# B — Paracelsus, "Frau Troffea" and the modern retellings of the Strasbourg dance of 1518

Raw files, URLs and the exact portion read of every source: `../sources/B_SOURCES.md`.

Conventions. Quotations are given as printed in the edition named (Huser 1589 in the THEO transcription; Sudhoff in his modernised orthography; chronicle editions as printed). Translations marked "(tr. B)" are mine. Anything not retrieved and read is marked **UNVERIFIED (from memory)**. Findings of `A1_council_record.md` (council record) and `A2_chronicles.md` (chronicles) are cited as such; where I re-checked one of their page images myself I say so. Page references to Backman 1952, Waller 2009 and Midelfort 1999 come from search-inside snippets or from other authors' citations, because none of those three books could be read (see B_SOURCES §3–5).

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## 0. Headline findings

1. **Paracelsus names "Frau Troffea" exactly once** in the whole Huser edition (THEO search: one hit), in *De causis morborum invisibilium* (Huser vol. 1 p. 263 = Sudhoff I/9 p. 278). The chapter "Von der kranckheit / die mann nennet die Veitstantz" is a moral-psychological parable about a woman who feigned a dancing sickness to spite her husband, was imitated by other women, and whose pretence hardened, through belief, into a real disease that the crowd then attributed to St Vitus. It contains **no place-name, no year, no number of dancers, no death, no pilgrimage, no cure, no "vor vil jaren", and no statement that Paracelsus saw anything himself**. The words "Strasbourg" and "1518" occur nowhere near it (THEO: the 13 hits for Straßburg/Strasburg in Huser are all imprints, editorial matter or prognostications).
2. The medical classification (vitista / chorea aestimativa-imaginativa; chorea lasciva; chorea naturalis or coacta) stands in a different, earlier work, *De morbis amentium* (Sudhoff dates it 1525/26), Tract. I cap. 3 (origin; Huser IV,51–55 = Sudhoff I/2, 407–412) and Tract. II cap. 3 (cure; Huser IV,79–82 = Sudhoff I/2, 439–442). The cures — a wax or resin image burnt in the fire; dark confinement on bread and water "ohn erbarmung", a good stick, cold water; quintessences — belong there, not to the Troffea chapter, and are never connected with Strasbourg.
3. **No Strasbourg source names the first dancer.** The texts I read (Imlin chronicle, Reuss 1875 p. 26, image; Wencker's *Extractus* no. 3443 and Wencker's chronicle no. 3007 in Dacheux 1892; Specklin and Kleinlawel as printed by Martin 1914 pp. 116, 119; Rem 1518, image) all say "ein frauw"/"eine frau" or nothing. This agrees with the survey of every narrative source in `A2_chronicles.md` and with Clementz (2016, 2018): "Frau Trofféa n'a jamais existé … Son patronyme est une invention pédante de Paracelse … à partir du substantif grec *tropaia*". The coupling of the name with the date 14 July 1518 and with Strasbourg is John Waller's (2008/2009); Miller 2017's statement that "four of the six chronicle accounts" name "Lady Troffea" (citing Backman p. 237) is not borne out by any chronicle text I could read.
4. **How the ten standard claims arose** (details in Part 3): "fifteen a day" is the contemporary Augsburg chronicler Wilhelm Rem's *incidence* figure ("ain tag wol bei 15 menschen ankam" — fifteen people a day *were seized*), turned into a *death rate* first (as far as retrieved) in Waller's 2009 book and *Lancet* essay and copied into Wikipedia on 8 April 2016 from the *Lancet*; "400" is Martin's (1914) printing of the Imlin chronicle after Witkowski ("mehr denn 400"), whereas Reuss's 1875 edition from the manuscript reads "mehr dan 200" (checked on the page image); the stage, hired dancers, drums and pipes come from Specklin (c. 1580) and Wencker (1637); the red shoes, crosses, chrism and holy water from Specklin; the ban on dancing "bis Michaelis" with the wedding exception from Wencker's *Extractus* of the council record (the 2 August 1518 mandate); the physicians' "natural disease" verdict is contemporary (letter of 25 July 1518), but the same letter attributes the disease to an *astral conjunction and the heat*, which Waller says the physicians "excluded"; deaths first appear in Specklin ("Viel tanzten sich zu tode") and the 17th-century chronicles, never in a contemporary record; "heart attack, stroke or exhaustion" is Waller's 2008 phrasing (Endeavour and the Discovery News interview) which the first Wikipedia revision (8 Aug 2008) hardened into "Most of them died".
5. Hecker (1832) is not the source of any of these ten claims: he dates the Strasbourg episode 1418 (after Schilter 1698), gives no numbers except Schilter's verse "Viel hundert", no deaths, no Troffea, and knows Paracelsus only as a classifier of St Vitus's dance.
6. What was actually read of the principal modern works: Hecker 1832 — the relevant sections in full from OCR; Waller — *Endeavour* 2008, *Lancet* 2009 and *Psychologist* 2009 in full, the 2009 book **only through c. 120 search-inside snippets** (the book was not read); Backman 1952 — **snippets only, not read**; Midelfort 1999 — the section "A Dancing Mania" (pp. 32–49) read in full from the scan text saved in `midelfort-a2/` (unofficial upload; provenance flagged); Miller 2017, Bartholomew 2000, Rohmann 2020 (ZGO) in full; Rohmann 2009/2013 and Gotman 2018 not obtained.

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## 1. Part 1 — What Paracelsus wrote

### 1.1 Texts, editions, dates

| Work | Huser (Basel 1589–91; THEO sigla) | Sudhoff, I. Abt. | Hecker's 1832 citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| *De causis morborum invisibilium* ("Von den unsichtbaren Krankheiten"), Book I, chapter "Von der krankheit, die man nennet die Veitstanz" | vol. 1 (1589), pp. 263–265 = `HE1,263`–`HE1,265` | Bd. 9, pp. 278–280 (page images `bd9_p283–285.png`) | not cited by Hecker |
| *Das siebende Buch in der Arznei: Von den Krankheiten, die der Vernunft berauben (De morbis amentium)*, Tract. I ("de origine"), cap. 3 "Von Sanct Veits Tantz vnd die jhme gleichen" (Latin table: "de origine morbi sancti Viti et suis paribus") | vol. 4 (1589), pp. 51–55 = `HE4,51`–`HE4,55` | Bd. 2, pp. 407–412 (images `bd2_p444–449.png`) | "7. Buch in der Artzney … Tract. I. Cap. 3. p. 491 … Opera, Straßburg 1616. fol. T. 1." (Hecker p. 18 n. 1) |
| same, Tract. II ("de cura"), cap. 3 "de cura vitistae" (= "de Cura Choreae aestimatiuae vel imaginatiuae … Chorea lasciua … Naturalis Choreae") | vol. 4, pp. 79–82 = `HE4,79`–`HE4,82` | Bd. 2, pp. 439–442 (images `bd2_p476–479.png`) | "Tract. II. Cap. 3. p. 501" (ibid.) |

