disease spread no further after the physician’s arrival, and all had recovered six days after the outbreak.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
On 13 January 1801 a wholly uneducated twenty-one-year-old girl of strong build, visiting a patient at the Charité hospital in Berlin, collapsed on entering in the most violent convulsions, and the sight of her distortions at once threw six other female patients into the same state, with eight more seized afterwards.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing an observation by Fritze in Hufeland’s Journal, 1801.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the Berlin Charité convulsion outbreak beginning 13 January 1801 all those affected were aged between 16 and 25 and all without exception already suffered from nervous ailments, whose earlier symptoms, even paralyses, disappeared during the convulsions and returned once the new affliction was removed.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Fritze.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the Berlin Charité convulsion outbreak of 1801 two young male nurses suffered similar attacks during the treatment, which lasted four months in all, had good success and succeeded especially through opium, the favourite remedy of the time.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Fritze.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In a Methodist chapel at Redruth a man cried out during the service ‘What shall I do to be saved’, other members repeated the cry and shortly after seemed to suffer the greatest bodily pains, and hundreds who came to see the afflicted fell into the same state.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing an observation by J. Cornish published 1814.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
From Redruth the new disease spread with lightning speed to the neighbouring towns of Camborne, Helston, Truro, Penryn and Falmouth and to nearby villages, was confined entirely to Methodist chapels, was everywhere excited only by those words, and seized only people of the least education.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
By a moderate estimate some four thousand people were seized by the Redruth ecstasy within a very short time.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Nach einer mäfsigen Berechnung”.
During the Redruth outbreak the preachers, seeing people seized in their sermons, urged them to intensify their confession of sin and strove to convince them they were by nature enemies of Christ destined for eternal hellfire, and the overwrought congregation repeated their words.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The preachers’ exhortations at Redruth necessarily heightened the fury of the convulsive attacks.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “natürlich mufste”.
Those seized at Redruth remained in the chapels two to three days and nights shaken by convulsions without taking food or rest, and attacks were seen to last as long as seventy to eighty hours.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The Redruth disease was thoroughly similar to the St. Vitus dance, except that the attacks sometimes rose to an extraordinary violence, one woman seized by convulsions being seen to resist four or five strong men who wanted to hold her.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
No sex and no age was spared by the Redruth epidemic nervous ailment: five-year-old children and eighty-year-old men were seen seized by it and men of powerful build were subject to it, but girls and young women were most affected.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing J. Cornish.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A quite similar nervous complaint has persisted on the Shetland Islands for a hundred years, its origin being an epileptic woman who had a fit in church, after which many women and children soon complained of palpitations followed by fainting that passed into a motionless, probably cataleptic state.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Samuel Hibbert, ‘Description of the Shetland Islands’, Edinburgh 1822.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “wahrscheinlich starrsüchtigen”.
Women on Shetland still afflicted fall suddenly to the ground, throw their arms about, writhe, turn the head rapidly from side to side and raise a terrible cry with staring eyes, and if seized during a public entertainment they rejoin the company when the cramps are over and continue their amusements as if nothing had happened.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Samuel Hibbert.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
About fifty years earlier scarcely a Sunday passed on Shetland without the cramps appearing, and they were provoked by violent passions and religious enthusiasm.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Samuel Hibbert.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “vor ungefähr funfzig Jahren”.
When the reporting physician attended divine service in the church of Baliasta on the island of Unst, a piercing shriek came from a woman fallen into cramps; the preacher, Mr. Ingram of Fetlar, paused until she was carried out, called on all who feared a similar attack to leave the church and had a psalm struck up, and on leaving the church the reporter saw several women lying on the turf in violent convulsions.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, citing Samuel Hibbert.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the Shetland nervous illness religious enthusiasm certainly had a smaller share than the irritability of sickly women, which needs only some stimulus to break out into the prevailing nervous complaint.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “ohne Zweifel … gewils nur einen geringern Antheil”.
Like all false signs of divine influence, the Shetland convulsions could easily be counteracted by a changed state of mind, especially by arousing the feeling of shame, so that every sensible clergyman has the disease in his power.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Of all enthusiastic delusion the religious is the most fruitful in diseases of soul and body, and these spread most easily of all through sympathy.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In 1727 the deacon Pâris, a zealous opponent of the Ultramontanes, died in Paris at a time when the French church had fallen into discord through the bull ‘Unigenitus’.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Where a powerful cause of nervous disease takes hold, far greater phenomena develop, and whether they vanish without trace in a small circle of overwrought people or attain historical significance depends on the mental condition of the peoples among whom they appear.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The rough assistance given by the French Convulsionnaires to their afflicted fellow-believers strikingly agreed with the treatment given to the dancers of St John (Johannistänzer) and to those sick with tarantism.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In this kind of nervous disease coarse pain is imperiously demanded by nature as an effective derivation (Ableitung).
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The convulsive religious sects of the nineteenth century present the peoples of that century with the same spectre of mental derangement as the St Vitus’s dance once presented to the dark Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the year of Our Lord 1375 a remarkable sect of both men and women came to Aachen from the parts of Germany and went on as far as Hainaut and France.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe, ‘Vita Gregorii XI’ (printed in Baluze, Vitae Paparum Avenionensium, 1693), quoted in Hecker’s appendix.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Men and women of that 1375 sect danced together holding one another by the hands and leapt on high in houses, in the streets and in churches, without shame before the bystanders.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancers of 1375 called out certain names of demons, namely ‘Friskes’ and the like.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Men and women of both sexes in the 1375 outbreak were deluded by a demon.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
At the end of their dancing the sufferers of 1375 were so twisted about the chest that, unless they were strongly bound across the middle of the belly with linen cloths by their friends, they cried out as if in a frenzy that they were dying.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
At Liège the afflicted dancers were freed from the demon by conjurations taken from those used in the catechism before baptism.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancers leapt so high because it seemed to them that they were in a river of blood.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe, reporting the cured dancers.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing affliction came upon the people because they had been badly baptized, especially by priests keeping concubines.
Asserted by: the common people of Liège, as reported by Petrus de Herentals.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
On account of the belief that bad baptism had caused the affliction, the common people had proposed to rise against the clergy, killing them and plundering their goods, and would have done so had God not provided the remedy of the aforesaid conjurations.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
After the cures at Liège the popular tumult ceased and the clergy was much more honoured by the people than before.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Latin verses circulated about the dancing sect, describing a new sect arisen in the world such as had never been seen or read of in deeds or in the mirror of history.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Prior of Floreffe, quoting verses current about the sect.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “De ista autem chorizatione seu secta talia extant rigmata”.
Verses about the dancing sect state that both sexes cried ‘Frisch friskes’ with joy, linked together by towel and staff, wore a certain cap on the head, and beheld the Son of Mary and heaven opened.
Asserted by: Latin verses (rigmata) quoted by Petrus de Herentals.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Verses about the dancing sect state that its members scorn to look on red things and on a weeping person, wander about living pompously, beg for necessities, hate the clergy and care nothing for the sacraments.
Asserted by: Latin verses (rigmata) quoted by Petrus de Herentals.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the year 1374, during the pontificate of John of Arckel, Bishop of Liège, in the month of July on the morrow of the Division of the Apostles, dancers were seen, who afterwards came in September to Maastricht, Liège, Tongeren and other places in those parts.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’ (Frankfurt 1654).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing affliction of 1374 vexed men and women in and around Maastricht, Liège and Tongeren, chiefly the poor and those of light opinion, to the great terror of all, and few clerics or rich people were afflicted.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The affliction of 1374 was a demoniac pestilence.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancers wore garlands on their heads and bound a cloth with a stick tightly about the belly and navel; after dancing they fell and were greatly tormented, and lest they burst they were trodden underfoot, or bound hard with a stick to the cloth, or made to be struck with the fist.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Some of the 1374 dancers cried out that they abhorred the pointed tips of shoes, and for that reason pointed shoes were then forbidden in Liège.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancers occupied churches with their dancing and grew numerous in September and October, and processions, litanies and special masses were made everywhere.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
At Holy Cross in Liège a scholar-servant began to play with the thurible at vespers and afterwards to dance violently, refused to say the Pater noster and answered the Credo with ‘in diabolum’, and was cured when a chaplain conjured him with the exorcism used for those to be baptized.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
At Harstal, one morning before All Saints in 1374, many of the dancers gathered and took counsel that they should all come together and kill all the canons, priests and clerics of Liège.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A canon named Simon, minister of the small table, threw a stole round the neck of one of the dancers in the cloister at Liège and read the Gospel ‘In principio erat verbum’ over his head, whereupon the man was freed and a bell was at once rung for the miracle.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancing pestilence grew strong within a year and afterwards ceased entirely for three or four years.
Asserted by: Jo. Pistorius, ‘Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum’.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
In the year 1374, in midsummer, a strange thing arose, especially in German lands, on the Rhine and on the Moselle, so that people began to dance and to rave.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik (ed. C. D. Vogel, Marburg 1828).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancers stood two facing one another and danced half a day on one spot, often falling down during the dance and letting others tread on their bodies with their feet, from which they claimed to have recovered.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancers ran from one town to another and from one church to another and collected money from people wherever they could get it.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancing was a heresy carried on for the sake of gold and so that some of the men and women involved could engage in unchastity.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “Und fand man, dafs”.
More than a hundred women and maidservants without wedded husbands were found at Cologne, all of whom became pregnant during the dancing.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
When the 1374 dancers danced they bound and knotted themselves tightly about the body so as to be lighter.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Part of the 1374 dancers danced because they were of hot nature and because of other frail natural causes.
Asserted by: physicians and masters reported in Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The 1374 dancing came to a fraudulent end and lasted a good sixteen weeks in those lands.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “oder in der Mafs”.
The 1374 dancing was a mere deception and an act of treachery against Christ.
Asserted by: Die Limburger Chronik.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “nach meinem Bedünken”.
In the year 1374 a great sickness arose among the people, the like of which had not been much seen before or after.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The sickness of 1374 came from natural causes and is called mania, that is raving or madness.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “as die meyfter fchrijuen”.
Many people, men and women, young and old, had the 1374 sickness and left house and home, young maidens leaving their parents, friends, kin and homeland.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
When the sickness seized them the sufferers of 1374 made wondrous movements, uttered loud screaming and gruesome cries, threw themselves hastily to the ground and lay on their backs, and both men and women had to be girded around belly and loins with towels and strong broad bands as stiffly and hard as possible.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Girded with the towels, the sufferers of 1374 danced in churches and in cells and on all consecrated places, springing up as they danced and crying ‘Herr Sankt Johann, so so, frisch und fro Herr Sankt Johann’.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
Those who had the 1374 sickness generally became well again within a few days.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “gemeynlichen”.
Towards the end of the 1374 outbreak much knavery and deceit accompanied it: some pretended to be sick in order to beg money, others feigned sickness in order to commit unchastity with women, and they went through all lands until at last they were driven out of the countries.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
The dancers came to Cologne between the two Masses of Our Lady, the Assumption and the Nativity.
Asserted by: Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen (Cologne 1499).
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160]
A woman named Frau Troffea stepped outside into Strasbourg and began to dance.
Asserted by: Amie Jane Leavitt, ‘The Rhine River’, Jessie Greengrass, John Waller.
Waller, John, 1972- author, ‘The dancing plague : the strange, true story of an extraordinary illness’, 2009, page 294
Jessie Greengrass, ‘Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It: A John Murray Original’, 2017, page 198
Wetherell, Margaret, 1954-, ‘Affect and emotion : a new social science understanding’, 2012, page 198
Leavitt, Amie Jane, ‘The Rhine River’, 2013, page 58
Frau Troffea had heard no music when she began to dance.
Asserted by: John Waller.
Waller, John, 1972- author, ‘The dancing plague : the strange, true story of an extraordinary illness’, 2009, page 294 The source’s own wording: “So far as we are aware”.
Wetherell, Margaret, 1954-, ‘Affect and emotion : a new social science understanding’, 2012, page 198 The source’s own wording: “So far as we are aware”.
Dancing plagues have occurred previously
Asserted by: Ahadada Reader 3: four poets, Kurt Kersten.
‘Ahadada Reader 3 : four poets’, 2010, page 172
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “daß wohl dies zu jener Krankheitserscheinung geführt haben mag”.
Those afflicted danced in the streets and could not stop until they fell.
Asserted by: Jessie Greengrass.
Jessie Greengrass, ‘Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It: A John Murray Original’, 2017, page 198 The source’s own wording: “might not”.
The customary St. John’s day dances of German peasants were transformed into epileptic convulsions amid the terror and despair following the Black Death.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, Herbert Newton Casson.
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
A harmless superstition will, under certain conditions of despondency and fear, become a malevolent and anti-social force.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, Herbert Newton Casson.
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Dancing mania (Tanzwut) was the product of exaggerated religious ecstasies, a form of hysteria, and a mass psychosis.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, Herbert Newton Casson, London correspondent of the “Deutsche Zeitung”, printed in the Täglicher Baltimore Wecker, Max von Boehn, Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “It is supposed that”.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “may be”.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872 The source’s own wording: “unter religiöser Form (oder auch Maske)”.
Pilgrimages were made to various shrines in search of relief from the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, Herbert Newton Casson, William Osler.
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264 The source’s own wording: “undoubtedly”.
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264 The source’s own wording: “undoubtedly”.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “undoubtedly”.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The innumerable shrines and holy places of Europe obtained their fame by miracles such as the curing of dancing mania sufferers.
Asserted by: Herbert Newton Casson.
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
There were chapels of St. Vitus near Zabern and near Rotestein at which priests were in attendance.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘The dancing mania of the Middle Ages’, n.d., page 74
Afflicted people were led to the chapels of Saint Vitus at Zabern and at Rotestein, where a religious service was held for them.
Asserted by: Georg Friedrich Daumer.
Daumer, Georg Friedrich, ‘Die Geheimnisse des christlichen Alterthums’, 1847, page 312
A work titled ‘Paracelsi Schreiben von den Krankheyten, so die Vernunft berauben’ was published at Basel in 1567.
Asserted by: Gregory Zilboorg.
