magnetichoe
Eternal Poster
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The ‘dancing plague’
Also known as ‘St Vitus’s Dance’, choreomania was a truly bizarre medieval phenomenon from central Europe. It involved You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. until they collapsed through exhaustion – or worse, died. Bizarre as it sounds, choreomania was regularly reported by eyewitnesses and was a genuine concern for authorities. It also seems to have been contagious – for example, in June 1374 one of the widest outbreaks began in Aachen, Germany, before spreading to other places such as Cologne, Flanders, Utrecht, and later Italy.
There were still outbreaks more than a century later – in Strasbourg in July 1518 a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the street. Within four days 33 others had joined her, and within a month there were 400, many of whom suffered heart attacks and died.
Because no autopsies were carried out and because medical science of the day could hardly be described as advanced, only guesses can be made as to the causes. Perhaps it was some kind of skin infection or muscular inflammation leading to spasms?
At the time some people believed that the dancing was a curse brought about by St Vitus, who was, according to Christian legend, a Christian saint from Sicily, so they responded by praying and making pilgrimages to places dedicated to Vitus. The recovery of some victims further bolstered the perceived connection between illness and the saint.
Also known as ‘St Vitus’s Dance’, choreomania was a truly bizarre medieval phenomenon from central Europe. It involved You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. until they collapsed through exhaustion – or worse, died. Bizarre as it sounds, choreomania was regularly reported by eyewitnesses and was a genuine concern for authorities. It also seems to have been contagious – for example, in June 1374 one of the widest outbreaks began in Aachen, Germany, before spreading to other places such as Cologne, Flanders, Utrecht, and later Italy.
There were still outbreaks more than a century later – in Strasbourg in July 1518 a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing in the street. Within four days 33 others had joined her, and within a month there were 400, many of whom suffered heart attacks and died.
Because no autopsies were carried out and because medical science of the day could hardly be described as advanced, only guesses can be made as to the causes. Perhaps it was some kind of skin infection or muscular inflammation leading to spasms?
At the time some people believed that the dancing was a curse brought about by St Vitus, who was, according to Christian legend, a Christian saint from Sicily, so they responded by praying and making pilgrimages to places dedicated to Vitus. The recovery of some victims further bolstered the perceived connection between illness and the saint.