Dates (Sudhoff). The title of Sudhoff Bd. 2 reads: "Frühe Schriften zur Heilmittellehre … samt dem 6., 7. und 9. Buche in der Arznei, über tartarische, psychische Krankheiten und Kontrakturen. (Geschrieben 1525 u. '26 im südwestlichen Deutschland.)" — i.e. Sudhoff dates *De morbis amentium* to 1525/26, before Paracelsus's Strasbourg stay. *De causis morborum invisibilium* stands in Bd. 9 immediately after the *Opus Paramirum*, which Sudhoff's introduction dates to 1531 ("für das paramirum 1531"; "Mitte März 1531 … den zweiten Teil"); of the work on invisible diseases he writes that it "einleitend direkt an die Ausarbeitung der 'Drei Bücher im Licht der Natur', d. h. die eben vollendeten drei Teile des Opus paramirum anknüpft" and that Hohenheim was then "gerade in den Jahren 1531 bis 1533 eifrig schriftstellerisch tätig" on theological ground (Bd. 9, introduction; OCR lines 520–575). So: c. 1531–32, some thirteen years after the events and four or five after his Strasbourg stay.

Transmission (Sudhoff, Bd. 9 introduction and notes). Before Huser the work on invisible diseases "ist … nur einmal gedruckt worden" — in 1565, when the Cologne physician Theodor Birckmann appended "De morbis invisibilibus" to his print of the *Liber secundus De causa et origine morborum* (Bd. 9 intro, OCR lines 300–312 and 505–512). Huser 1589 printed it "leider nicht nach dem Original, sondern nach dem Manuskript eines (nicht genannten) andern", which differs "sehr erheblich vom Erstdruck"; the Vienna codex agrees with Huser's text, so both go back to the same copy, "offenbar das Neuburger Originalmanuskript" (OCR lines 505–525). Sudhoff also calls the whole work "eine erste Ausarbeitung mit allen Vorzügen und Mängeln einer solchen" and "ein Torso" (lines 540–556). Consequence for us: the Troffea passage is known from a 1565 print and a manuscript copy, not from an autograph; no variant affecting the name is recorded in Sudhoff's apparatus for p. 278 (apparatus read, OCR lines 26892–26960: the notes for pp. 251–265 record wording variants from "65" [the 1565 print] and "V" [Vienna codex] but nothing for the name).

### 1.2 The Troffea chapter — full text (Huser I,263–264) and translation

Huser 1589, vol. 1, p. 263 (THEO `theo_HE01_263_s0.html`; Sudhoff I/9, 278–279 agrees word for word apart from spelling):

> **Von der kranckheit / die mann nennet die Veitstantz.**
> Es ist ein seltzammer vrsprung in dieser kranckheit / etwas geteilt von denen / die gemeldt seind : Vnnd seindt also herkommen. Die Fraw Troffea ist die erste gsein in der kranckheit / dieselbige nam sich seltzamer lauhn vnnd weise an : Vnnd so sie in ein bleen kam / vnnd hals strittig gegen jhrem Mann / so er sie etwas hieß / das jhr nicht gefiele / so nam sie sich einer weise an / sie wer kranck / vnnd erdichtet ein kranckheit die jhr auff dißmal gelegen was. Nuhn nam sie sich der weise an zum tantzen / vnnd gab für / sie könnte nicht ohn getantzet sein : Dann den Mann verdruß nichts mehr dann das tantzen : Vnnd damit sie dem handel gnug thete / vnnd bestettete ein gleichnuß einer kranckheit / so hupfft sie vnnd sprang auff / sang vnnd lälet / vnd was dem Manne am vbelsten gefiel : Vnnd nach außgang des tantz / so fiel sie nieder / dem Manne zuleidt / zablet eine weil / vnnd schlieff darnach. Solchs zeigt sie für eine kranckheit an / vnnd verschwieg / das sie den Mann also närret. Hierauff begab sichs / das auch ander Weiber dergleichen solcher weise pflegten / vnnd vnterweiset je eine die ander : Vnd kam dahin / das die Gemeindt solche kranckheit für ein Buß hielten / vnd namen auß diesem anzeigen ein vrsachen / der jhn die kranckheit vertrieb. Auff die vrsach hafftet der Glaub / vnnd geriet in den Magor / ein Heydnischen Geist : Aber es blieb nicht lang / do ward Sanct Veit der Glaubengeist / vnnd must also hie zu eim Abgott werden / vnnd empfieng den namen darauff Sanct Veits Tantz.
> Kahm darnach dahin / das menniglichen in solchen glauben kahm / vnd ward also bestetet zu einer kranckheit : Vnd auff die / [p. 264] denen wol mit dantzen war / auff die fiel der Glaub / vnd behaftet dieselbig kranckheit / das sie also bleib neben dem glauben für vnnd für. Darauff merckent / ein jedlich angenomene weiß / die einer oder eine fürgibt / es sey ein warheit / so gibt dasselbig fürgeben ein solchen starcken glauben / das war wirdt / vnnd bestetet sich. Dann also kommen vil kranckheiten / nicht allein der dantz / sondern auch viel anderley geschlecht / die kein zahl haben. Dann also haben sich etliche fürgeben / sie seyndt besessen / vnnd ist jhnen am letzten / in solchem fürgeben wahr worden : Also auch berümbt in Sant Veltins kranckheit / vnd fielend am letzten darein.
> Also sindt viel kranckheiten entsprungen / die auch täglich nuhn zufallen / ein weg so nuhn kranckheiten kommen / die vor nie gesein sindt. Also auch mit den Frantzosen geschehen ist / do haben sie Sant Dionysium einhergereimpt / … Vnnd auch in der Pestilentz gar nahe auch die gröst vrsach ist / daß das volck in ein verzweifflung falt / es müß sein …

Sudhoff's modernised text of the opening (I/9, 278; read on the page image and in the OCR): "Von der krankheit, die man nennet die Veitstanz. Es ist ein seltsamer ursprung in diser krankheit, etwas geteilt von denen die gemelt seind, und seind also herkomen. die frau Troffea ist die erste gsein in der krankheit, dieselbige nam sich seltsamer laun und weise an; und so sie in ein bleen kam und halsstrittig gegen irem man, so er sie etwas hieß das ir nicht gefiele, so nam sie sich einer weise an, sie wer krank, und erdichtet ein krankheit, die ir auf dismal gelegen was. nun nam sie sich der weise an zum tanzen und gab für sie könte nicht on getanzet sein; dan den man verdruß nichts mer dan das tanzen …" The chapter heading is on p. 278; the text runs to p. 280, where the argument passes to faith as the cause of new diseases in general.