Zilboorg, Gregory, 1890-1959, ‘The medical man and the witch during the Renaissance’, 1969, page 250
Those newly afflicted in the Strasbourg outbreak then followed the swarms of dancers unstoppably.
Asserted by: Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker.
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ]
In the period following the decline of the dancing mania the concept of Veitstanz was broadened to include disease forms that were not a true mania, such as some forms of epilepsy and hysteria, and the name Chorea was gradually transferred to the affection known today under that name
Asserted by: Georg Mayer, Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The dancing mania generally commenced with epileptic convulsions, its victims falling to the ground foaming at the mouth and senseless.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “generally”.
The sound of music and the sight of any red object were noticed always to aggravate the dancing disorder.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “was noticed to”.
Sometimes several hundred people would be leaping and dancing at the same time during the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “Sometimes”.
In one case of the dancing mania a hundred children were seized with the madness.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “in one case”.
Faith-healing shrines became famous through cures such as those of the dancing mania sufferers.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Suffering, insanity and death were caused in thousands of instances by a superstition which had been regarded as harmless.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Professor J. K. F. Hecker wrote that every species of enthusiasm and every violent passion may lead to convulsions and mental disorders, which are irresistibly propagated by imitation.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson, quoting Professor J. K. F. Hecker.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “As Professor J. K. F. Hecker has said”.
Convulsive and mental disorders arise when the mind is carried away by the force of a sensual impression that destroys its freedom, and are then propagated by imitation, religious enthusiasm being the most fertile of all in such disorders.
Asserted by: Professor J. K. F. Hecker.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “may lead to”.
Paracelsus, Cardan and Agrippa were the best known writers of the Cabalists, a medieval sect that survived as late as the seventeenth century.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Paracelsus is named among the unique enthusiasts of disordered intellect and magnetic personality who organized mystical sects.
Asserted by: Herbert N. Casson.
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] The source’s own wording: “more or less disordered intellect”.
A section of Alexander’s ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament’ addresses ‘The Dancing Manias’ within a chapter on the alleged continuance of genuine demonic possession in mediaeval and modern times.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The first dancing mania appeared at Erfurt in the thirteenth century and was of moderate dimensions.
Asserted by: London correspondent of the “Deutsche Zeitung”, printed in the Täglicher Baltimore Wecker, William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872
In the 1374 dancing outbreak, the afflicted danced hand in hand, in pairs or circles, in the streets, in private houses and even in the churches, without rest and without shame.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The dancers of the 1374 outbreak were insensible to ordinary sights and sounds and other impressions.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The wild screams of the dancers in the 1374 outbreak were regarded by onlookers as invocations of demons.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex] The source’s own wording: “were regarded as”.
When the fierce delirium of the 1374 dancers had produced exhaustion, convulsions and severe pains set in.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The condition of the 1374 dancers was ascribed to possession, and solemn exorcisms were performed on them.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex] The source’s own wording: “was ascribed to”.
The dancing disorder ceased after a time but burst forth again in 1418.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
In the 1418 outbreak the dancers raved and pranced as in the earlier outbreak, and also fasted for prolonged periods.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
In the 1418 outbreak the possessed were put under supervision and taken to the chapel at Rotestein, where masses were said for them and they were led in procession round the altar for the ejection of their demons.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The mediaeval dancing manias were ancient insanities which had become recrudescent and contagious.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex] The source’s own wording: “are recognisable as”.
The parallels of the mediaeval dancing manias are the Tarantism of Italy, the Tigretier of Abyssinia, and the exercises of the Jumpers and Shakers.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
Epidemic insanities of the Flagellants and the Dancers broke out in Europe in the interval between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
The outbreaks of the Flagellants and the Dancers in Europe were forms of epidemic insanity.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
During the period of the Flagellant and Dancer outbreaks the mental balance of Europe was almost overthrown.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
Alexander’s 1902 book indexes ‘Dancing manias’ as a topic discussed at pages 235 f. and 282, alongside entries for the Flagellants and the Convulsionnaires.
Asserted by: William Menzies Alexander.
William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex]
Shawn Achor describes the Dancing Plague of 1518 as an example of social contagion on record.
Asserted by: Shawn Achor.
Achor, Shawn, ‘Before happiness : the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change’, 2013, page 282
The Dancing Plague of 1518 was an instance of social contagion.
Asserted by: Shawn Achor.
Achor, Shawn, ‘Before happiness : the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change’, 2013, page 282
A 2010 popular health book lists the Dancing Plague of 1518 among notable cases of a condition affecting groups of people.
Asserted by: Ian Landau, ‘The hypochondriac’s handbook’.
Landau, Ian, ‘The hypochondriac’s handbook : syndromes, diseases, and ailments that probably should have killed you by now’, 2010, page 214
A disease discussed by Paracelsus came to be called St. Vitus’s dance (Sanct Veits Tanz).
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Werke’, 1965, page 554
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Werke’, 1965, page 554
The German term ‘sanct Veits tanz’ is a loan translation (Lehnübersetzung) of the Latin ‘chorea sancti Viti’.
Asserted by: Das Königsteiner Liederbuch (Ms. germ. qu. 719 Berlin), 1970 edition.
Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Manuscript. Ms. germ. qu. 1409, ‘Das Königsteiner Liederbuch. : Ms. germ. qu. 719 Berlin’, 1970, page 438
In a legend of a group of dancers in a churchyard recounted in Flögel’s Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen, no rain fell on the dancers, they felt neither cold nor warmth, and they did not grow tired.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the dancers gave no answer when anyone questioned them, and their clothes and shoes remained whole without wearing out.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the dancers trod the earth down so far that they stood in it up to their knees and finally up to their hips.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen, Trithemius of Sponheim, as quoted by Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the priest’s son seized his sister, who was among the dancers, by the arm to pull her away by force and tore the arm from her body.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the sister whose arm was torn off showed no pain, made no sound, lost not a drop of blood, and continued dancing tirelessly with the others.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the dancers carried on in this way for a whole year, after which St. Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne, came to the churchyard, absolved the dancers of the curse, and led them into the church.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen, Trithemius of Sponheim, as quoted by Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, the female dancers soon died, as did some of the men, who worked miracles after their death because they had long done penance.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the legend of the churchyard dancers recounted by Flögel, those dancers who lived longer retained a trembling in their limbs for the rest of their lives.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
The name of Knecht Ruprecht, who accompanies the Christ Child at Christmas, derives from the priest Rupert of the churchyard dancing legend.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590 The source’s own wording: “soll … entstanden sein”.
Lycosthenes had the churchyard dance depicted in a woodcut as a lasting memorial.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
The tale of the churchyard dancers was merely invented in order to lend prestige to the priestly curse and to absolution.
Asserted by: Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590 The source’s own wording: “Es drängt sich aber fast von selbst auf, dass”.
The Veitstanz (St. Vitus’s dance) takes its name from the power of St. Vitus.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), reporting a derivation he rejects, Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen, Georg Mayer.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “scheint mir annehmbarer und natürlicher”.
In German lands some people were afflicted so that they had to dance, often for a day and night together, often for two days, and for three days and nights.
Asserted by: Agricola, quoted in Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
In the time of St. Vitus it happened that the saints canonized and exalted themselves before they had died.
Asserted by: Agricola, quoted in Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen.
Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590
Outbreaks of dancing mania (Tanzwut) occurred in the fourteenth century.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten, Max von Boehn, William Osler.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “von der uns die alten Chronisten des Mittelalters erzählen”.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] The source’s own wording: “similar in some respects”.
The picture of how the dancing mania unfolded is unclear because it lacks order.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Dance was already practised as a means of intoxication among primitive peoples and was brought into a strictly regulated form in magical cult practice.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Sorcerer-priests, medicine men and shamans prepare for their ritual duties by giving themselves over to a dance in solitary places whose character grows ever wilder until it passes into complete unconsciousness.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342 The source’s own wording: “pflegen sich … zu überlassen”.
Certain religious associations have chosen the ecstatic communal dance as the expression of religious enthusiasm raised to its highest pitch, dance being the body’s last means of expressing the soul’s extreme excitement.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Such ecstatic dance usually begins with rhythmically ordered movements which, as speed increases, degenerate into wild frenzy and finally pass into a sleep-like state interrupted by convulsions.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342 The source’s own wording: “gewöhnlich”.
Such dances, which despite their violence proceed in fully ordered liturgical forms, were known to the Greeks, who practised them at the Dionysian mysteries, and to the ancient Mexicans, and continue down to the present day.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
Quakers, Methodists, Springer, Erweckte, Schüttler and other sects make use of dance as a stimulating means.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342
American Shakers begin a solemn dance toward the end of their worship service in which they shake and push one another, holding that the world needs a push to be woken from the sleep of sin.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342 The source’s own wording: “nach ihrer Anschauung”.
The dancing dervishes of Islam are the best known practitioners of such a rite performed in full public view, and their cult is said to have been derived from the north Siberian steppe peoples.
Asserted by: Max von Boehn.
Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342 The source’s own wording: “soll”.
Writers have described a pathological phenomenon of compulsive dancing under the name “Tanzwut” (dancing mania).
Asserted by: John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228 The source’s own wording: “von den Schriftſtellern … beſchrieben worden ift”.
In the Rhineland, crowds of men and women appeared who spun about with wild leaps and contortions of the limbs in apparently bacchantic abandon.
Asserted by: John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228 The source’s own wording: “in ſcheinbar bacchantifcher Ausgelaflenheit”.
The Rhineland dancers joined hands in circles and danced in wild frenzy until they collapsed to the ground foaming at the mouth.
Asserted by: John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228
The sounds of music, the sight of the colour red and other strong sensory impressions promoted the outbreak of the dancing mania.
Asserted by: John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228
The dancing-mania epidemic lasted until the beginning of the 15th century and then gradually faded away.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen, John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The sufferers of the dancing mania were called “Johannistänzer” (St. John’s dancers).
Asserted by: John Schikowski, Kurt Kersten, Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
The affliction of dancing mania began at the celebration of the feast of St. John, which is why sufferers were called “Johannistänzer”.
Asserted by: John Schikowski.
Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228 The source’s own wording: “feinen Anfang genommen haben foll”.
Kirchhoff stated that closer examination of the so-called dancing plague yields clarification about how certain forms of insanity were understood and treated in the Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Kirchhoff argued that the mood of the times could favour such outbreaks of delusion but could only alter the outward form of the illness, and that the essential element - the bodily disease underlying the psychic disturbance - is not brought about by it.
Asserted by: Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 The source’s own wording: “immer aber kann doch nur”.
Kirchhoff argued that the conditions for the endemic spread of superstitious ideas exist in every century, but that the drive to imitation often finds a victorious opponent in the enlightenment of the mind.
Asserted by: Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Kirchhoff wrote that when such states are recognised as pathological in individuals and those individuals are separated out and treated, their harmful influence on the credulous crowd is removed and the crowd is made aware that the states are morbid.
Asserted by: Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
An epidemic spread out from Aachen in the year 1374.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, as quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
The epidemic that began at Aachen in 1374 had a devilish origin.
Asserted by: contemporaries of the 1374 epidemic, as reported by J. F. C. Hecker and quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 The source’s own wording: “ihren teuflischen Ursprung bezweifelte Niemand”.
In Liège the priests took refuge in exorcisms and tried with all their power to check the evil, which threatened to become dangerous to them.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, as quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
The possessed, gathered together in crowds, often uttered curses against the priests and wanted to kill them.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, as quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 The source’s own wording: “oft”.
The dancing illness of 1374 was caused by the bad way of life of the priests.
Asserted by: contemporaries of the 1374 epidemic, as reported by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 The source’s own wording: “leitete man damals … ab”.
The belief of the age was reflected wondrously and variously in the fantasy of the possessed during the 1374 epidemic.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, as quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 The source’s own wording: “wie denn”.
The exorcisms used against the 1374 epidemic had success.
Asserted by: J. F. C. Hecker, as quoted by Theodor Kirchhoff.
Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214
Friedlaender’s history of medicine treats the Middle Ages as the period from the end of the fifth century to the end of the sixteenth century.
Asserted by: Ludwig Hermann Friedlaender.
Friedlaender, Ludwig Hermann, 1790-1851, ‘Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Heilkunde’, 1839, page 510 The source’s own wording: “Rechnet man zum Mittelalter”.
Ernst Conrad Wicke, a practising physician at Bleckede, published ‘Versuch einer Monographie des großen Veitstanzes und der unwillkürlichen Muskelbewegungen nebst Bemerkungen über den Taranteltanz und die Beriberi’ (Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1844, XXX and 486 pages, price 2 Thaler).
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Accumulated observations of the disease states lumped together under the name chorea had long called for a sharper separation of them.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “mahnten bisher vielfach”.
An actual monograph on the Veitstanz appears here for the first time, at least for Germany, the most recently published treatments by Bouteille and others having delivered little that is usable though not without value.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “für Deutschland wenigstens”.
Wicke’s monograph suffers in not a few places from great unintelligibility and prolixity of presentation and expression, chiefly in the attempted definitions, where a German translation becomes indispensable.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “einen, den Leser unangenehm berührenden Fehler”.
The Johannistanz was a madness that originally arose out of superstition and afterwards propagated itself as such.
Asserted by: Ernst Conrad Wicke.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Among the consequences of the increasing indefiniteness of the concept of the Veitstanz in the nineteenth century was, above all, the denial of the Veitstanz as an independent disease.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “vorzugsweise”.
Several observations of recent times, above all the significant outbreak of preaching-mania (Predigtsucht) that lately occurred in Sweden, would have had their place in Wicke’s monograph.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 The source’s own wording: “so wären doch … wohl an ihrer Stelle gewesen”.
The tarantella dance was first mentioned by Perotti.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
The tarantella dance was in the main a madness, in which those bitten by a tarantula believed they could be cured of the bite’s consequences only by dancing to particular musical tunes, their bodily sufferings recurring yearly, while unbitten persons came to believe themselves bitten.
Asserted by: Ernst Conrad Wicke.
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Wicke’s own observations on involuntary muscle movements are of no essential importance and are presented only in a brief tabular survey.
Asserted by: Literarische Zeitung (Berlin).
Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7
Professor Dr. Raecke proposed that the name of the Christian boy martyr Sanctus Vitus had been conflated with that of the Slavic god Swantiwit, in whose honour dizzying round dances were performed.
Asserted by: Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5 The source’s own wording: “Wahrscheinlich”.
The name of the Christian boy martyr Sanctus Vitus was conflated with that of the Slavic god Swantiwit, whose worship included dizzying round dances, producing the term “Veitstanz”.
Asserted by: Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5 The source’s own wording: “Wahrscheinlich”.
Chorea is not caused by St. Vitus
Asserted by: Paracelsus, as reported in the introductory essay to the 1941 ‘Four Treatises’ edition, Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
The cause of the actual St Vitus’ dance (Sydenham’s chorea) is to be sought in an infection, whose pathogens reach the brain by the bloodstream and affect the automatic regulating apparatus of muscle movement.
Asserted by: Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5 The source’s own wording: “ist in einer Infektion zu suchen”.
It would be a fateful error to believe that the movements of St Vitus’ dance can be suppressed by an effort of will.
Asserted by: Professor Dr. Raecke, director of the psychiatric polyclinic of the University of Frankfurt a. M..
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
A German-language treatise on St. Vitus’s dance (Veitstanz) by J. A. Söhler, described as a revised and enlarged German edition of J. Bernt’s ‘Monographia choreae St. Viti’, was published in Vienna by Wimmer in 1826 in XVI and 214 pages.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
J. Bernt, professor of state medicine at the University of Vienna, had earlier published an inaugural dissertation on St. Vitus’s dance at Prague, which was at the time regarded as one of the better writings of its kind.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “wurde schon damals für eine der bessern solcher Schriften gehalten”.
The reviewer of Söhler’s treatise on St. Vitus’s dance judged it to stand at the head of everything published on the subject up to that time.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung (reviewer).
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “kann Recens. kein Bedenken tragen”.
St. Vitus’s dance (Veitstanz) is as old as convulsions and other nervous diseases, which earlier ages called demonic possessions.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the argument of Söhler/Bernt’s treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Es bleibt demnach keinem Zweifel unterworfen”.
Crude ignorance, the grossest superstition and especially the belief in witches during the Middle Ages are to blame for the fact that nothing specific about St. Vitus’s dance was reported from that period.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the argument of Söhler/Bernt’s treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
Some indications in Hippocrates allow an inference to St. Vitus’s dance.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung (reviewer).
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “einige Andeutungen, die auf Veitstanz schliessen lassen”.
Clearer traces of St. Vitus’s dance are found in Galen, and perhaps also in Strabo and Pliny.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “vielleicht auch”.
Traces of St. Vitus’s dance are found most of all in Vincent of Beauvais, since which time (1012) the disease’s existence no longer lies in obscurity.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
It still cannot be demonstrated with certainty how the disease known as St. Vitus’s dance got its name.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “lässt sich immer noch nicht mit Gewissheit nachweisen”.
St. Vitus’s dance is easily confused with other disorders such as the tarantula dance, ergotism (Kriebelkrankheit) and epilepsy, and the treatise draws a parallel between them.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
St. Vitus’s dance is caused by a general or partial affliction of the spinal cord arising from a disturbance of the relation between vegetation and organic movement.
Asserted by: J. Bernt / J. A. Söhler, as reported by the Leipziger Literaturzeitung.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
Among the mechanical occasioning causes of St. Vitus’s dance, worms may play a large role.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung (reviewer).
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “möchten wohl”.
The predisposition to St. Vitus’s dance consists in imperfect vegetation and varies according to origin, age, sex, temperament, climate and other existing diseases.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2
The prognosis of St. Vitus’s dance is generally not unfavourable, since although like all chronic nervous ailments it often long resists remedies, it is rarely fatal.
Asserted by: Leipziger Literaturzeitung, reporting the treatise on St. Vitus’s dance.
Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Im Allgemeinen”.
“Veitstanz” (“Chorea St. Viti”) is the original designation for the Tanzwut (dancing mania).
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
There are several distinct kinds of Veitstanz: Chorea minor, the progressive Chorea chronica (Huntington’s chorea), and Chorea major (“Chorea Germanorum”).
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea minor affects primarily children, above all girls.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
The physician Sydenham (1624-1689) recognised Chorea minor as an infectious-toxic disease of the nervous system on a rheumatic basis.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”), reporting Sydenham.
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea minor is an infectious-toxic disease of the nervous system arising on a rheumatic basis.
Asserted by: Sydenham, as reported by the Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column.
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea minor manifests itself in a muscular restlessness that leads above all to coordination disturbances in voluntary movements and is sometimes combined with mental and intellectual disturbances.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea minor is the harmless form of the illness, frequently appearing after an angina or joint rheumatism, and heals practically completely and without consequences.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “praktisch”.
The progressive form of Veitstanz, Chorea chronica or Huntington’s chorea (named after an American physician, 1850-1904), rests on dominant inheritance.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea chronica (Huntington’s chorea) sets in insidiously between the 30th and 45th year of life, progresses visibly, and shows the same phenomena as Chorea minor but with somewhat slower muscle twitches and movements.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Chorea chronica (Huntington’s chorea) is as a rule accompanied by psychic disturbances, above all intelligence defects and great irritability, and often ends in complete mental deterioration.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “in der Regel”.
Chorea major belongs to hysteria.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”), William Osler.
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “kann auftreten”.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
A reader wrote to the Bruchsaler Post’s “Briefkasten” column asking what Veitstanz is, what causes it, how it manifests, and what its course and varieties are.
Asserted by: Bruchsaler Post reader-letter column (“Unser Briefkasten”).
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
The dancing mania is the strangest of the mental epidemics in history.
Asserted by: General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 The source’s own wording: “wohl”.
Those seized by the dancing mania in that era began their dances not out of joy or high spirits but like people driven by demons.
Asserted by: General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 The source’s own wording: “wie”.
Women and men seized by the dancing mania fell into such ecstasy that they claimed to perceive apparitions of spirits, and some said they saw heaven open and told of the glories it offered.
Asserted by: General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend, Walder Zeitung.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 The source’s own wording: “wahrnehmen wollten”.
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3 The source’s own wording: “wahrnehmen wollten”.
The clergy and all people not afflicted by the dancing mania regarded this popular sickness as a work of the devil.
Asserted by: General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend, Walder Zeitung.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Hecker’s work ‘The Epidemics of the Middle Ages’ remains the standard authority for a full and accurate description of the dancing mania as it occurred in various countries.
Asserted by: Clergy and non-afflicted people, as reported by General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, William Osler, the clergy and those not afflicted, as reported by Walder Zeitung.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The colour red affected those seized by the dancing mania extraordinarily; at the sight of red their rapture became much greater.
Asserted by: General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend, Walder Zeitung.
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 The source’s own wording: “Merkwürdig ist noch , daß”.
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3 The source’s own wording: “Merkwürdig ist noch”.
Dr. Martin named the Berlin physician Hecker as the recognised authority on the description of the popular disease of the Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “der als Autorität … gilt”.
The historian Hirsch supplied Hecker’s account with additions.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Dr. Martin stated that according to his own researches in several documents it is established with certainty that the great Strasbourg dancing-mania epidemic broke out in 1518 and not, as individual chronicles have it, in 1418.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Nach den For schungen , die der Redner in mehreren Schriftstücken ange^elll hat , sieht mit Sicherheit fest”.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “wie es in einzelnen Chroniken heißt”.
Dr. Martin cited the Strasbourg city scribe Sebastian Brandt among his sources.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The Strasbourg St. Vitus’s dance epidemic is of interest to physicians and theologians alike.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Several customs connected with the dancing sickness can be traced down to the present day.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “lassen sich … nach weisen”.
As a consequence of the influence of the Protestants people turned away from the saints and began to read the Bible.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
According to Schenk of Freiburg, in the Breisgau people also took refuge with Saints Vitus and John the Baptist.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), citing Schenk of Freiburg.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Nack Schenk aus Freiburg”.
A Gießen professor named Horst (1688-1722) recounted that in Ulm he came across a woman who applied the remedy of dancing on St. Vitus’s day every year, one woman having repeated it for 20 years and another for 32 years.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), citing a Gießen professor Horst.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “enählt . daß”.
Dr. Martin stated that, according to his researches, the derivation of the name St. Vitus’s dance from the Slavic deity Swantewit is not correct.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “ist nach ben Forschungen des Vortragenden nicht zutreffend”.
A Limburg chronicle describes how Saint John was invoked as a helper against the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), citing a Limburg chronicle.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Eine Limburger Chronik schildert daß”.
People believed that those afflicted with the dancing mania were possessed by the devil and that the devil had to be driven out.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “Man dachte sich”.
The end of the St. Vitus’s dance and of the fight against it can visibly be recognised in the Echternach jumping procession.
Asserted by: Dr. med. Martin (Bad Nauheim), as reported by the Gießener Anzeiger.
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “ist sichtlich … zu erkennen”.
Dancing mania (Tanzwut) was formerly counted among the great epidemics, and is a type of illness no longer known, at least in the form it then took.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “merkwürdigerweise”.
In the middle of the summer of 1347 dancing mania appeared to a frightening extent in the regions along the Rhine and the Moselle.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “wie schon oft”.
A large band of children, counted at more than a thousand, was seized by dancing mania and moved dancing from Erfurt to Arnstadt, where their worried parents, who at first did not know what had happened to their little ones, fetched them back two days later.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “man zählte ihrer mehr als tausend”.
The dancing mania among women was at times so great that in some places the authorities had to provide dancing partners in order to dance the afflicted women down.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “zeitweise”.
A story is told of a beautiful and amiable Swiss woman at Basel who fell so completely into dancing mania that she could not get enough dancing partners.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “So erzählt man von”.
Almost a month passed before the dancing Swiss woman at Basel had danced her fill, dancing not only by day but partly also at night.
Asserted by: Bergische Landes-Zeitung.
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “fast ein Monat”.
Many of the dance-stricken moved away into other regions and thereby spread the epidemic ever further.
Asserted by: Walder Zeitung.
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Beggars who made a trade out of the dancing mania spread the disease ever further.
Asserted by: Walder Zeitung.
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
The epidemics of dancing mania gradually died out.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook, The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), William Osler.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The Black Death, a plague that had come over from the Orient, destroyed 25 million of the roughly 105 million Europeans then living.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9 The source’s own wording: “etwa”.
The dancing mania broke out only after minds had been worn down by the horrors of the plague, the mass dying, the atrocities committed during the persecutions and the constant fear of a recurrence.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
In Metz the number of dancers in the streets amounted to 1100.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9 The source’s own wording: “soll … betragen haben”.
The dancing phenomena of the Middle Ages were the discharge of a general state of the soul, in which tormented minds sought a bodily outlet.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The tarantula had long been native to Italy, but the gloomy mood of that time made those bitten fall at once into the most dreadful fears, so that the bite was merely the trigger releasing a nervous crisis that was already latent.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The name Tarantella of the Italian dance still points today to the music applied to calm the sick.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Certain parallels between the dance movement of 1921 and that of the Middle Ages are undeniable and demand serious attention.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9 The source’s own wording: “Gewisse … unleugbar”.
The experiences of the war shattered the nerves, and the increase in criminality, in the insane and in illnesses such as influenza and furunculosis across all European countries produced a state of mind in which many see relief only in unrestrained surrender to the moment, best of all in dancing.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The phenomena appearing in the present day, closely bound up with religious moods, do not equal the medieval ones in power and dangerousness, though the preconditions of the two are unmistakably similar.
Asserted by: Dr. Rudolf Brook.
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9 The source’s own wording: “Wenn auch … so ist doch”.
Numerous cases of dancing mania have been observed in recent months in various cities of the United States and also in Canada.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 The source’s own wording: “wie man aus New⸗York ſchreibt”.
The North American dancing mania appears to have broken out suddenly and generally and is spreading rapidly with epidemic-like contagion.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 The source’s own wording: “zu ſein ſcheint”.
The reported North American cases of dancing mania are not a matter of unusual enthusiasm for dancing but constitute a kind of mental illness.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 The source’s own wording: “unbedingt”.
Dancing mania of this kind was last observed in Central Europe in the 14th century.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 The source’s own wording: “nach den Ueberlieferungen alter Chroniſten”.
The physician Dr. Walter Crawn established on 12 February in Minnesota that two young girls had been seized by a peculiar illness recalling hysterical states, expressed in forms not previously observed.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
Physicians so far stand almost helpless before the North American dancing-mania phenomenon, which has already claimed numerous victims.
Asserted by: Hallesche Zeitung.
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 The source’s own wording: “faſt ratlos”.
Similar phenomena had already been observed before the Aachen outbreak, as remnants of an old heathen worship.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The historians of the time reported that the dancing sufferers raged in mad restlessness until their bodies swelled shapelessly and they fell unconscious, then, once recovered from exhaustion, raged again until they finally collapsed with foaming mouths in convulsions and had to be carried half dead from the place.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten, citing the historians of that time, Kurt Kersten, reporting the historians of the time.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “wenn die Geschichtsschreiber der damaligen Zeit berichten”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “wenn die Geschichts schreiber der damaligen Zeit berichten”.
The dancers raged until their bodies swelled shapelessly, fell unconscious, resumed raging on recovering, and finally collapsed with foaming mouths in convulsions and had to be carried away half dead.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “so sind das wahrhafte Schreckbilder , die , da sie in glaubhaftester Weise dargestellt werden , kaum übertrieben sein dürften”.
It is further reported that the Johannistänzer possessed by the mania were also afflicted with various idiosyncrasies and had all manner of visions and delusions.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “Zumal noch berichtet wird”.
A terrible social emergency was the cause of the medieval dancing mania.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “so scheinen diese in einer fürchterlichen sozialen Notlage zu suchen zu sein”.
The celebration of the feast of St John in June 1374 was the outbreak of a mass despair which spread from the place of outbreak over wide stretches of country.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
In the Rhine regions and the Netherlands the dancing affliction lasted about 16 weeks, and according to the Magnum Chronicon Belgicum it did not die out until after three to four years
Asserted by: Georg Mayer, Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “soll die Krankheit … drei bis vier Jahre gewährt haben”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “soll die Krankheit … drei bis vier Jahre gewähn haben”.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “soll dem magn. chron. Belg. gemäss”.
