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The dancing plague of 1518 began in July, when a woman started dancing in the streets of Strasbourg and could not stop. Within about a month, by some accounts, some 400 people had joined in, and some danced until they collapsed. Historians still debate the cause.

Strasbourg, 1518

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The story behind the card

The first dancer is recorded as Frau Troffea. City records, sermons and chronicles show that the outbreak happened, though the numbers vary between sources. Physicians blamed 'hot blood', and the council, believing the dancers had to dance it out, hired musicians and set aside halls, which only drew more people in. In the end the dancers were taken to a shrine of St Vitus in the hills, a saint believed to be able to curse people with dancing and to cure them. Poisoning by ergot, a mould on rye, has been suggested, but it causes convulsions rather than days of dancing. The historian John Waller argues it was mass psychogenic illness, a stress reaction that spreads through a group, in a city worn down by famine and disease.

Türkçe oku
1518 dans salgını, temmuz ayında Strazburg sokaklarında bir kadının dans etmeye başlayıp bir türlü duramamasıyla başladı. Bazı kaynaklara göre bir ay içinde 400 kadar kişi ona katıldı; kimileri yere yığılana dek dans etti. Nedeni tarihçiler arasında hâlâ tartışılıyor.
Strazburg, 1518

Kayıtlarda dans etmeye ilk başlayan kadının adı Frau Troffea olarak geçer. Kent kayıtları, vaazlar ve kroniklerden olayın gerçekten yaşandığı anlaşılıyor, ama kaynaklardaki sayılar birbirini tutmuyor. Hekimler durumu “sıcak kan”a bağladı. Kent meclisi de dansçıların bu hâlden ancak dans ederek kurtulacağına inandı; müzisyenler tuttu, salonlar ayırdı ve böylece daha çok insanı dansa çekti. Sonunda dansçılar, insanları dansla lanetleyebildiğine ve iyileştirebildiğine inanılan Aziz Vitus'un tepelerdeki tapınağına götürüldü. Çavdarda üreyen çavdar mahmuzu mantarından zehirlenme de öne sürüldü, ama bu zehirlenme günlerce dans değil, kasılmalar yapar. Tarihçi John Waller ise olayın, kıtlık ve hastalıktan bitap düşmüş bir kentte gruba yayılan bir stres tepkisi, yani kitlesel psikojenik hastalık olduğunu savunuyor.

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Background reading: Dancing plague of 1518
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