Translation (tr. B):

> **Of the disease which is called St Vitus's dance.** There is a strange origin in this disease, somewhat different from those already mentioned; and it came about thus. The woman Troffea was the first in this disease. She adopted strange moods and manners, and when she fell into a fit of temper [*in ein bleen kam*: the word is obscure] and grew stiff-necked against her husband — if he bade her do something that did not please her — she put on a manner as though she were ill, and invented a sickness that suited her at that moment. Now she took up the manner of dancing and gave out that she could not be without dancing, for nothing vexed the husband more than dancing. And so as to do enough for the business and confirm the semblance of a sickness, she hopped and leapt up, sang and babbled, and [did] whatever displeased the husband most; and when the dance was over she fell down, to the husband's grief, twitched a while and then slept. This she presented as a sickness and concealed that she was thus making a fool of her husband. Thereupon it happened that other women also practised the same manner, and the one taught the other; and it came to the point that the community held such sickness to be a penance [*Buß*] and took from these signs a cause that drove the sickness into them. On this cause faith fastened and fell into the Magor, a heathen spirit; but it did not remain long: then St Vitus became the spirit of the faith, and so had to become an idol here, and thereupon [the disease] received the name St Vitus's dance.
> It then came to the point that everyone fell into such a belief, and thus it was established as a disease; and on those who liked dancing the belief fell and infected them with the same disease, so that it remained together with the belief for ever after. Mark from this: every assumed manner that a man or a woman gives out to be true — that pretence produces so strong a belief that it becomes true and confirms itself. For thus many diseases come, not only the dance but also many other kinds without number. Thus some have given out that they were possessed, and in the end it became true to them in that pretence; and likewise [some] boasted of St Valentine's sickness [epilepsy] and in the end fell into it. Thus many diseases have arisen which still befall daily — a way in which new diseases come that never existed before. So it happened also with the French disease, where they rhymed up St Dionysius … And in the pestilence, too, well-nigh the greatest cause is that the people fall into despair, "it must be so" …

What the passage does and does not contain (each point checked against THEO and the Sudhoff page images):
- **Name form**: "Die Fraw Troffea" (Huser); "die frau Troffea" (Sudhoff). "Fraw"/"frau" = "the woman/wife", not a title in the modern sense; no first name; no husband's name (Waller's "Herr Troffea" is his own extrapolation — snippet: "the long-suffering Herr Troffea 'had asked something of …'").
- **What she did and why**: feigned a dancing sickness out of stubbornness against her husband; hopping, leaping, singing, babbling, collapsing, twitching, sleeping; other women imitated and taught one another; the community read it as a penance; belief made it real and attached it to St Vitus, who "had to become an idol".
- **Dating**: none whatsoever. No "vor vil jaren", no year, no "in my youth", no "when I was in …" (THEO search "jaren" over Huser: no hit in this work's relevant pages; the phrase does not occur in the chapter).
- **Place**: none. Strasbourg is not mentioned anywhere in *De causis morborum invisibilium* (THEO "Straßburg"/"Strasburg": 13 hits in the whole edition, none in this work and none about dancing).
- **Numbers, deaths, pilgrimage, Zabern/Saverne, council, physicians, music, cures**: none.
- **Statement that he was in Strasbourg or saw the dancers**: none. (His Strasbourg residence in 1526–27 is a biographical datum from secondary works — here attested only at second hand: Backman 1952, snippet: "In the year 1526 Paracelsus was in Strassburg [Sticker]"; press kit 2018 p. 10: "le séjour de Paracelse à Strasbourg n'eut lieu qu'à la fin 1526" — repeated by Rue89/Clementz "n'étant venu pour la première fois à Strasbourg qu'en 1526", Pennant-Rea 2018 "visited Strasbourg eight years after the plague" and Waller 2009 "Although he arrived in Strasbourg over seven […]" [snippet cut].)
- **The word "Troffea" elsewhere**: THEO finds no second occurrence in Huser. None of the Strasbourg chronicles or council texts read for this report contains it (Part 3, claim 3).

### 1.3 *De morbis amentium*, Tract. I cap. 3 (Huser IV,51–55 = Sudhoff I/2, 407–412) — origin and classification

Opening (HE4,51):
> Das Dritte Capitel. Von Sanct Veits Tantz / vnd die jhme gleichen. So wollen wir doch hie in diesem Capitel nicht zulegen / daß die Heiligen kranckheiten mögen geben / vnd denselbigen sollen also nachgenennet werden : oder daß ein Plag sey / bedüncket vns es treffe die heilige Geschrifft nit an : als denn viel sind die grosse Theologey darauß setzen / vnd sie mehr Gott zulegen denn der Natur / das ein vnnützes Gesprech ist. Vns mißfelt das geschwetz / hinder welchem kein warzeichen seind / sondern allein Glauben / Glauben / das ein vnmenschlichs ding ist / vnd die Götter auch nichts darauff halten. (N.) So wollen wir den Nammen nit verkehren / von wegen der bekanntnus den Heiligen nach / sondern es ist billich zu nennen Chorea lasciua, auß vrsachen wie hernach folgt … (N.) So ist die vrsach der kranckheit Choreae lasciuae allein ein aestimatz vnd ein angenommen Imaginatz / die da wirckt in dem / der sich also ein solcher aestimatz schetzet / vnd deßgleichen jm selbst ein solche sach imaginirt. Dise aestimatz vnd imaginatz ist der vrsprung dieser Kranckheit vnd des Tantzes. Vnd wiewol ein semlichs auch erfunden wirt in Leuthen in denen kein imaginatz oder aestimatz nit ist / als in den Kindern vnd gewachsenen personen : So ist die vrsach der Kinder auch ein imaginatz / nit auß dem verstandt / sondern auß dem hören / dz er hört vnd sicht …

(tr. B) "The third chapter. Of St Vitus's dance and those like it. We will not concede here in this chapter that the saints can give diseases and that these should be named after them, or that it is a plague; it seems to us this does not concern Holy Scripture, though there are many who build great theology on it and ascribe them more to God than to nature, which is useless talk. We dislike the chatter behind which there are no true signs but only faith, faith, which is an inhuman thing, and the gods too set no store by it. So we will not twist the name for the sake of the acknowledgement of the saints; rather it is properly to be called *Chorea lasciva*, for reasons which follow … So the cause of the disease *chorea lasciva* is only an estimation and an assumed imagination, which works in him who esteems himself such and likewise imagines such a thing to himself. This estimation and imagination is the origin of this disease and of the dance. And although the like is also found in people in whom there is no imagination or estimation, as in children and grown persons, the cause in children is also an imagination, not from the understanding but from hearing, [from] what he hears and sees …"

Two causes (HE4,52): "Nun also seind zwo vrsachen dieser kranckheit des tantzes : Ein natürliche / auß den lachenden Adern / vnnd ein zufellige / auß den gegenbildungen." — "So there are two causes of this disease of the dance: a natural one, from the laughing veins, and an accidental one, from impressions [received through sight and hearing]." The "laughing veins" theory follows (spiritus vitae in the veins sharpened like distilled wine, kindling the blood, tickling, laughter, leaping).