Similar occurrences to the medieval dancing mania are reported from Strasbourg in the second decade of the 16th century.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “werden ähnliche Vorgänge aus Straßburg berichtet”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “werden … berichtet”.
Economic hardship was the cause of the strange dancing epidemic reported from Strasbourg in the second decade of the 16th century.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “auch da scheint … gewesen zu sein”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “scheint … gewesen zu sein”.
The Veitstanz known to medical science, a peculiar disturbance of movement, has nothing in common with the medieval dancing mania except the name.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Those seized by the dancing mania called on Saint Vitus in their distress, and the dance received its name from that.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “so dürfte es der Fall gewesen sein , daß … diesen Heiligen in der Not angerufen haben mögen”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “so dürste es der Fall gewesen … angerusen haben mögen”.
The larger epidemics of the dancing sickness ceased with its appearance in Strasbourg, but the sickness itself was by no means extinguished and always returned.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 The source’s own wording: “scheinen … aufgehört zu haben”.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “scheint”.
In the year 1623 the physician Gregor Horst communicated in a letter to a contemporary an account of several women afflicted with the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten, Kurt Kersten, reporting the physician Gregor Horst.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
All chroniclers, physicians and other reporters on the dancing mania name only a single remedy that was applied against it with success, namely the power of music.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Slowing music, moving from high to low tones, brought the fury of the dancing sufferers to an end.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
The Echternach jumping procession is a thanksgiving festival dedicated to the memory of the ending of the dancing plague.
Asserted by: Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger.
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2
A disease called the dancing plague (Tanzplage) prevailed at Echternach in the Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger.
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “einer Krankheit, die im Mittelalter dort geherrscht haben soll”.
The reports of dancers raging until they collapsed foaming and had to be carried away half dead are hardly likely to be exaggerated, since they are presented in the most credible manner.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “kaum über trieben sein dürsten”.
Social misery from floods, the lawless political conditions under Charles IV and the Black Death produced such despair in the lower population that this despair may have led to the dancing sickness.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “daß wohl zu jener Krankheitserscheinung geführt haben mag”.
Only a single remedy is reported by all chroniclers, all physicians and other reporters as having been applied with success against the dancing mania, namely the power of music.
Asserted by: Kurt Kersten.
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “wird von allen Corouisten , allen Aerzten und sonstigen Berichterstattern … mitgeteint”.
By the time of the Strasbourg outbreak of 1418 the disease was already being called ‘Veitstanz’ (St Vitus’s dance)
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
At the 1418 Strasbourg outbreak, by order of the city council, keepers/overseers were assigned to the afflicted who led them in separate groups to chapels of St Vitus so that they might be freed of their illness there
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The name ‘Veitstanz’ arose from the old Persian word ‘Feisz’
Asserted by: Franz v. Erdmann.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Paracelsus’s three kinds of Veitstanz were the Vitista or Chorea aestimativa, arising from the wrath of God; the Lasciva, arising from lasciviousness, also called Chorea meretricum; and the Chorea coacta or naturalis, arising from the ‘laughing veins’ which, tickled by a subtle spirit, stimulate to such dancing and leaping
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In the 15th and early 16th centuries the dancing disease appeared in an entirely new form: the later dancers believed they had to honour St Vitus at a fixed time in order to be freed from strange complaints they had felt until then
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The 15th- and early-16th-century dancers danced with such fury that they could only with difficulty be prevented from doing themselves violence, dashing their heads against stones, or attacking others
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In the Breisgau, sufferers gathered annually on the eve of the feast of St John, after having been sad and anxious for the whole preceding month and having felt stabbing and leaping pains over the whole body
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The Breisgau dancers were convinced they would not be freed from their complaints until they had driven out their madness by dancing, and after three hours of raging were cured for a whole year until renewed restlessness of the limbs compelled another pilgrimage
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Towards the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century the dancing mania greatly declined and appeared only sporadically, and was by then described by discerning physicians as a species of mania or insanity
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The 1374 dancing epidemic was a madness arising from pure superstition which seized men, women, youths and maidens alike and drove them in flight and senselessness away from their homeland and relatives
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “lässt sich demnach so charakterisiren”.
Because medical art did not stand in high regard at that time, people turned to a saint as helper in need, namely the boy martyr Vitus
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Crusaders returning from Asia found favourable ground in Germany and the Netherlands, where the custom of the ‘Johannistanz’ already existed, to transplant the religious ecstatic practices they had encountered in the Orient
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “es darf uns daher nicht staunen machen”.
The returning plague of the first half of the 14th century brought need and misery over the whole population of Germany, depressed people’s minds and made them more inclined to religious acts, so that from the earlier pious dancers of the feast of St John whole companies of fanatical dancers emerged who wandered from place to place spreading the contagion of their delusion
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In Germany and especially in the Netherlands there long existed the custom of celebrating St John’s day, it being imagined that whoever leapt through a fire lit in his honour would remain free of illness for a whole year
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “von dem gewähnt wurde”.
The Sufi sought to induce a state of heavenly rapture called ‘Feisz’ by fearful cries of Allah, inhuman convulsions and raging dances to the beat of tambourine and pipes at specially designated holy assembly places
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
The mystical doctrine of the Sufi, matured by the 10th century, found many adherents and gave rise to new orders in Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt and even Greece, among all of which the Feisz-dances are found again
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
At the instigation of Horst in 1623, the term Veitstanz (today Chorea Germanorum) was applied to a disease resembling the earlier dancing mania but which, combined with convulsions and mental alienation, recalls epileptiform states
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Around the same period great confusion arose over the concept and nature of Veitstanz, and even ergotism (Kriebelkrankheit) and tarantism were described by some authors as Veitstanz
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Even after Sydenham gave a somewhat more detailed description of the disease at the beginning of the 18th century, still calling it a species of convulsion, uncertainty remained about the nature of the Veitstanz itself
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In Chorea St. Viti the movements carried out are involuntary and at the same time uncoordinated, while in Chorea Germanorum they are fully coordinated but likewise involuntary
Asserted by: Lebert, Niemeyer, Leubuscher, Romberg and Hasse, as reported by Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In the greater form of Veitstanz (Chorea magna) manifold ordered movements are performed which often require unusual exertion of strength, agility and sureness that the individuals concerned could not achieve at all, or at least not with the same endurance, in a normal state
Asserted by: Georg Mayer, summarising Lebert, Niemeyer, Leubuscher, Romberg and Hasse.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
In Chorea magna the most varied impressions mostly pass without trace and sense-deceptions, visions and fantasy images take the place of real perceptions
Asserted by: Georg Mayer, summarising Lebert, Niemeyer, Leubuscher, Romberg and Hasse.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
Chorea magna occurs in attacks which often last at most a few minutes and only in the rarest cases more than a week, whereas the muscle movements of the lesser Veitstanz continue from the beginning to the end of the illness and are interrupted only by sleep
Asserted by: Georg Mayer, summarising Lebert, Niemeyer, Leubuscher, Romberg and Hasse.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
A fatal outcome in Chorea magna occurs, according to Wicke, sometimes through general paralysis of the nervous system, and if healing occurs individual convulsions and paralyses, hysterical and epileptic states often remain
Asserted by: Wicke, as reported by Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] The source’s own wording: “nach Wicke zuweilen”.
Georg Mayer submitted a dissertation entitled ‘Veitstanz’ to the Medical Faculty at Berlin for the doctorate, defended publicly on 23 March 1870
Asserted by: Georg Mayer.
Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145]
St Vitus’ dance is caused by an irritation of the nerves by a morbid fluid.
Asserted by: Thomas Sydenham (as reported by Heinrich Haeser).
Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog] The source’s own wording: “zu beruhen scheint”.
Various functional phenomena of the nervous system have been called chorea despite bearing very slight resemblance to what neurologists of the 1890s call chorea
Asserted by: Landon Carter Gray.
Landon Carter Gray, ‘A Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases: For Students and Practitioners of Medicine’, 1893 [text via Internet Archive: treatiseonnervou00gray]
The condition called the dance of St. Guy or St. Vitus has also been known as the dance of St. Modesti or St. John, choremania, orchestromania, chorea magna, chorea germanorum, epilepsia saltatoria, or dance plague (Tanzplage; fleau de la danse)
Asserted by: Landon Carter Gray.
Landon Carter Gray, ‘A Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases: For Students and Practitioners of Medicine’, 1893 [text via Internet Archive: treatiseonnervou00gray]
The dance of St. Vitus was an epidemic prevalent at various times since the end of the fourteenth century
Asserted by: Landon Carter Gray.
Landon Carter Gray, ‘A Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases: For Students and Practitioners of Medicine’, 1893 [text via Internet Archive: treatiseonnervou00gray]
The first appearance of the dance of St. Vitus was described in 1374
Asserted by: Landon Carter Gray.
Landon Carter Gray, ‘A Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases: For Students and Practitioners of Medicine’, 1893 [text via Internet Archive: treatiseonnervou00gray]
Chorea in children involves the unconscious suggestibility and the imagination of the children themselves
Asserted by: Paracelsus, as reported in the introductory essay to the 1941 ‘Four Treatises’ edition.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
Paracelsus was historically the first to differentiate the sexual components and the unconscious factors in the development of hysteria, doing so by direct observational assertion rather than by inference or philosophic speculation
Asserted by: the introductory essay in the 1941 edition of ‘Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
Paracelsus was not afraid to admit that he was observing a new aspect of a disease whenever he stumbled upon one, apparently unfettered by the established principles of the medical law and order of his day, and his whole approach to chorea illustrates this temerity and intellectual freedom
Asserted by: the introductory essay in the 1941 edition of ‘Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282 The source’s own wording: “apparently”.
It is a mystery when and how the thirty-year-old Paracelsus acquired his rich clinical experience in mental disease, though without such experience his descriptions would have been impossible to render
Asserted by: the introductory essay in the 1941 edition of ‘Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282 The source’s own wording: “It is puzzling because there is a mystery as to”.
Agrippa, a contemporary of Paracelsus who was particularly interested in the ‘witches’ and the ‘bewitched’, did not describe the various mental conditions with the clarity or detail that Paracelsus did
Asserted by: the introductory essay in the 1941 edition of ‘Four Treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’.
Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282
The disease of childhood known as St. Vitus’s dance has no connection, either etiologically or in its nature, with the dancing epidemics that Paracelsus named.
Asserted by: Horatio Charles Wood.
Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x]
Modern custom enforces the application of the name St. Vitus’s dance to the childhood disease, and that usage is followed in Wood’s book.
Asserted by: Horatio Charles Wood.
Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x]
Many German writers call the childhood affection ‘chorea minor’.
Asserted by: Horatio Charles Wood.
Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x] The source’s own wording: “by many german writers”.
The terms ‘chorea major’ and ‘chorea germanorum’ are used to denote affections resembling in their phenomena those of the epidemic furies of the Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Horatio Charles Wood.
Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x] The source’s own wording: “more or less closely resembling”.
The shrine of St. Vitus in Zabern was especially famous among the shrines visited by sufferers of the dancing mania.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The dancing mania became known as St. Vitus’s dance because the shrine of St. Vitus at Zabern was especially famous as a place of pilgrimage for relief.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The dancing disease received other names, such as St. John’s or St. Anthony’s dance, from other shrines.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
Dr. Felix Robertson described epidemic convulsions in Kentucky and Tennessee in 1805 in an ‘Essay on Chorea Sancti Viti’, his doctorate thesis at the University of Pennsylvania.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
Paracelsus made three divisions of the disorder, all of which referred to the dancing mania or to the hysterical form.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
Sydenham gave the name chorea to an affection which had nothing whatever to do with the Chorea Sancti Viti.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] The source’s own wording: “It was unfortunate, to say the least”.
The term chorea major now embraces both the dancing mania and the various forms of rhythmical or hysterical disorders of motion.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
Psychical impressions, emotional disturbances, and imitation play the most important role in chorea major, the form embracing the dancing mania.
Asserted by: William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The index to Sir William Osler’s 1894 treatise ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’ lists ‘Mania, dancing’ as discussed on page 4, and ‘St. Vitus’ dance’ as discussed on pages 1, 3 and 4, indicating that the work treats dancing mania and St. Vitus’ dance in connection with chorea.
Asserted by: Sir William Osler.
Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337]
The Daily Dispatch stated that it had collected its facts about the dancing mania from the Blackwood review of Hecker’s work.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
All nations and countries were, by 1854, exempt from the Black Death, the Sweating Sickness and the Dancing Mania, while smallpox, yellow fever and Asiatic cholera still thinned the human family.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Little is known about the Dancing Mania, in contrast to the Black Death, which Defoe, Boccaccio and a hundred other writers had made familiar.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The English doctors of 1787 were more scientific than the physicians of the fourteenth century, which is why the dancing epidemic was checked at once in Lancashire.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “happening to be”.
A few heavy galvanic charges drove all the imps of St. Vitus out of England, exorcising devils that had for half a century turned a deaf ear to the prayers of the Catholic clergy.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
During the middle ages the dance of St. Vitus ranked, because of its horrible ravages and general prevalence, with such scourges as the Black Death and the Sweating Sickness.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The existence of the dancing disease from a period of remote antiquity is hinted at by many writers.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “is hinted at by many writers”.
The sight of a victim of the dances dedicated to St. Vitus usually put all the spectators in motion.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “usually”.
Hundreds of dancers were everywhere to be seen foaming, yelling, screaming and dancing, as if they were possessed with the spirits of ten thousand lunatic dancing-masters.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “as if”.
Death was everywhere the master of ceremonies at the dancing epidemic’s quadrilles, polkas and waltzes, and he alone put an end to the performances in the large majority of instances.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In those superstitious days all regarded the epidemic with horror and the belief was universal that the sufferers were afflicted by devils and evil spirits.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The dancing epidemic was called the Dance of St. Vitus for no reason except that St. Vitus was appealed to and solicited to check the epidemic.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Dr. Hecker wrote that the dance of St. Vitus attacked people of all stations, especially those who led a sedentary life, such as shoemakers and tailors.