Whores and lute-players (HE4,53–54): "Darumb ist offenbar ein vrsach / das die Huren vnd die Buben / den wol mit Lauten vnd allen Seittenspielen ist / nimmer dauon kommen / vnd allen wollüsten vnnd deß leibs freuden genug thunt / mit jhrem guttem willen / Aestimatz vnd Imaginatz / in solcher gestalt in die kranckheit fallen … Diser Tantz den wir von Huren setzen / ist nicht von Natur / also das die Natur ein vrsach wer … sondern es ist ein zufall auß einem leichten muttwillen / vnd leichtfertigen schandtlichen leben / in dem kein Vernunfft noch Sinnligkeit ist …" — "Hence it is plainly a cause that whores and knaves, who delight in lutes and all string-music and who satisfy all lusts and pleasures of the body, never get away from it, and with their own good will, estimation and imagination fall into the disease in this form … This dance which we posit of whores is not from nature … but is an accident from light wantonness and a frivolous shameful life in which there is neither reason nor sense" (tr. B). Those who do not lead such a life and yet dance "auß vnbedachtem mutt" owe it to the laughing veins (HE4,54).

Closing (HE4,55): "Vnnd wollen also diese kranckheit deß Dantzs beschlossen haben / vnd den Göttern jhren gewalt nicht verachten / die dann wol gewalt haben ein vppigen Menschen zu straffen oder plagen mit solcher kranckheit. Aber das vns das die Natur vnd vrsprung dieser kranckheit nehme oder felsch / das ist nit … Vnd was weiter zu dieser kranckheit Dantz gehört / an seim endt weitter reden werden in capitulo de Cura Choreae lasciuae." — "And so we will have concluded this disease of the dance, not despising the power of the gods, who indeed have power to punish or plague a wanton person with such a disease. But that this should take away or falsify for us the nature and origin of this disease — that is not so … and what further belongs to this disease of the dance we shall discuss at its end in the chapter *de cura choreae lasciuae*" (tr. B).

Note on the threefold scheme. In this origin chapter Paracelsus proposes **one** name (chorea lasciva) and **two** causes (natural: laughing veins; accidental: imagination via sight/hearing, including the wilful case of "whores and knaves"). The labels *vitista* / *chorea aestimativa seu imaginativa*, *chorea lasciva* / *levitas animi* and *chorea coacta* / *naturalis* are introduced in the cure chapter (§1.4), and it is from there that Hecker (1832 p. 18) and everyone after him took the "three kinds".

### 1.4 *De morbis amentium*, Tract. II cap. 3 (Huser IV,79–82 = Sudhoff I/2, 439–442) — the three cures

Division (HE4,79): "… das durch die Schwür Sanct Veitstantz ein solche Imaginatz kommen mag / die introducirt die kranckheit / vnnd also das gemein volck semlichs für ein Plag achtet : das dann allein aegritudo aestimatiua seu imaginatiua ist … Wider solche Vitistam, Aestimatiuam seu Imaginatiuam geben wir ein sonderliche Cur. Darnach so sie auch ein vrsprung auß leichtfertigkeit des Gemüts vnd mit verhengung des Willens / das dann Chorea lasciua oder Leuitas animi geheissen wirt / haben : Setzen wir wider diß Leuitatem animi ein sonderliche andere Cur. Vnd zum dritten contra Choream coactam, der dann sein Vrsprung auß der Natur hat / setzen wir auch dergleichen sein natürlich Medicinam. … Vnd merck da auch ein vnterscheid zwischen Aestimatiua vnd Imaginatiua also / dz eine / auß Zorn / die ander auß Geyle kompt. Darumb wir da Vitistam das Erst heissen / das Ander Lasciuam". — (tr. B) "… that through the oath 'St Vitus's dance' [i.e. cursing someone with it] such an imagination may arise which introduces the disease, so that the common people take it for a plague; which is only an *aegritudo aestimativa seu imaginativa* … Against such a *vitista*, *aestimativa seu imaginativa*, we give a special cure. Next, since they may also have an origin in levity of mind and with the consent of the will — which is called *chorea lasciva* or *levitas animi* — we set against this *levitas animi* another special cure. And thirdly, against the *chorea coacta*, which has its origin in nature, we likewise set its natural medicine. … And mark a difference between *aestimativa* and *imaginativa*: the one comes from anger, the other from lust; hence we call the first *vitista*, the second *lasciva*."

Cure 1, *vitista ex ira* — the wax image (HE4,79–80): "Der Patient soll machen ein Bild jhm gleich von Wachs oder Hartz / vnd soll jhm in sein gedancken nemmen / das alle die Schwür so er gethan hat nach seinem willen in disem Bild sollen verbracht werden / … vnd all sein Gemüt vnd Gedancken diser Schwür ohn einfallung anderer person allein vollkommen in dz Bildt setzen / vnd demnach dasselbig in solchen meristen Gedancken in das Fewr werffen / vnd gar lassen verbrennen / das weder Aschen noch fuligo daruon …" — "The patient shall make an image like himself of wax or resin, and take it into his thoughts that all the oaths he has sworn shall by his will be fulfilled in this image … and set all his mind and thoughts of these oaths, without the intrusion of any other person, wholly into the image, and then in these thoughts throw it into the fire and let it burn entirely, so that neither ash nor soot remains of it" (tr. B). Hecker 1832 p. 20 paraphrases exactly this and quotes the clause "all sein Gemüth und Gedanken dieser Schwür ohn eynfallung anderer Person allein vollkommen in das Bild setzen".

Cure 2, *chorea lasciva* — confinement and fasting (HE4,80–81): "So ein Choreist / Fraw oder Mann / in solchen Choream, auß vil Geyle anhüb zu Tantzen / das mehrer theils in den Frawen geschicht / die do mehr aestimationes vnnd cogitationes haben dann die Mann / vnd auch viel stercker vnnd krefftiger imaginiren … So ist kein bessers / dann das dem wider ist mit den gedancken vnd wercken … Sperr sie ein an ein Finstere / laß fasten zu Wasser vnd Brodt ein gutte zeit / ohn erbarmung an einen vngeschickten orth / durch das wirdt sie wider beweget von dem Hunger in ein ander Natur vnd Gedancken / also das jhr die geyle da entzogen wirdt per abstinentiam … dz Blut setzt sich nider / der Spiritus vitae miltert vnd lasset nach / das Hertz nimpt an sich ein trauren … vnnd wirdt Tristitia ein Meisterin in jhr / in der kein Freüd ist / kein Lachen / kein Tantzen / kein Heülen / etc. … [81] Vnd ist gar ein vnbesints ding / dz man in solchem Tantz nachfolgt / vnd mit jhrem willen / leben vnd nachfolgen in Singen / Tantzen / etc. das alles ein anreitzen ist / vnnd ein fürderung der Kranckheit. Vnd vermeinen etlich / wo solchs nicht geschech / so müstend sie sterben / das nicht also ist / sondern das ist besser / ein guter Stecken genommen vnd wol geschlagen / vnd in die Gefengnuß als vorsteht / gelegt. So ist das herwider zumercken / so sie geschlagen werden / daß sie ein Zorn in jnen empfahen / der sie mag tödten … Wiewol es selten fehlet / es geraht zum bessern / [in] kalt wasser eingeworffen." — (tr. B) "If a choreist, woman or man, began to dance in such a chorea out of much lust — which happens for the most part in women, who have more estimations and cogitations than men and also imagine far more strongly … — there is nothing better than what is contrary to their thoughts and works … Shut her up in a dark place, let her fast on water and bread a good while, without mercy, in an uncomfortable place; through this she will be moved by hunger into another nature and other thoughts, so that lust is withdrawn from her by abstinence … the blood settles, the spirit of life softens and abates, the heart takes on sadness … and *Tristitia* becomes mistress in her, in which there is no joy, no laughing, no dancing, no howling etc. … [81] And it is a very senseless thing to follow along in such a dance and, with their will, to live and follow along in singing, dancing etc., which is all an incitement and a furthering of the disease. And some think that if this did not happen they would have to die, which is not so; rather it is better to take a good stick and beat them well and put them in prison as above. But note on the other hand that when they are beaten they may take an anger into them that can kill them … Though it seldom fails, it turns to the better when they are thrown into cold water."
(The sentence about the "senseless" practice of following the dancers in singing and dancing, and the belief that they would otherwise die, reads like a comment on the "let them dance" therapy attested for Strasbourg by Specklin and Wencker — but Paracelsus names no place, and the work is dated 1525/26 by Sudhoff. I flag it only as a possible allusion.)