Asserted by: Dr. Hecker, quoted by The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “Dr. Hecker says”.
The dance of St. Vitus attacked people of all stations, especially those leading a sedentary life such as shoemakers and tailors.
Asserted by: Dr. Hecker.
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Music succeeded against the dancing epidemic because, whilst it increased the excitement, it hastened the crisis of the disease.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Prolonging a nervous disease as acute as the St. Vitus’ dance rendered it fatal.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Dr. Hecker, on the authority of Felix Platter, mentions a young woman who danced almost incessantly for the space of four weeks, broke down all the men commissioned to dance with her, and then recovered, although with very sore heels and toes.
Asserted by: Dr. Hecker, on the authority of Felix Platter, as reported by The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “upon the authority of one Felix Platter”.
Tarantism seized those who had been bitten, or who imagined they had been bitten, by spiders and scorpions.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In the Italian epidemic of Tarantism, dancing was the relief and not the cause of the pain and suffering.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Dr. Hecker wrote that cities and villages alike resounded throughout the summer season with the notes of fifes, clarinets and Turkish drums, and that patients were everywhere to be met with who looked to dancing as their only remedy.
Asserted by: Dr. Hecker, quoted by The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “Dr. Hecker says”.
Alexander ab Alexandro reported seeing a young man in a remote village seized with a violent attack of Tarantism, who listened with a fixed stare to the sound of a drum while his movements became more violent until his dancing turned into frantic leaps.
Asserted by: Alexander ab Alexandro, quoted by Dr. Hecker in The Daily Dispatch (Richmond).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “who gives this account”.
How much exaggeration is contained in such accounts of dancing mania can scarcely be determined.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “dürfte sich schwerlich feststellen lassen”.
Trithemius of Sponheim reported a case of dancing that occurred at Kölbigk near Bernburg.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “berichtet uns … in seiner Weise Folgendes”.
The now long-vanished proverb “Daß dich Sanct Veitstantz ankomme” derived from the curse of the priest at Kölbigk.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “führte sich wohl … zurück”.
The core of the Kölbigk story is obscured by additions whose purpose is evident.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
On 15 July 1237 more than a thousand children danced out of the gates of Erfurt and, still dancing and singing, appeared some days later before Arnstadt, from where their parents brought them back with difficulty.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “ist die folgende Nachricht geschichtlich beglaubigt … seien”.
An event like the dancing exodus of the children of Erfurt gave rise to the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “es wird vielfach für wahrscheinlich gehalten”.
On 17 June 1278, 200 persons danced on a bridge over the Moselle and refused to stop until a priest should carry the viaticum past to a sick man, but the bridge collapsed beforehand and all drowned in the Moselle.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “Ein anderer beglaubigter Vorfall”.
Descriptions from the sixteenth century, when dancing mania was already declining, testify loudly to its violence, with the milder form more frequent and the more violent form rare.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Lively music heightened the excitement of the dancing sufferers, which lies in the nature of the disease.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The colour red provoked the rage and frenzy of those afflicted with dancing mania.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Some sufferers were seized only once a year, feeling restlessness and unease throughout June before the feast of St. John and impatiently awaiting the eve in order to leap their mad circles before a St. John’s or St. Vitus altar.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “Manche würden auch nur alljährlich befallen”.
In 1628 there were still reports of women in Drefelhausen near Weißenstein in the territory of Ulm who went annually to St. Vitus chapels to await their dancing fits and then danced day and night to exhaustion.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “berichtet man noch”.
The dancing mania gradually disappeared as a result of the increasing enlightenment of minds.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The same period that produced the St. Vitus dance in Germany saw a very similar illness, so-called tarantism, appear in Italy, which reached its highest degree in the seventeenth century when the German affliction was already dying out and has not entirely vanished today.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
It was believed, and in part is still believed among the common people, that the bite of a poisonous spider called the tarantula, found especially around Taranto, produces a condition compelling the sufferer to feverish dancing.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen, The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), reporting an Italian attribution.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “Man glaubte und glaubt im niederen Volke zum Theil noch jetzt”.
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “it was attributed to”.
In the last half of the fourteenth century, while the St. Vitus dance was rife in Germany, it was observed that not only native Italians but also foreigners of all nations were afflicted in great numbers by tarantism.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “beobachtete man”.
Only music brought help, or at least relief, to those afflicted with tarantism, the remedy being a wild and increasingly fiery dance melody called the tarantella.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The Spanish national dance, the fandango, exerts on the dancer a mind-captivating effect similar to that of the St. Vitus dance and the tarantella.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
According to an eighteenth-century anecdote, a high tribunal disturbed by the fandango’s bewitching influence on people’s minds resolved to prosecute the dance judicially, and a sentence was about to be passed when one of the judges remarked that no accused may be condemned unheard.
Asserted by: Dr. Fr. Zurbonsen.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “die folgende, aus dem 18. Jahrhundert stammende Anekdote”.
In Italy the dancing disease was given the name Tarantism and was attributed there to the bite of a ground spider common in Apulia called the tarantula.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The dancing disease showed itself in violent and involuntary contractions of the muscles of the legs.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “it is said”.
Physicians of the period formed the idea that encouraging patients to dance until they fell down exhausted would begin a reaction that might promote a cure.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
Dancing until exhaustion produces a reaction in the patient by which a cure of the dancing disease may be promoted.
Asserted by: physicians of the time, as reported by The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “a cure might be promoted”.
The public exhibition of the dancers propagated the disorder over the whole of Germany through the sympathetic action of the nervous system, of the kind seen when laughing or yawning spreads through a company.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.), quoting an unnamed authority.
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “seems to have had the effect … doubtless through the power”.
The practice of swathing the dancers was resorted to on account of the tympany which followed their spasmodic ravings.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
The visions of the dancers reflected, strangely and variously, the religious notions of the age in their imaginations.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
An epidemic called the biting mania began with a nun in a German nunnery who showed a propensity to bite her companions, and it spread to many other nunneries.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “Mention is also made of”.
An epidemic called the mewing mania commenced with a sick nun in a French convent and became so infectious that all the nuns in that convent began mewing at a certain time of day for several hours together.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “Mention is also made of”.
The biting mania and the mewing mania both occurred in the fifteenth century, a period when nervous diseases appear to have been unusually prevalent in Europe.
Asserted by: The Daily Dispatch (Richmond, Va.).
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “appear to have been unusually prevalent”.
Saint Vitus’s Dance is the popular name for convulsive movements still occasionally seen, and must not be confounded with the medieval mania called the Dance of Saint John or Saint Vitus, although the two have some points of resemblance.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Within a few months the dancing disease spread rapidly into the Netherlands, and dancers appeared in cities of Belgium.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “Strange to say”.
A law was made that only square-toed shoes should be worn throughout the country, because the then-popular pointed toes were objects of dislike to the dancers.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “seeing that”.
The streets of Metz were at one time filled with eleven hundred people affected by the dancing mania.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “were said at one time te have been”.
The dancing plagues arose from the wild orgies with which the feast of St. John the Baptist was celebrated in medieval times.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “seem to have arisen”.
The religious and medical authorities of the medieval period were wholly unable to cope with the dancing plagues.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
The St. John’s Dancers did an immense amount of mischief in every town they visited.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “of course”.
The St. John’s Dancers found in St. Vitus a patron saint under whose protection they supposed themselves to be, and but for this it would have gone hard with them.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “they supposed themselves to be”.
People believed the dancers to be innocent victims of Beelzebub and to be possessed with devils, like the persons mentioned in the Bible.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “people believed”.
In Scotland, three men and four women supposed to be the authors of fits of leaping and dancing in a girl named Christian Shaw were tried and burnt at Paisley in June 1697, the jury ascribing the girl’s hysterical condition to witchcraft.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “the supposed authors”.
The dancing mania in Italy, called tarantism, was attributed to a different cause from St. Vitus’s Dance, namely the bite of the tarantula or ground spider, an insect common in the Italian provinces of Apulia.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “was supposed to arise from”.
The greatest authority on the subject believes that a nervous disorder, afterwards called tarantism, existed long before any connection between it and the spider was found out.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “the greatest authority on the subject believes”.
A nervous disorder, later named tarantism, existed long before any connection was made between it and the spider.
Asserted by: the greatest authority on the subject, as cited by Cassell’s Magazine.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “believes”.
The bites of scorpions and other venomous insects were said to have much the same effect as the tarantula’s, and people feared the tarantula so much that the sting often existed only in their imaginations.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “were said to have”.
Everyone believed, when tarantism first appeared, that the tarantula was the cause of it.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “Certainly every one believed”.
Music and dancing spread the tarantula’s poison over the whole body until it finally made its escape through the skin.
Asserted by: unnamed holders of the view, reported by Cassell’s Magazine.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “Some held that”.
Some people held that music and dancing spread the tarantula poison through the body until it escaped through the skin.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “Some held that”.
It was believed that any poison remaining in the body could at any time be roused into action by the music that had once been used to mitigate its evil effects.
Asserted by: Cassell’s Magazine, reprinted in the Portland Daily Press.
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 The source’s own wording: “they believed”.
The wild convulsive movements of the English sect calling itself the “peculiar people” resemble the dancing mania that broke out in Erfurt, Cologne and Strasbourg in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Asserted by: London correspondent of the “Deutsche Zeitung”, printed in the Täglicher Baltimore Wecker.
Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872 The source’s own wording: “erinnern vielmehr an”.
The ecstatic dancing of the English “peculiar people” is, at least for the great majority, mere deception, as was the case with the earlier dancing mania.
Asserted by: London correspondent of the “Deutsche Zeitung”, printed in the Täglicher Baltimore Wecker.
Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872 The source’s own wording: “So mag es auch … wenigstens bei der großen Mehrzahl sein”.
In 1373 crowds of men and women, young and old, gathered and danced together from one town, village or hamlet to another.
Asserted by: Cyriacus Spangenberg, quoted in ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
Some of the 1373 dancers danced from the Rhine and the Meuse as far as Flanders, and others from Antwerp through Hainaut as far as France.
Asserted by: Cyriacus Spangenberg, quoted in ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
Some people interpreted the 1373 dancing as showing that the dancers had not been properly baptised, or that their baptism was not valid, because they had received it from priests who lived shamelessly with unchaste whores in open concubinage.
Asserted by: Cyriacus Spangenberg, quoted in ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “das ward danach von etlichen also gedeutet”.
Following the interpretation that the 1373 dancers had been baptised by unworthy priests, the common people soon rose up and beat all the priests to death.
Asserted by: Cyriacus Spangenberg, quoted in ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
A great and remarkable dancing epidemic began in the year 1373 in Aachen.
Asserted by: ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
At Aachen people danced with their heads decorated with wreaths, giving each other their hands, in houses, in public squares and in churches, often for half days at a time, until they developed severe chest complaints, collapsed and cried out loudly that they must die.
Asserted by: ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368
Sufferers of the dancing sickness fell down unconscious, foam appeared at the mouth, and then they began their dance with uncanny contortions.
Asserted by: Petrus de Herentals, Trithemius and Bzovius, as cited in ‘Wiener Klinik’.
‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 The source’s own wording: “Die Leute seien … und dann hätten sie”.
In the epidemic dancing mania the nervous system of the afflicted was in a condition entirely similar to that found in hysteria.
Asserted by: G. Theodor Valentiner.
Valentiner, G. Theodor, 1820-1877, ‘Die Hysterie und ihre Heilung’, 1852, page 134 The source’s own wording: “versuchen werden nachzuweisen”.
The anaesthesia and analgesia found in hysterics according to recent investigations was also very probably present in those afflicted by the epidemic dancing mania, the Convulsionnaires, the Trembleurs des Cévennes and the Jumpers.
Asserted by: G. Theodor Valentiner.
Valentiner, G. Theodor, 1820-1877, ‘Die Hysterie und ihre Heilung’, 1852, page 134 The source’s own wording: “höchst wahrscheinlich”.
Tarantism, which spread epidemically in Apulia in the fourth century and the century following, was a disease distinct from chorea and arose from a kind of melancholic insanity.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40 The source’s own wording: “patet ex libro I. F. C. Heckeri”.
Bairo, chief physician to Charles II, Duke of Savoy, published in 1560 a short work entitled ‘saltuosa membrorum indispositio’.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
Bouteille, a Frenchman who closely followed Sydenham’s treatise, wrote a well-elaborated monograph on chorea in which the malady is first named ‘Chorée’.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
In all the writings on chorea St. Viti mentioned by Ochwadt, only the phenomena of the disease are enumerated, with no mention of its anatomico-pathological aspects, although very many hypotheses about its proximate cause and seat are found in them.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
Chorea is more a continuous or remitting disease than an intermittent one, seizing children of both sexes, chiefly the female sex, at the time of development, and manifesting itself in clonic movements.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
Chorea belongs among the spasmodic affections arising from excessive sensibility of the motor nerves and subsequent irritability of the muscles.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
In chorea the muscular system no longer obeys the command of the will, and the muscles of the sick contract and relax in turn against their will during the day until deepest sleep comes on, with emaciation increasing.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
The postures produced in chorea, in which the human body or its single parts present the most diverse figures to the onlooker, are not aptly compared with dancing gestures.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
In chorea the mental faculties are entirely intact, and only at a more advanced degree of the disease are they either exalted after the manner of sleepwalkers or disturbed as in the delirious.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
German physicians disagree with English physicians about chorea.
Asserted by: Alexander Ochwadt.
Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40
The St. John’s Dance and the St. Vitus’s Dance were performed in Germany during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by perambulating fanatics.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
The perambulating fanatics who performed the St. John’s Dance and the St. Vitus’s Dance resembled, in some respects, certain Revivalists of the nineteenth century.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “in some respects”.
The dancing practices gradually discontinued during the seventeenth century.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
Men and women afflicted with the dancing malady wandered in troops from town to town and danced to the sound of musical instruments in churches and streets.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
Music and dancing alone could effectively cure the dancing affliction.
Asserted by: authorities of some German towns, as reported by Carl Engel.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “were of opinion”.