Cure 3, *chorea naturalis / coacta* (HE4,81–82): inward medicines "auß der Quinta essentia": aurum potabile, oleum margaritarum, materia gemmarum, aqua margaritarum, anodinum summum, quinta essentia opii, mandragorae, papaveris, lolii, aquae vitae, cancrorum; a recipe (quint. ess. opii ʒj, mandragorae gr. vij, lolii ℈j, papaveris ʒij, hyoscyami ʒiij, auri potabilis ʒiiij, aquae cordis ʒvj; four drops in wine morning, noon and night) and an ointment (summum anodinum, oil of nutmeg, oil of musk) for "die fürnembsten end der kützligkeit / als vnter den Vehsen / am Halß / etc.", with a milder version of the prison regimen "damit auch ettlichs theils Tristitia eingefürt werde".

### 1.5 The other St Vitus passages in Huser (THEO hit list for "Veits*")

Read: **HE1,267** (same work, a few pages on): the Anabaptists who go to their deaths for their articles "liegen in der kranckheit / zu gleicher weiß wie die mit Sanct Veits Tantz / wann sie jhr Fantasey ankompt / so müssen jhre fürnemmen für sich gehen" — over-persuaded faith as a disease like St Vitus's dance. **HE2,164** (*Sieben Defensiones*, "Die Andere Defension / Betreffendt die newen Kranckheiten / vnd Nomina"): "Jch schreib von dem vnsinnigen Tantz / den der gemein mann heist S. Veitstantz / auch von denen die sich selbst tödten / auch von den Falschen kranckheiten / so durch Zauberey zufallen : Dergleichen vonn den Besessenen Leuten. Diese kranckheiten seyent von der Artzney noch nie beschrieben" — Paracelsus claiming to be the first physician to write on the "insane dance" (the *Defensiones* are dated 1538, Carinthia — UNVERIFIED (from memory)). **HC,236a** (*Von Vrsprung, Herkommen vnd Anfang der Frantzosen Acht Bücher*, cap. IV): imagination "endert die Geborne Gesundtheit in ein kranckheit … Auß dem volgt nun / das Vnsinnigkeit vnd die Dantzetsucht / die jhr nennet Sant Veits Dantz / vnd ander mehr / entspringend" (the *Frantzosen* books are dated 1529 — UNVERIFIED (from memory)). Not read: HE2,162; HE3,7; HE5A,12; HE5A,154; HE10,199 (hit list only). None of the read passages mentions Troffea, Strasbourg or 1518.

### 1.6 Hecker's Paracelsus (1832 pp. 17–21) — the source of the "three kinds"

Hecker 1832 p. 18: "Paracelsus unterschied drei Arten von Veitstanz: die erste aus Einbildung (Vitista, Chorea imaginativa, aestimativa), womit die ursprüngliche Tanzplage gemeint ist, die zweite aus sinnlicher Begierde 'mit Verhengung des Willens' (Chorea lasciva), und die dritte aus körperlichen Ursachen (Chorea naturalis, coacta), welche er sich nach einer abenteuerlichen Ansicht so vorstellte, dafs in gewissen Adern, die für einen innern Kitzel empfänglich wären …" (n. 1: "Theophrasti Bombast von Hohenheym, 7. Buch in der Artzney. Von den Krankheiten, die der Vernunft berauben. Tract. I. Cap. 3. p. 491. Tract. II. Cap. 3. p. 501. Opera, Straßburg 1616. fol. T. 1."). Pp. 20–21: wax or resin image; "Gegen die zweite Art … empfahl Paracelsus harte Behandlung und strenges Fasten. Er ließ die Kranken ihrer Freiheit berauben, und einsam an einem unbequemen Orte so lange sitzen, bis die Betrübniß sie zur Besinnung und Reue gebracht hatte"; corporal chastisement; cold water. Babington's English (Gutenberg #1739, "Physicians" section) reproduces this. Hecker's quotation on p. 18 ("So wollen wir doch nicht zulegen, daß die Heiligen Krankheiten mögen geben …") is the opening of Tract. I cap. 3 (§1.3). **Hecker does not mention Troffea** (neither OCR copy contains the name) and does not use *De causis morborum invisibilium*.

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## 2. Part 2 — The modern treatments: what each says and how much of it I read

### 2.1 J. F. C. Hecker, *Die Tanzwuth, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter* (Berlin 1832) — read: pp. 1–2, 7–8, 17–24 and the contents [OCR, two copies]