Town authorities hired musicians in order to bring on the dancing-fits of the afflicted more rapidly.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
Town authorities ordered strong, healthy men to mix with the dancers in order to compel them to continue their violent exertions until they were exhausted.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249
Exhaustion of the dancer was a preliminary step to restoration to health.
Asserted by: town authorities, as reported by Carl Engel.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “a condition which was supposed to be”.
The magistrates of Basle engaged some strong men in the sixteenth century to dance with a girl afflicted with the dancing mania until she recovered.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “it is recorded”.
In the Basle case one man substituted another, and the cure was continued for about four weeks with scarcely any interruption, until the afflicted girl was exhausted and unable to stand on her legs.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “it is recorded”.
The girl afflicted with the dancing mania at Basle was carried to a hospital, where she completely regained her health.
Asserted by: Carl Engel, ‘Musical myths and facts’.
Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 The source’s own wording: “it is recorded”.
The designation chorea (St. Vitus’s dance) and the majority of its synonyms - St. Modesti dance, saltus viti, danse de St. Guy, St. Johannistanz, ballismus, choreomania, orchestromania, epilepsia saltatoria and others - originate from the Middle Ages.
Asserted by: Wilhelm Heinrich Erb.
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, ‘Handbuch der Krankheiten des Nervensystems II’, 1875 [text via Internet Archive: handbuchderkrank0012zwei]
The designation chorea and its synonyms originally applied only to the pandemic dancing mania (pandemische Tanzwuth).
Asserted by: Wilhelm Heinrich Erb.
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, ‘Handbuch der Krankheiten des Nervensystems II’, 1875 [text via Internet Archive: handbuchderkrank0012zwei]
The pandemic dancing mania, as a psychic epidemic occurring on a larger scale, appeared on the Rhine only after the plague had died out in the second half of the 14th century.
Asserted by: Wilhelm Heinrich Erb.
Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, ‘Handbuch der Krankheiten des Nervensystems II’, 1875 [text via Internet Archive: handbuchderkrank0012zwei] The source’s own wording: “nachweislich”.
Chorea’s name is ridiculous, its symptoms singular, its character equivocal, its cause unknown and its treatment problematic.
Asserted by: Bouteille, quoted by Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
Imagination plays a large role in chorea.
Asserted by: Cullen, as reported by Bouteille.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144 The source’s own wording: “semble incliner à penser”.
A very grave epidemic raged in the 14th century.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
The name ‘danse de Saint-Guy’, sometimes used to designate chorea, dates from a very grave epidemic of the 14th century.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
Guy (St Vitus) was a young Sicilian who shared the martyrdom of Modestus and Crescentia under Diocletian in 303.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
The body of Guy (St Vitus) was transferred first to Saint-Denis and then to Corvey.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144 The source’s own wording: “on assure que”.
From the time of his martyrdom onwards Guy (St Vitus) was venerated as a powerful protector.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
A chapel dedicated to Saint Guy (Saint Weitt) was built in a village near Ulm in Swabia.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
The inhabitants of the region around Ulm had the devotion of going in crowds each year, in the month of May, to the chapel dedicated to Saint Guy to implore the saint’s intercession.
Asserted by: Eugène Moynier.
Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144
Saint Vitus and his two companions were thrown into a dungeon and then delivered to the beasts of the circus, but the lions licked their feet instead of tearing them.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
The emperor ordered Saint Vitus and his two companions to be stretched out on a burning grill.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
A lady named Florentia collected the bones of Saint Vitus and his companions and preserved them embalmed.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
The relics of Saint Vitus remained in the abbey of Saint-Denis until the year 826.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Under the reign of Louis the Debonair the relics of Saint Vitus were transferred with great pomp to Corbie in Saxony.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
At Corbie in Saxony the relics of Saint Vitus performed numerous miracles and effected a great many cures.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396 The source’s own wording: “doivent avoir”.
The list of sick people said to have been miraculously cured by the relics of Saint Vitus contains many paralytics, blind, deaf and mute persons.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
The disease was named the dance of Saint Guy because Saint Vitus had himself suffered from it.
Asserted by: David Didier Roth, unnamed authors cited by David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Saint Vitus was invoked in connection with the dancing disease because he was regarded as the cause of that disease.
Asserted by: unnamed authors cited by David Didier Roth.
Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396
Astrology (‘Astronomey’) provides the means of recognising diseases such as the senseless dance called St. Vitus’s dance.
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
The dancing sickness (‘Tanzsucht’ or ‘Tanzwut’) had been spread endemically and epidemically since the 14th century over parts of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands under various names, among them St. Vitus’s dance.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
The dancing sickness had already occurred sporadically and to a small extent as early as the 11th century.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
The dancing sickness had long given rise to a number of descriptions in annals and chronicles.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
The dancing sickness had never been observed by physicians nor introduced into the medical literature before Paracelsus.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
The dancing sickness remains, in its manifestations and its causes, still very obscure to the historian.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus had come to know the older, long-extinct forms of the dancing sickness, and probably other similar and confused diseases, from his own observation.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “wahrscheinlich”.
Paracelsus indicated the individual manifestations of the dancing sickness only superficially and in their coarsest features.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus wrote that the dance of this disease is an alteration of the reason, because joy gains the upper hand and alters all other qualities, memory being not poisoned but suppressed.
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus’s chapter on the subject is headed ‘Von Sanct Veits Tantz vnd die jhme gleichen’, showing that he did not intend to describe a single disease.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “erhellt schon aus”.
Paracelsus’s remaining accounts of the pathology and therapy of the dancing sickness move entirely within the conventions and theories of his time.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus stripped St. Vitus’s dance and similar conditions of the then-prevailing demonic and religious superstition and placed them in ‘natural’ pathology.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
St. Vitus’s dance has a natural origin rather than a divine or demonic one.
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Chorea St. Viti is caused by a natural direct or indirect disease of the brain.
Asserted by: Paracelsus.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
When Paracelsus wrote in his ‘Defensiones’ of ‘false diseases arising through sorcery’ he meant diseases falsely attributed to sorcery, that is, his own natural mental illnesses.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “offenbar … wollte dort offenbar sagen”.
Paracelsus deserves credit for being the first to bring the group of diseases including St. Vitus’s dance to discussion among physicians, albeit in an inadequate presentation.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus contributed to psychiatry and neurology the first knowledge of St. Vitus’ dance (Veitstanz) and of cretinism with its relation to goitre.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
Paracelsus’s descriptions of St. Vitus’ dance and cretinism are very deficient, though their features remain recognisable.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “zwar sehr mangelhaft, aber in ihren Zügen doch erkennbar”.
Historians of psychiatry have left Paracelsus’s psychiatry unregarded, as they have his dermatology and his work on lithiasis.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] The source’s own wording: “darf ich dasselbe Ignorieren … behaupten”.
Paracelsus deserves a place of honour in the history of psychiatry for his principle that the insane are sick people and our brothers and should be treated accordingly.
Asserted by: Johann Karl Proksch.
Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940]
What we do not repeat, and why
Widely told, with nothing behind it that we could find. We cannot disprove any of this and do not claim to - we simply will not present it as fact.
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing and did not stop.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Wright, Jennifer Ashley, 1986- author, ‘Get well soon : history’s worst plagues and the heroes who fought them’, 2017, page 346
‘Ahadada Reader 3 : four poets’, 2010, page 172
In summer heat, a dancing plague spread so that first three dozen, then a hundred people were dancing in the streets.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jessie Greengrass, ‘Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It: A John Murray Original’, 2017, page 198
Little had been yielded by the earth at the time the dancing began.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jessie Greengrass, ‘Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It: A John Murray Original’, 2017, page 198
Frau Troffea was the first person to dance in the dancing plague.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Granier, Mark, author, ‘Ghostlight : new & selected poems’, 2017, page 142
Frau Troffea danced for four days.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Granier, Mark, author, ‘Ghostlight : new & selected poems’, 2017, page 142
A painting titled ‘Frau Troffea’, dated 2009 and made in oil on canvas, is listed in the John Moores painting prize 2010 catalogue in association with the name Andy Harper.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
‘John Moores painting prize : 2010’, 2010, page 166
German peasants customarily celebrated the festival of St. John’s day with wild dances and revels.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
The Black Death swept away 25,000,000 of the people of Europe.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Sufferers of the dancing mania sprang to their feet, formed circles hand in hand, and danced and leaped for hours in wild delirium.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 The source’s own wording: “appearing tu have fost all contra! over their sanses”.
During the dancing paroxysm sufferers had visions of angels and demons and shrieked out messages from these spirits to terrified bystanders.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
A very common vision among dancing mania sufferers was of the heavens opened and a great white throne upon which sat Christ and the Virgin Mary.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
Many victims of the dancing mania became so frenzied that they dashed out their brains against stone walls, rushed over steep cliffs, or sprang headlong into rivers.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass]
The Dancing Plague of 1518 is counted among historical events that remain unexplained.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Coxhead & Nation, ‘Reading for the Academic World 2’, 2017, page 118
A dancing plague occurred in 1518 and people fell victim to it
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Merrell, Patrick, ‘Uncle John’s iFlush plunging into mystery bathroom reader for kids only!’, 2014, page 106
Achor, Shawn, ‘Before happiness : the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change’, 2013, page 282
Voorhees, Don, ‘The extraordinary book of useless information : the most fascinating facts that don’t really matter’, 2013, page 262
In the German Middle Ages the terms “Veitstanz” (St. Vitus’ dance) and “Johannistanz” (St. John’s dance) denoted the dancing mania of excited crowds.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
In later times all nervous, cramp-like fidgeting, shaking and twitching was lumped together as a single disease called “Veitstanz”, until in the modern era medical science made finer distinctions.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
At the beginning of the nineteenth century a German “great” St Vitus’ dance (Chorea major) was distinguished from the English “small” one (Chorea minor).
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
Chorea minor, the “small” St Vitus’ dance, also called Sydenham’s disease after its discoverer, an English physician, has persisted to the present day as a recognised independent nervous disorder.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
A disease called Veitstanz / Tanzwut was already known under that name in the 14th century.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
To cure the dancing mania (Tanzwut) people made pilgrimage to the Veitskapelle near Ulm.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
In the 1374 Aachen outbreak men and women were suddenly seized by the hundreds and performed wild dances in the streets and in churches, leaping, screaming and foaming, until they collapsed totally exhausted in a wild frenzy.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Processions, masses and church singing were organised to banish the dancing mania, but did not succeed; on the contrary it spread further.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
In the year 1375 the dancing mania appeared particularly strongly in Cologne on the Rhine and in Metz.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Country people left the plough, craftsmen their workshops and housewives their families in order to join those seized by the dancing mania.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 3 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Many of the dancers moved away into other regions and thereby spread the epidemic ever further.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
In the Strasbourg outbreak the dancers - men, women and children - moved through the streets accompanied by musicians, presenting everywhere a gruesome picture of human derangement.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
In Strasbourg the city council in particular sought to bring about a mitigation of the excesses.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
In Strasbourg a large number of those seized by the dancing mania were each assigned an overseer who had to lead them to consecrated places in order to cure them of their sickness.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
Hardly any decrease in the dancing mania was noticeable until well into the 15th century, and it only abated in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 The source’s own wording: “kaum”.
Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3
The Hessische Vereinigung für Volkskunde held a lecture evening on the theme “Die Tanzwut in Deutschland” in the hall of the Hotel Metropol in Gießen on the evening of 8 December 1913.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The great Strasbourg dancing-mania epidemic broke out in 1518.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 The source’s own wording: “sieht mit Sicherheit fest”.
Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872
Eight days before St. Mary Magdalene’s day a woman was the first to begin dancing day and night.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
After some weeks there were already 200 people afflicted with the dancing mania in Strasbourg.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The city council of Strasbourg finally forbade all music.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The sick were driven to St. Veit and led around the altar there.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
St. Veit is located near Zabern.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Dr. Martin described the journey to St. Veit and the treatment of the sick there, and showed several pictures illustrating the dancing mania.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The council of Strasbourg finally resolved to give the sick the opportunity to dance until they danced themselves to death.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The guild halls were placed at the disposal of the afflicted in Strasbourg, music was provided, and strong men danced in turns with the sick until the sick were exhausted.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Physicians prescribed contrivances in which the sick were spun and swung until they fell down unconscious.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
In the 15th and 16th centuries anyone who cursed another person with the St. Vitus’s dance was punished.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
When the disease arose again, the sick were sent to arbitrary saints, because St. Vitus alone was no longer credited with healing power.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The city of Basel applied similar methods of healing to those used in Strasbourg.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
It became established practice to dance on St. Vitus’s day so as to remain spared from the disease throughout the year.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The church provided the dance music on St. Vitus’s day.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
Similar customs against the tarantella dance were found in Italy.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The St. Vitus dancers in Zurich went to the Wasserkirche and danced there.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
In Flanders the same belief prevailed in combating the dancing mania as in Strasbourg.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The Echternach jumping procession was introduced by Bishop Willibrord.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
The lecture was illustrated with a number of pictures from the periods discussed.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2
During the 1347 outbreak along the Rhine and Moselle, countless people suddenly began to dance and fell ever more hastily into a dance-like frenzy, with everyone in the vicinity becoming infected and whirling together on a wide dancing ground for half a day, until one dancer after another collapsed exhausted.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
In the 1347 outbreak the dancers who remained standing danced on unconcerned as to whether the exhausted were trampled underfoot.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
Women and young girls suffered especially badly from dancing mania, many losing their reason and their control over themselves and letting everything happen to them.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
A Swiss woman at Basel fell into dancing mania so completely that she could not obtain enough dancing partners.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 The source’s own wording: “So erzählt man”.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
In the case of the dancing Swiss woman at Basel, the city fathers finally concerned themselves with the strange case and summoned several strong men to dance with the frenzied woman in turns.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
The dancing Swiss woman at Basel wore out not only several pairs of shoes but also the soles of her own feet.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
The dancing Swiss woman at Basel occasionally had to eat something and sleep a little, but during her rest her body kept hopping continuously.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
The men who danced with the afflicted Swiss woman at Basel were given a costume of their own: red coats and hats with white feathers.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
The dancing Swiss woman at Basel was finally brought to a hospital, refreshed and nursed, and could later be discharged as cured.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4
After the Black Death the flagellants appeared first, seeking in self-scourging to calm minds tormented by the terrible experiences.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
After the Black Death the great persecutions of Jews began, because Jews were believed to be the originators of the plague and were accused of poisoning wells.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
In a year printed as 1734, crowds of men and women were suddenly seen in Aachen dancing hand in hand through the streets for hours until they sank exhausted to the ground.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The dancing phenomenon spread rapidly over the whole of Germany and to the Netherlands, and later appeared in other European countries, especially Italy.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Music was soon played to the dancing sick to give them relief; it raised their dance to frenzy but freed them from the attack by sinking them into complete unconsciousness, a release that often lasted for months.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The colour red often caused particular excitement and particular delight in those afflicted by the dancing mania.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Those possessed by tarantism in Italy fell into ecstatic frenzy at the sight of the colour red, threw themselves on the coloured object, kissed and caressed it.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The Veitstänzer (St Vitus dancers) in Germany were an exception, on whom red acted as an irritant in the opposite sense.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
Tarantism in Italy was a particular variety of the dancing mania, its name derived from the spider called the tarantula, whose bite produced an illness expressing itself in dancing mania.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
The dancing mania was a great popular disease of the Middle Ages that needed more than two centuries to die out.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
A journeyman turner calling himself Muck-Lamberty, described by his followers as the Messiah of Leuchtenburg, included a call to play and dance among the commandments of a new religion he proclaimed.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
A true dance epidemic spread in central Germany following Muck-Lamberty’s preaching, so that factories and even schools had to be temporarily closed.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
A growing appetite for dancing is observable in the large cities, exceeding the time hitherto devoted to that amusement and seizing above all circles previously indifferent to dance, chiefly intellectual workers and others whose occupation forced them to sit continuously.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9
In the North American outbreak of dancing mania the affliction seizes for the most part women and young girls.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
A total of 428 cases have been established in which men were seized by the dancing mania in North America, some of whom succumbed to it.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
The North American dancing-mania epidemic took its starting point in the city of Minnesota, long known as very fond of dancing.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
During the past carnival season the number of balls and dance events in that city increased so much that on some evenings nobody remained at home.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
Two young girls in Minnesota rose in the morning feeling an unaccustomed heaviness in the limbs, reported feverish heat, had dry lips, strikingly shining eyes and an unceasing inexplicable restlessness.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
The restlessness of the two afflicted Minnesota girls increased as the day went on, peaked towards evening and discharged itself in an outbreak of irrepressible desire to dance.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
The two afflicted girls hurried to the nearest dance floor, danced through the whole night without resting a second, continued dancing together in the morning after the hall had emptied, and began dancing in the street when people tried to fetch them home.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
Remonstrations and admonitions had no effect on the two afflicted girls, who were in a convulsive, half-unconscious and avowedly irresponsible state.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
The two afflicted girls finally had to be forcibly bound and put into straitjackets, whereupon they suffered fits of raving madness and died within 48 hours.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
Three days after the first two cases, six new cases of dancing mania were confirmed in Minnesota, soon followed by twelve more, and a few weeks later the outbreak could be established in neighbouring places as well.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
From its point of origin the dancing mania spread extremely rapidly over a wide territory and 1378 cases have been reported in total.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10
Shortly after the Black Death had claimed millions of victims towards the end of the 14th century, great crowds of pilgrims of both sexes entered Aachen on the Rhine and behaved there in a way that seemed strange and inexplicable to everyone.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
An ancient custom spread throughout Asia and Europe was to gather on 24 June, St John’s Day, to dance around the so-called Notfyr (need-fire), a practice that often degenerated into outright frenzy.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The Johannistänzer wore garlands on their heads and were adorned with coloured cloths, and danced with bacchantic delight in houses, in courtyards and in public squares, and especially at the consecrated places of churches and chapels, untouched by everything going on around them.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Persons of every age, old people and children, were infected by the dancing epidemic, and it claimed victims in all circles of society, rich and poor, high and low, though the poorer population was more affected.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Those who were not tied to house and farm moved in mad frenzy from place to place, where new victims joined them; children left their parents and heads of families left their dependants to misery in order to join the mad activity.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Terrible floods in the Main and Rhine lands plunged thousands of families into misery at the beginning of the year 1374.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Under the unsteady rule of Charles IV an almost unbelievable insecurity in traffic and commerce arose, the most terrible period of lawlessness that ever prevailed in Germany.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Over a period of nearly a year this diseased fanaticism extended over the whole of the Netherlands and Belgium, threatening property, morals, religion and family.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Priests preached in vain against the dancing sickness and physicians applied their remedies without benefit.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
In Alsace the dancing phenomenon was named St. Veitstanz (St Vitus’s dance) after Saint Vitus.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 4 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
‘Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence : from ancient times to the present’, 2008, page 554
‘Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence : from ancient times to the present’, 2001, page 468
Saint Vitus was the patron saint against all demonic illnesses, including rabies.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Very significant physicians of the Middle Ages, such as Paracelsus and Johann Schenk von Grafenberg, devoted their full scientific attention to the dancing sickness.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
It lasted into the 17th century before the dancing sickness completely came to an end.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The chapels of Saint Vitus fell into ash and dust and had to give way to the new spirit of the age, and with them the manifestations of the dancing sickness disappeared, nothing more having been heard of them in modern times.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The dancing mania frequently terrified many people over more than two centuries.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Music bands accompanied the dancers at Aachen, their rushing tunes gradually took a slower beat and moved from high to low tones, and with the sound of the music the fury of the dancers subsided.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
An unusual procession, the ‘Springprozession’ (jumping procession), takes place each year in Echternach, a small Luxembourg town close to the Prussian border, on the Tuesday after Trinity Sunday.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2
Many thousands of people take part in the Echternach jumping procession.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2
In the Echternach jumping procession all participants are linked to one another by cloths they hold, and move, accompanied by clergy and music, from the procession meadow outside the town to the parish church and around the altar there, where each lays down an offering.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2
The Echternach procession advances by taking three steps forward and jumping two steps back.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2
The dance around the need-fire was later called the Johannistanz, and the dancing enthusiasts at Aachen were called Johannistänzer.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The Johannistänzer possessed by the madness were also afflicted with all sorts of visions and delusions.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Persons of every age were struck by the strange mania, but the poorer population was affected more than others.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The celebration of the feast of St. John in June 1374 was the outbreak of a mass despair that spread from its place of outbreak over wide stretches of land.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
Women afflicted with the dancing sickness made an annual pilgrimage to a chapel of St. Vitus at Drevelhausen near Weißenstein in the Ulm territory, where on St. Vitus’s day they raged like madwomen around the altar to music by day and night until they fell powerless to the ground.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2
The dancing and jumping mania manifested itself often in terrible ways at various times and in various regions.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
There were dancers at Kolbek (Kolbig) in the year 1021.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
The Aachen dance-procession of 1374 spread throughout the whole Netherlands.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb]
The March 1854 number of Blackwood’s magazine carried a long review of Dr. Hecker’s work on ‘The Epidemics of the Middle Ages’.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The dance of St. Vitus had by 1854 long ceased to be a dangerous or alarming disease, occasional instances still occurring but yielding readily to the skill of nineteenth-century physicians.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In the fourteenth century, when the physician was still an astrologer, necromancer, charlatan and alchemist, the dance of St. Vitus was a dangerous and widespread epidemic that defied the prayers of the priest and the skill of the quack.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In 1787 a servant girl in Lancashire, England, put a mouse in the bosom of another girl who had a great dread of such creatures, and the fright threw the second girl into convulsions in which she exhibited all the phenomena of the dancing epidemic for twenty-four hours.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
After the 1787 Lancashire incident other females were speedily seized with the dancing affliction, the circle of dancers enlarging from three or four to six, then twenty-four, and then threatening the whole neighbourhood.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The victims of the 1787 Lancashire outbreak could scarcely be restrained from tearing their hair and dashing their brains out against the walls and floor.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Dr. St. Clair, after all other remedies had failed, took a portable galvanic battery to Lancashire and checked the dancing epidemic at once by a series of strong electric shocks.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
A disease very similar to the St. Vitus’ Dance prevailed first in Italy and elsewhere in the south of Europe, but was not so horrible a scourge there as in northern Europe.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Cases of the dancing disease occurred in early times in Great Britain, but it soon went out of England.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The dancing epidemic seized upon the Germans and the Dutch and made those naturally inert and phlegmatic people perform the wildest and most horrible dances, prompting people of great girth to gymnastic feats never since witnessed on the tight rope.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The dancing epidemic in Germany spread like fire in a prairie, extended all over Germany and put all the surrounding countries in motion.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In 1374 multitudes of people afflicted by the dancing epidemic were assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle, perfectly insane, dancing in the streets, churches, hotels, shops and private houses.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
While dancing, the afflicted at Aix-la-Chapelle neither saw nor heard and were insensible of all external impressions, but believed they were haunted by spirits whose names they shrieked out during their paroxysms.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 2 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
Relics, holy water, prayers and processions were employed in vain by the clergy to expel the dancing affliction, and the sufferers were formally exorcised by Catholic priests in Monastic Latin without effect.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In the city of Cologne there were five hundred maniacs dancing in the streets at once.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
In Metz eleven hundred men, women and children literally danced themselves to death with vast celerity.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The physicians of the fourteenth century lent no assistance and, being unable to cure the victims of the dancing epidemic, handed them over to the priesthood, whose appropriate duty it was to expel devils; no emetics sufficiently strong were then known to the faculty.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
After the prayers and exorcisms of the priesthood failed to check the dancing epidemic, music was employed with great success.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Musicians were hired by the magistrates for the purpose of carrying the dancers the more rapidly through their attacks, and strong men were sent to the patients to put them through the dancing with extra energy.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
A young woman danced almost incessantly for four weeks, exhausted all the men commissioned to dance with her, and recovered with very sore heels and toes.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The flute and the cithern alone afforded relief to sufferers of Tarantism, who, excited by music, forgot their real and imaginary sufferings in the delirium of their wild dances.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Bands of musicians made it their business to march over Italy from province to province and town to town for the purpose of curing Tarantism.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
When the music suddenly ceased in the midst of his exertion, the young man seen by Alexander ab Alexandro fell powerless to the ground and lay senseless and motionless until the music’s magical effect again aroused him to a renewal of his impassioned performances.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
Persons afflicted by the St. Vitus’ dance abhorred any garment of the colour red, whilst those attacked with Tarantism were particularly attracted to that colour.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The victims of Tarantism were invariably fond of the sea, and some actually cast themselves into the waves, so great was the fascination.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The Italian epidemic of Tarantism continued for nearly a century and then disappeared.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854
The city council of Basel officially engaged several strong men who had to dance with the afflicted girl in turns.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The dancing illness of the young girl in Basel lasted about a month, almost uninterrupted, day and night, during which she ate very little and her body twitched as though moved by cramps whenever brief sleep overcame her.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
In the year 1201, while a priest named Rupertus was beginning the first mass on Christmas night in the church of the holy martyr Magnus, a layman named Otbertus with fifteen men and three women began a dance in the adjoining churchyard and sang worldly songs, disturbing the priest.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
When the dancers in the churchyard ignored the sexton’s order to be silent, the priest cried out at the altar that God grant they must dance a whole year in that way.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The dancers of Kölbigk danced a whole year day and night without ceasing, neither ate nor drank nor slept, felt neither warmth nor cold, were never tired, were untouched by rain, and their clothes and shoes did not wear out.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
A man who seized his sister to pull her out of the dance at Kölbigk tore her arm from her body, yet she showed no pain, made no sound, shed no drop of blood and danced on.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The six-hundredth anniversary of the Pied Piper of Hamelin’s exodus of the children was celebrated with great splendour in the old town on the Weser in 1893.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Sufferers of dancing mania could only be subdued by surrounding the raving with tables and chairs, forcing them into high leaps until they sank to the ground in utter exhaustion.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Magistrates often hired musicians who had to play for the dancing so that the attacks would pass more quickly.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Prohibitions had to be issued against the public wearing of red-coloured clothing because such clothing provoked the rage and frenzy of the sick, as Westphalian chroniclers also report.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
The dancing illness gradually receded, and at least the wanderings of sufferers from town to town no longer occurred.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Among the chapels of St. Vitus two were especially frequented, one in Wasenweiler and the other in Bienen near Breisach.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Once sufferers had satisfied the demands of their diseased nature in a three-hour dance, they remained unafflicted for the rest of the year.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893
Bands of music were provided and airs were composed to suit the wild dancing of those afflicted with the dancing mania.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
After collapsing, the dancers at Aix-la-Chapelle complained of extreme oppression and groaned as if in the agonies of death until they were swathed in cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they recovered and remained free from the complaint until the next attack.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
Bystanders frequently relieved the dancing patients in a less artificial manner, by thumping and trampling upon the parts affected.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855
Records of the dancing mania exist in Abyssinia, where it is named the tigretier after the Tigre, the country in which it most commonly occurs.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
As early as the latter part of the fourteenth century large numbers of men and women in Germany, in places of worship and in the streets, behaved as if possessed by devils, danced in circles for hours, leaped high into the air with wild gestures and contortions, and after raving for some time fell to the ground completely exhausted.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Everything the wisdom of the age could suggest was done to stop the dancers, but in vain, and the priests tried exorcisms.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
The dancers hated and shunned certain colours, and the sight of anything red was enough to throw them into renewed convulsions.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Many stories of dancing plagues were current in medieval times even before the Saint John’s Dance broke out in Aix-la-Chapelle.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
A mad rage for dancing was manifested at various periods by large bodies of men, and children who caught the contagion in youth were afflicted with an incurable tremor for the rest of their lives.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Music of a rude kind always accompanied troops of St. John’s Dancers and served by turns to excite and to soothe them.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
The dancers fared better in Germany than in other countries, where those possessed and the people charged with being the authors of the demonical possession were often persecuted with cruelty by men who believed such persecution fulfilled a religious duty.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
The most extraordinary symptoms of tarantism were an irresistible desire to dance and a wonderful susceptibility to musical sounds.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
Various pieces of music called tarantellas were written, and composers still designate light and sparkling musical pieces as tarantellas in memory of the spider.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868
George C. Kohn’s ‘Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence’ links a condition it calls St. Vitus’s Dance to a separate entry titled ‘Strasbourg dancing mania’ by means of a cross-reference.