- Strasbourg, pp. 7–8 (section "2. St. Veitstanz"): "Straßburg wurde von der 'Tanzplage' im Jahr **1418** heimgesucht¹). Es war noch derselbe Wahnsinn unter dem Volke, wie in den niederrheinischen und belgischen Städten. … dann folgten sie unaufhaltsam den Schwärmen der Tanzenden, die Tag und Nacht durch die Straßen zogen, begleitet von aufspielenden Sackpfeifern und zahllosen Neugierigen … Man theilte sie in abgesonderte Haufen, und gab ihnen verantwortliche Aufseher … So wurden sie denn zu Fuß und zu Wagen zu den Kapellen des heiligen Veit nach Zabern und Rotestein geleitet, wo ihrer Priester warteten, um durch das Hochamt und andere heilige Gebräuche auf ihre verirrten Sinne zu wirken. Nach vollbrachtem Gottesdienst führte man sie in feierlichem Umzuge um den Altar, ließ sie von ihren Almosen ein Geringes opfern …". Note 1 (p. 7): "J. v. Königshoven, die älteste teutsche so wol allgemeine als insonderheit Elsassische und Straßburgische Chronike. Herausgeg. von Schiltern. Straßburg 1698. 4. Anm. 21. von Veitz-Tantz. Ss. 1085 f." with the verses: "Viel hundert fingen zu Straßburg an / Zu tanzen und springen, Frau und Mann, / Am offnen Markt, Gassen und Straßen / Tag und Nacht ihrer viel nicht aßen. / Bis ihn das Wüthen wieder gelag. / St. Vits Tanz ward genannt die Plag."
- So Hecker: wrong year (1418, from Schilter; the error's history is set out by Martin 1914 pp. 114–115: Boersch 1836 and Häser then "corrected" the council documents to 1418), no first dancer, no Troffea, no numbers beyond "Viel hundert", no deaths at Strasbourg, no stage, no hired dancers, no red shoes, no dance ban; the wagons, overseers, masses and circuit of the altar come from the council documents Schilter printed (A1/A2: Schilter 1698 pp. 1087–1090).
- Musicians and strong men, p. 23 (general, not Strasbourg): "Auch wurden die meisten Kranken von …" [text continues into the Plater note]; n. 1: "So erzählt Felix Plater (geb. 1536, † 1614), er erinnere sich noch aus seiner Jugend, daß die Obrigkeit in Basel einige starke Männer beauftragt habe, mit einem tanzsüchtigen Mädchen zu tanzen, bis sie von ihrer Krankheit genesen sei. Einer löste den andern ab, und so währte diese sonderbare Kur beinahe volle vier Wochen …". Babington: "On this account the magistrates hired musicians for the purpose of carrying the St. Vitus's dancers so much the quicker through the attacks, and directed that athletic men should be sent among them in order to complete the exhaustion" — Hecker's general statement, illustrated by Plater's Basel case, is the ancestor of the "strong men" motif in later Strasbourg narratives.
- Paracelsus: §1.6 above.
- Babington's translation (Gutenberg #1739): "Strasburg was visited by the 'Dancing Plague' in the year 1418 … They were thus conducted on foot and in carriages to the chapels of St. Vitus, near Zabern and Rotestein …"; the Paracelsus section as quoted in §1.6.

### 2.2 E. Louis Backman, *Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine* (1952) — **NOT read**; c. 40 snippet fragments only

What the fragments show (Open Library search-inside; page numbers only where another author cites them):
- Backman's Strasbourg section translates the chronicles: "…he briefly describes the epidemic of 1518. 1518. Counting fifteen hundred years And eighteen more… A remarkable…" (a verse chronicle in translation); "Then they were sent to St Vitus, to Hohlenstein, quite near Zabern. There they were given …" (p. 235 per the fragment's page marker); "referred to Kleinlawel's chronicle of 1625, to Goldmeyer's Strassburg Chronicle of 1636, to Osea Schad's … and to Imlin's family chronicle in the Strassburg archives, all of which give 1518 as the year of the epidemic" (his correction of Hecker's 1418, evidently after Martin 1914); "…which before 1518 choreomania was called St Vitus' dance, or any single record before 1518 in which the dancers invoked St Vitus" (Backman's thesis that the St Vitus name attaches to choreomania only from 1518); "He adds the usual details that the dancers hated red colours …" (on a later author); the chronicle of Petrus de Herenthal on 1374 ("secta chorisantium").
- Miller 2017 (nn. 12–17) quotes from Backman pp. 236–238 the Imlin chronicle ("A woman began to dance and continued for six days … thirty-four men and women were involved within four days … more than four hundred persons were afflicted within four weeks"), Brant/Wencker ("given small crosses and red shoes, on the uppers and soles of which crosses had been drawn with consecrated oil and which had been sprinkled with holy water in the name of St Vitus"; the 10 August 1518 decree) and Specklin ("arrangements were made for them to dance in two market places, and persons were specially appointed to dance with them for payment, to the music of drums and pipes. But all this was of no avail, and many danced themselves to death"). Waller's notes cite Backman pp. 232–3, 238–42, 242–3, 244–51; Midelfort's cite pp. 235–42, 238–42, 278–81; Pennant-Rea cites pp. 237, 238, 313 (Paracelsus).
- Ergot chapter (pp. 306–327 per Bartholomew's citation): "It was also extremely probable that it was ergot which caused the hitherto so …"; "St Anthony's Fire was nothing but ergot poisoning. Ergot flourished best in …"; "…of ergot present in grain, as late as 1814, was from 33 per cent to 56 per cent…".
- Established later from ad-hoc phrase searches (Part 4, Appendix B): Backman translates the Troffea chapter ("In order to make the deception as perfect as possible and really give the impression of illness she hopped and sang, which was all most distasteful to her husband. When she had ceased dancing she fell to the ground, which terrified her husband"), introduces it as "In his Opus Paramirium Paracelsus described the origin and cause of St Vitus' dance, i.e., the Strassburg dance. 'Mistress Trophaca [OCR] was the first to suffer from this disease…'", and adds "In the year 1526 Paracelsus was in Strassburg [Sticker] … It is very probable that Paracelsus shared that experience." Still not established: how he prints the name (no "Troffea" hit in his scan), whether he uses Rem's "15", what he says about deaths.
- Waller's *Psychologist* article characterises Backman thus: "In recent decades a vogue for simple biological explanations has inspired the view that epidemic madnesses of the past were caused by the ingestion of ergot, a mould containing psychotropic chemicals (Backman, 1952; Matossian, 1989)"; Discovery News (Viegas 2008): "Backman and other experts at the time believed the most likely explanation was ergot". The press kit of the 2018 exhibition: "Backman l'explique par l'ergotisme".

### 2.3 H. C. Erik Midelfort, *A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany* (1999), ch. 1 "Sin, St. Vitus, and the Devil", section "A Dancing Mania", pp. 32–49 — **read in full** (from the scan text `sources/midelfort-a2/midelfort_history_of_madness_archiveorg_2022scan_djvu.txt`, an unofficial archive.org upload; provenance flagged); before that, c. 30 Open Library fragments

Fragments (running heads "SIN, ST. VITUS, AND THE DEVIL 35/36/37/45"): "…until the major explosion of St. Vitus' dance in Strasbourg in July 1518. The dancing in Strasbourg apparently began with one woman, about July 14, 1518, but within four days, thirty-four men and women …"; "In mid July 1518, it appears, when the dancing mania was still new and relatively unknown in Strasbourg, music and dance were specially ordered as therapy for the dancers. Daniel Specklin recorded in his manuscript chronicle, written …"; "…fell down; and more than one hundred danced in Strasbourg at the same time. So they reserved …" (his Specklin translation); "Evidently these measures were a sad failure, for Specklin noted: 'All of this helped not at all.' Many persons …"; "Dancing was not a cure; it was the disease itself. With a change of policy, the Strasbourg council …"; "…and on August 10 announced that the dancers were to be taken on …"; "Those making the trip to St. Vitus were placed on three large wagons under the care of custodians"; "toward evening they tied them all onto wagons and took them to St. Vitus of Hohlenstein. And after their pilgrimage …"; "During the summer of 1518, as the strange dancing continued, physicians testified to the …"; "The shrine of St. Vitus lay in a cave in …" (p. 37); "Michael Kleinlawel included the following verse in his 1625 chronicle: … Until they fell unconscious. Many have died of it." (n. 77); "Backman argued interestingly that the dancing mania …" (p. 45); index: "chorea imaginativa, 40; chorea lasciva, 40; chorea naturalis, 40" (his Paracelsus discussion, p. 40). Notes cite Martin 1914 pp. 118–121; Dacheux, *Fragments des anciennes chroniques d'Alsace* 4 (1901) p. 252; Dacheux, *Les chroniques strasbourgeoises de Jacques Trausch et de Jean Wencker, Les annales de Sébastien Brant* (1892) p. 148; Stenzel 1926 (Gebwiler); Backman pp. 235–242. Miller's notes 36–37, 50–51 attribute to Midelfort pp. 34–35 the translations of Gebwiler, of the vicar's reply and of the 3 August dance-ban note. Pennant-Rea's note 8 gives Midelfort p. 35 as quoting "Strasbourg Municipal Archives, R3, fol. 72 recto" (the 2 August 1518 mandate). The Open Library "Troffea" query returned no Midelfort hit; "about July 14" is his dating.

What the full section says (page numbers as printed). p. 33: "The dancing in Strasbourg apparently began with one woman, about July 14, 1518, but within four days, thirty-four men and women were infected. According to the seventeenth-century chronicle of Oseas Schad … soon two hundred were afflicted. The Imlin family chronicle claims that within four weeks, more than four hundred were beset … many danced until they fell to the ground unconscious, and some never recovered" (n. 22: Martin pp. 116, 119, who "mercilessly disposes of ignorant suggestions that this major outburst occurred one hundred years earlier, in 1418"; Backman pp. 235–42). p. 34: Gebwiler (Stenzel 1926 pp. 74–75) — one woman danced six days, "strong men had to replace one another as guards"; two guildhalls; "they danced day and night with those poor people, but toward evening they tied them all onto wagons and took them to St. Vitus of Hohlenstein"; physicians: "a natural sickness that came from hot blood"; the vicar's reply (n. 25: Dacheux, *Fragments* 4, 1901, p. 252 = Brant's *Annals* via Wencker; Martin pp. 118–19). p. 35: Specklin's stages and paid dancers ("fife and drum"); "Many persons danced themselves to death"; Brant's entry of "the second day after Vincula Petri [i.e., on August 3]" forbidding dancing "until St. Michael's Day [September 29]" with the wedding/first-Mass exception (n. 27: AM Strasbourg R3 fol. 72r, transcribed by Thomas and Kathy Brady); the drum order "5a Mariae Magdalene" which Midelfort reads as 27 July (n. 28). p. 36: 10 August pilgrimage order, guilds, "loose persons" banished, hundred-pound candle, three wagons, priests, procession round the altar, one pfennig (nn. 29–31: Martin pp. 117, 121, 122–24); Specklin's red shoes (n. 32). p. 37: the Vixberg grotto; "the city's Council of Twenty-One ordered fife and drum, guards, and special dance stages. Within two weeks, however, it appeared that music was actually spreading the disorder"; Platter's Basel woman with "strong men" guards. pp. 40–41: Paracelsus's three kinds (n. 46: Sudhoff I/2, pp. 392–455, at 408–9, 411): "He did not, however, pretend to have examined or treated even one case of the disease, and so his categories have a rather flat, schematic, logical flavor" — **Midelfort never mentions Troffea** (the whole scan was searched). pp. 42–48: critique of the epilepsy, Sydenham-chorea, hysteria (Martin) and ergotism (Backman pp. 303–27) readings; Rouget's "possession cult" offered as the closest analogy, with the reservation that "the sources do not present the trance … as an act of identification with any known divinity or saint". p. 48 n. 77: Kleinlawel's verse (Straßburgische Chronik 1625 pp. 130–31, "transcribed by Thomas and Kathy Brady"), "Many have died of it".

### 2.4 John Waller

**(a) "In a spin: the mysterious dancing epidemic of 1518", *Endeavour* 32/3 (2008) 117–121 — read in full** (5 pp.; refs: 1 Backman 1952; 2 Midelfort 1999 pp. 32–49; 3 Bartholomew 2001; 4 Waller 2008 book; 5 Martin 1914; 6 AvRuskin 1988; 7 Bourguignon 1991; 8 Rapp 1974 — no primary source is cited directly). Key sentences, all on p. 117: "Seldom pausing to eat, drink or rest, many of them danced for days or even weeks. And before long, the chronicles agree, dozens were dying from exhaustion. What was it that could have impelled as many as 400 people to dance, in some cases to death?" — "Some time in mid-July 1518 a lone woman stepped into one of its narrow streets and began a dancing vigil that was to last four or even 6 days in succession. Within a week another 34 had joined the dance. And by the end of August, one chronicler asserts, 400 people had experienced the madness, dancing wildly, uncontrollably around the city [1,2,4,5]." — "Having excluded astrological and supernatural causes, the members of the medical fraternity declared it to be a 'natural disease' caused by 'hot blood' [2,4,5]. … But the response of the authorities was neither to bleed nor to provide cooling diets. Instead they prescribed 'more dancing'. To this end they cleared two guildhalls and the outdoor grain market and they even had a wooden stage constructed opposite the horse fair. … the authorities next paid for musicians and professional dancers to keep the afflicted moving. Every time the sick flagged, fainted, stumbled or slowed, the musicians raised the tempo of their playing and hired dancers held them firm and quickened their pace. 'They danced day and night with those poor people', one eye-witness recalled [1,2,4]." — "Only after those with weak hearts or prone to strokes began to die did the governors rethink their strategy. … gambling, gaming and prostitution were banned and the dissolute driven beyond the city gates. Soon after the dancers were despatched to a mountaintop shrine in the Vosges mountains to pray for divine intercession. There they were led around an altar, wearing red shoes provided for the ceremony, upon which stood a bas-relief carving of St. Vitus, the Virgin and Pope Marcellus. In the following weeks the epidemic abated. Most of the dancers, we are told, regained bodily control [1,4]." No "Troffea", no "fifteen", no dance-ban in this article. P. 120: "Chronicles tell us that after the lone woman had started to dance in mid-July 1518, the onlookers quickly came to …". P. 121: the 1374 outbreaks, later "cults of entranced dancing", conclusion (mass psychogenic illness in a milieu of famine and supernatural fear).

**(b) "A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania", *Lancet* 373 (21 Feb 2009) 624–625 — read in full.** "On a far larger scale was the outbreak that struck the city of Strasbourg in 1518, consuming as many as 400 people. One chronicle states that it claimed, for a brief period at least, about 15 lives a day as men, women, and children danced in the punishing summer heat." — "the course of the 1518 epidemic can be minutely detailed with the help of municipal orders, sermons, and vivid descriptions left behind by the brilliant Renaissance physician, Paracelsus." — ergot "does not seem tenable, since it is unlikely that those poisoned by ergot could have danced for days at a time. Nor would so many people have reacted to its psychotropic chemicals in the same way. The ergotism theory also fails to explain why virtually every outbreak occurred somewhere along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers". — "in Strasbourg in 1518 the authorities mandated that the dancers go on dancing day and night, to which end they constructed a special stage in the heart of the city where they could move freely. They even hired professional dancers and musicians to keep them in constant motion. The policy was a disaster." No reply or correspondence to this essay exists in PubMed or Crossref.