- no source close to the events states it in these terms
- it is asserted as fact by 1 later retelling(s), none of which cites anything earlier
George C. Kohn, ‘Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence’, 2001, page 474
Speculation, clearly labelled
Offered as speculation and nothing more.
The overseers placed over the Strasbourg dancers may also have been intended to restrain the coarseness among them.
Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450 The source’s own wording: “vielleicht auch”.
Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454 The source’s own wording: “vielleicht auch”.
Many of the Strasbourg dancers recovered from their delusion through devotion and the holiness of the place of pilgrimage.
Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] The source’s own wording: “viele mögen … genesen sein”.
St. Vitus hearkened not unto the prayers of his petitioners and is suspected of having been at the bottom of the dancing epidemic himself.
The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 The source’s own wording: “is suspected of”.
The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin may be traced back to an outbreak of the movement that in the thirteenth century drove thousands of children from home to free the Holy Sepulchre, an undertaking in which dance seems often to have accompanied the pilgrim children’s songs.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “Oder mag sich dieselbe zurückführen auf … scheint zu … sich gesellt zu haben”.
The St. Vitus dances on German soil may once have resembled the Italian tarantella, though without the glow of the southern sky.
Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 The source’s own wording: “So etwa mögen einst … gewesen sein”.
What we looked for and did not find
Recorded because a search that comes back empty is a finding, and an expensive one. It is also the difference between having looked and saying so.
3 record series were named as likely holdings and searched without result:
- Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin, série G, chapelle Saint-Vit de Saverne
- Stadtrechnungen Straßburg 1518 Almosenherren Rechnungen
A further 1 results matched our search terms and turned out to be about something else entirely — the hazard of searching archives by keyword rather than by meaning.
Where this came from
Every source below was located by searching the archives directly. Where a scan is public, the link goes to the page itself rather than to a catalogue entry about it.
Contemporary and first-hand
- Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Werke’, 1965, page 554 — scan
- Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Werke’, 1965, page 554 — scan
- Paracelsus, 1493-1541, ‘Four treatises of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus’, 1941, page 282 — scan
Scholarship
- Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832, page 106 — scan
- Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 450 — scan
- Trillat, Etienne, 1919-, ‘Histoire de l’hystérie’, 1986, page 302 — scan
- Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] — scan
- Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter : nach den Quellen für Aerzte und gebildete Nichtärzte bearbeitet’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: b30797160] — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck] — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: diegrossenvolksk00heck] — scan
- Waller, John, 1972- author, ‘The dancing plague : the strange, true story of an extraordinary illness’, 2009, page 294 — scan
- Wetherell, Margaret, 1954-, ‘Affect and emotion : a new social science understanding’, 2012, page 198 — scan
- Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850, ‘The dancing mania of the Middle Ages’, n.d., page 74 — scan
- Daumer, Georg Friedrich, ‘Die Geheimnisse des christlichen Alterthums’, 1847, page 312 — scan
- Zilboorg, Gregory, 1890-1959, ‘The medical man and the witch during the Renaissance’, 1969, page 250 — scan
- Johannes Baptista Friedreich, ‘Systematische Literatur der ärztlichen und gerichtlichen Psychologie, von J.b. Friedreich’, 1833, page 476 — scan
- Veith, Ilza. cn, ‘Hysteria: the history of a disease’, 1965, page 334 — scan
- Veith, Ilza, ‘Hysteria : the history of a disease’, 1965, page 338 — scan
- ilza veith, ‘hysteria the history of a disease’, 1966, page 338 — scan
- George Sarton, ‘Six Wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance’, 1957, page 354 — scan
- Sarton, George, 1884-1956, ‘Six wings: men of science in the Renaissance’, 1957, page 354 — scan
- george sarton, ‘six wings’, 1957, page 352 — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ] — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl HECKER, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters. Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen. … Gesammelt und in erweiterter Bearbeitung herausgegeben von A. Hirsch’, 1865 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_wCoJAAAAIAAJ] — scan
- William Menzies Alexander, ‘Demonic Possession in the New Testament: Its Relations Historical, Medical, and Theological’, Edinburgh : [s.n.], 1902 [text via Internet Archive: demonicpossessio00alex] — scan
- Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Manuscript. Ms. germ. qu. 1409, ‘Das Königsteiner Liederbuch. : Ms. germ. qu. 719 Berlin’, 1970, page 438 — scan
- Flögel, Karl Friedrich, 1729-1788, ‘Floegels Geschichte des Grotesk-Komischen’, 1887, page 590 — scan
- Boehn, Max von, 1860-1932, ‘Der Tanz’, n.d., page 342 — scan
- Schikowski, John, 1867-, ‘Geschichte des Tanzes’, 1926, page 228 — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, August Hirsch, ‘Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters: Historisch-pathologische Untersuchungen’, 1865, page 454 — scan
- Kirchhoff, Theodor, 1853-1922, ‘Grundriss einer Geschichte der deutschen Irrenpflege’, 1890, page 214 — scan
- Friedlaender, Ludwig Hermann, 1790-1851, ‘Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Heilkunde’, 1839, page 510 — scan
- Literarische Zeitung, (Berlin), 1844-06-15, p. 7 — scan
- Leipziger Literaturzeitung, (Leipzig), 1829-04-08, p. 2 — scan
- Georg Mayer, ‘Ueber den Veitstanz’, inaugural dissertation, Medical Faculty, Berlin, 1870 [text via Internet Archive: IA40153524_0145] — scan
- Heinrich Haeser, ‘Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten v. 3, 1882’, 1882 [text via Internet Archive: lehrbuchdergesc02haesgoog] — scan
- Landon Carter Gray, ‘A Treatise on Nervous and Mental Diseases: For Students and Practitioners of Medicine’, 1893 [text via Internet Archive: treatiseonnervou00gray] — scan
- Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334 — scan
- Dixon, Laurinda S, ‘Perilous chastity : women and illness in pre-Enlightenment art and medicine’, 1995, page 334 — scan
- c. lilian temkin, george rosen, gregory zilboorg, and henry e. sigerist, ‘four treatises of theophrastus von hohenheim called paracelsus’, 1941, page 284 — scan
- Horatio Charles Wood, ‘Nervous diseases and their diagnosis’, 1887 [text via Internet Archive: b2127387x] — scan
- Sir William Osler, ‘On Chorea and Choreiform Affections’, 1894 [text via Internet Archive: b21950337] — scan
- Haeser, Heinrich, 1811-1884, ‘Historisch-pathologische untersuchungen als beiträge zur Geschichte der Volkskrankheiten’, n.d., page 360 — scan
- ‘Wiener Klinik’, 1897, page 368 — scan
- Valentiner, G. Theodor, 1820-1877, ‘Die Hysterie und ihre Heilung’, 1852, page 134 — scan
- Ochwadt, Alexander, 1813-, ‘De chorea St. Viti nonnulla, adjecta morbi historia : dissertatio inauguralis medica …’, 1837, page 40 — scan
- Leighton, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1908-2007, ‘Explorations in social psychiatry’, 1957, page 474 — scan
- Engel, Carl, 1818-1882, ‘Musical myths and facts’, 1876, page 249 — scan
- Studiengruppe zur Erforschung und Edition Historischer Volksmusikquellen, ‘Historische Volksmusikforschung : KongressBericht Seggau 1977 : Referate d. 5. Sitzung der Studiengruppe zur Erforschung und Edition historischer Volksmusikquellen’, 1978, page 256 — scan
- Ginneken, Jaap van, 1943-, ‘Crowds, psychology, and politics, 1871-1899’, 1992, page 298 — scan
- Joel Hecker, ‘Die tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: 10472357bsb] — scan
- Justus Friedrich Karl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_W30_AAAAcAAJ] — scan
- Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth: eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter : nach den Quellen für Aerzte und gebildete Nichtärzte bearbeitet’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: 10472357bsb] — scan
- Justus F. C. Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_W30_AAAAcAAJ] — scan
- Justus Friedrich Carl Hecker, ‘Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter’, 1832 [text via Internet Archive: bub_gb_W30_AAAAcAAJ] — scan
- Wilhelm Heinrich Erb, ‘Handbuch der Krankheiten des Nervensystems II’, 1875 [text via Internet Archive: handbuchderkrank0012zwei] — scan
- Moynier, Eugène, ‘De la chorée : thèse pour le doctorat en médecine, présentée et soutenue le 31 janvier 1855’, 1855, page 144 — scan
- Roth, David Didier, b. 1800, ‘Histoire de la musculation irrésistible, ou, De la chorée anormale’, 1850, page 396 — scan
- Johann Karl Proksch, ‘Paracelsus als medizinischer Schriftsteller: Eine Studie’, 1911 [text via Internet Archive: b24879940] — scan
Later retellings
- Wright, Jennifer Ashley, 1986- author, ‘Get well soon : history’s worst plagues and the heroes who fought them’, 2017, page 346 — scan
- ‘Ahadada Reader 3 : four poets’, 2010, page 172 — scan
- Jessie Greengrass, ‘Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to One Who Saw It: A John Murray Original’, 2017, page 198 — scan
- Granier, Mark, author, ‘Ghostlight : new & selected poems’, 2017, page 142 — scan
- Leavitt, Amie Jane, ‘The Rhine River’, 2013, page 58 — scan
- ‘John Moores painting prize : 2010’, 2010, page 166 — scan
- Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-, ‘The Crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264 — scan
- Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869- [from old catalog], ‘The crime of credulity’, 1901, page 264 — scan
- Herbert Newton Casson, ‘The Crime of Credulity’, 1901 [text via Internet Archive: crimeofcredulity00cass] — scan
- Daniel Smith, ‘100 Things They Don’t Want You to Know: the World’s Conspiracies and Unsolved Crimes’, 2017, page 274 — scan
- Coxhead & Nation, ‘Reading for the Academic World 2’, 2017, page 118 — scan
- Merrell, Patrick, ‘Uncle John’s iFlush plunging into mystery bathroom reader for kids only!’, 2014, page 106 — scan
- Achor, Shawn, ‘Before happiness : the 5 hidden keys to achieving success, spreading happiness, and sustaining positive change’, 2013, page 282 — scan
- History Channel - 2017-10-27 SIP, ‘History Channel 100 Greatest Mysteries: The World’s Secrets Revealed’, 2017, page 106 — scan
- Landau, Ian, ‘The hypochondriac’s handbook : syndromes, diseases, and ailments that probably should have killed you by now’, 2010, page 214 — scan
- Shawn Achor, ‘Choisir L’Optimisme’, 2015, page 326 — scan
- Fleischer, Jeff, ‘The latest craze : a short history of mass hysterias’, 2011, page 170 — scan
- Voorhees, Don, ‘The extraordinary book of useless information : the most fascinating facts that don’t really matter’, 2013, page 262 — scan
- Schneider, Otto, 1912-, ‘Tanzlexikon : Volkstanz, Kulttanz, Gesellschaftstanz, Kunsttanz, Ballett : Tänzer, Tänzerinnen, Choreographen, Tanz- und Ballettkomponisten : von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart’, 1985, page 642 — scan
- Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Morgen-Ausgabe, (Berlin), 1924-12-31, p. 5 — scan
- Bruchsaler Post : Rheinisches Tagblatt : süddeutsche allgemeine Zeitung, (Bruchsal), 1951-12-29, p. 4 — scan
- General-Anzeiger für Duisburg, Ruhrort, Meiderich und Umgegend. 1905-1912, (Duisburg), 1911-06-30, p. 15 — scan
- Gießener Anzeiger : General-Anzeiger für Oberhessen, Erstes Blatt, (Gießen), 1913-12-09, p. 2 — scan
- Bergische Landes-Zeitung. 1931-1945, (Radevormwald), 1943-01-26, p. 4 — scan
- Walder Zeitung : allgemeiner Anzeiger für die Stadtgemeinden Wald, Gräfrath un Umgegend : Publikationsorgan der Stadt Wald, (Kreis Solingen), 1911-06-28, p. 3 — scan
- Solinger Tageblatt : die Nachmittagszeitung der Klingenstadt : aelteste Tageszeitung im Stadtkreis Solingen, (Solingen), 1921-03-05, p. 9 — scan
- Hallesche Zeitung : Landeszeitung für Provinz Sachsen, Anhalt und Thüringen, Erste Ausgabe, (Halle (Saale)), 1910-05-05, p. 10 — scan
- Jeversches Wochenblatt : Friesisches Tageblatt ; gegr. 1791, (Jever), 1927-03-07, p. 6 — scan
- Hohenstein-Ernstthaler Anzeiger : zugleich Oberlungwitzer Tageblatt und Gersdorfer Tageblatt ; Anzeiger für Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oberlungwitz, Gersdorf, Langenberg, Meinsdorf, Falken, Langenchursdorf, Reichenbach, Hermsdorf, Bernsdorf, Rüsdorf, Erlbach, Kirchberg, Ursprung, Wüstenbrand, Mittelbach usw., (Hohenstein-Ernstthal), 1903-06-11, p. 2 — scan
- Ohligser Tageblatt zugleich Ohligser Zeitung, (Ohligs), 1902-01-10, p. 2 — scan
- Ludwig Bechstein, ‘Deutsches Sagenbuch’, 1853 [text via Internet Archive: 10015299bsb] — scan
- The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), March 31, 1854 — scan
- Arkansas echo (Little Rock, Ark.), December 22, 1893 — scan
- The daily dispatch (Richmond [Va.]), July 27, 1855 — scan
- The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), May 28, 1868 — scan
- Täglicher Baltimore Wecker (Baltimore [Md.]), December 20, 1872 — scan
- ‘Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence : from ancient times to the present’, 2008, page 554 — scan
- Kohn, George C, ‘Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence’, 1995, page 426 — scan
- George C. Kohn, ‘Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence’, 2001, page 474 — scan
- ‘Encyclopedia of plague and pestilence : from ancient times to the present’, 2001, page 468 — scan