**(c) "Looking back: Dancing plagues and mass hysteria", *The Psychologist* 22/7 (July 2009) — read in full.** "Then it reappeared, explosively, in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children, causing dozens of deaths (Waller, 2008)." Rejects the heretical-cult reading ("Contemporary observers, however, made clear their view that the dancing was a sickness") and ergot ("Backman, 1952; Matossian, 1989"; "Berger, 1931"), argues for dissociative trance in a culture of "supernaturalist beliefs".

**(d) *A Time to Dance, a Time to Die* (Icon 2008) = *The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness* (Sourcebooks 2009) — NOT read; c. 120 snippet fragments from the 2009 US edition.** What they establish: chapter "TROFFEA'S DANCE": "It was a week before the holy festival of Mary Magdalene, on July 14, 1518, that Frau Troffea began her dance." Also: "…'Magdalenae' (presumably five days after the festival of Mary Magdalene on the 27 July): 'As lots of women and …'" (a council notice quoted); "The Duntzenheim chronicle, compiled by the … member …"; "According to the Imlin'sche and Duntzenheim chronicles, by about July 21 as many as thirty-four …"; "…as four hundred people had become infected. Duntzenheim says only two hundred were involved. Even if …"; "one chronicle suggests that (at least for a time) fifteen were dying each day as they danced in the punishing summer heat, seldom pausing …"; "…Until they fell unconscious. Many have died of it.' Exactly how many fell dead we cannot …" (Kleinlawel's verse); "Only in late August or early September 1518 did the epidemic finally subside, leaving many people …"; "Two of Strasbourg's chroniclers, Specklin and Wencker, both state that there were 'many frauds trying to benefit from the …'"; "…as the chronicles of Specklin and Wencker both relate, … for robust men to 'dance with them'"; "'danced until they were dead,' recorded Daniel Specklin"; "(Wencker's sources) heavy wagons to take the remaining dancers to St. Vitus' shrine straight after the …"; "Gebwiler also spoke of a 'strong woman' who danced for …"; "Otto Brunfels, accomplished theologian and botanist, wrote of the dancers as having experienced …"; on Paracelsus: "before she began to dance, Paracelsus would write, the long-suffering Herr Troffea 'had asked something of …'"; "Perhaps, then, Paracelsus was correct to assert that Frau Troffea had an unhappy relationship with Herr Troffea"; "…of the dancers, but there's no reason to doubt his accuracy. Although he arrived in Strasbourg over seven …"; "Those who gathered around her, Paracelsus tells us, 'soon endowed St. Vitus with the …'"; "The explanations for the dancing mania offered by Paracelsus …"; "The Strasbourg dancing epidemic begun by Frau Troffea was the second largest of Europe's dancing plagues". Notes visible in fragments cite "Kleinlawel, Strassburgische Chronik … translated in Backman, Religious Dances"; Backman pp. 242–3, 244–51; Martin pp. 116, 120–21; "Sébastien Brant" (1892) p. 236 [sic]; "See also Midelfort". Waller therefore builds the Troffea story by identifying Paracelsus's unnamed-place parable with the Strasbourg chronicles' unnamed woman of 14 July 1518, and treats Paracelsus as a reliable reporter ("no reason to doubt his accuracy").

**(e) Waller in the press**: Discovery News, 1 Aug 2008 (Viegas), the article the first Wikipedia revision cites: "In July of 1518, a woman referred to as Frau Troffea stepped into a narrow street in Strasbourg, France and began a fervent dancing vigil that lasted between four and six days. By the end of the week, 34 others had joined her and, within a month, the crowd of dancing, hopping and leaping individuals had swelled to 400. Authorities prescribed 'more dancing' to cure the tormented movers but, by summer's end, dozens in the Alsatian city had died of heart attacks, strokes and sheer exhaustion due to nonstop dancing." Waller is quoted: "That the event took place is undisputed"; records "all 'are unambiguous on the fact that (victims) danced'"; against Backman's ergot ("coordinated movements that last for days") and Bartholomew's sect ("there is no evidence that the dancers wanted to dance").

**(f) French edition and its reviews**: *Les danseurs fous de Strasbourg. Une épidémie de transe collective en 1518* (La Nuée Bleue, 2016). Élisabeth Clementz's review, *Revue d'Alsace* 142 (2016) 451–453 (obtained only through a page-fetch extraction; sentences returned verbatim): "Paracelse fait-il remonter cette maladie à une *Frau Troffea* – un nom fort improbable"; "une femme qui s'est mise à danser, imitée par une cinquantaine de personnes"; "Aucun auteur contemporain n'évoque de décès liés à cette épidémie de manie dansante"; "l'ouvrage de Waller se rapproche plus d'un roman historique que d'un ouvrage scientifique"; the extraction also reports that she faults Waller for placing Troffea in Strasbourg in 1518 without source, for inventing details (malnutrition), and for factual errors (Greifenstein castle). Ginnaio 2018 and Lamy 2017 (reviews) were identified but not read. The 2018 teachers' dossier (p. 5) sets "la méthode de travail de John Waller" against "celle des historiens plus vigilants que sont Élisabeth Clementz et Georges Bischoff" and asks "Qui est cette femme nommée Frau Troffea dont ne cesse de parler John Waller ?"; its p. 12 reproduces the back cover of Waller's French edition: "Le 14 juillet 1518, Frau Troffea sortit dans les rues de Strasbourg et dansa des jours durant, sans s'arrêter, entraînant avec elle une foule frénétique de plusieurs centaines de personnes."

### 2.5 Robert Bartholomew, "Rethinking the Dancing Mania", *Skeptical Inquirer* 24/4 (2000) 42–47 — read in full; Bartholomew & Wessely, *BJP* 2002 — abstract only

Thesis (p. 46): "Based on an examination of a representative sample of medieval chronicles, it is evident that these episodes are best explained as deviant religious sects who gained adherents as they made pilgrimages through Europe during years of turmoil in order to receive divine favor. Their symptoms (visions, fainting, tremor) are predictable for any large population engaging in prolonged dancing, emotional worship, and fasting." Strasbourg appears once, at second hand and with Hecker's wrong date: "A German chronicle reports that during a dance frenzy at Strasbourg in 1418, 'many of them went without food for days and nights' (Rust 1969, 20)." He relies on Backman's translations (1952) and on Hecker; on ergot: "Convulsive ergotism could cause bizarre behavior and hallucinations, but chronic ergotism was more … (Donaldson et al. 1997, 203)". Bartholomew & Wessely 2002 (abstract): a survey of "mass sociogenic illness" from possessed nuns to terrorism fears; nothing specific to 1518 in the abstract. Waller's rebuttal (Psychologist 2009; Discovery 2008): the dancers did not want to dance; contemporaries called it a sickness.

### 2.6 Gregor Rohmann

- *Tanzwut* (2013): not obtained (V&R challenge page); 714 pp. per the Google Books record; reviews identified (Metzler 2013, Brugger 2015, Koal 2014) but not read. "The Invention of Dancing Mania" (2009): not obtained; Miller n. 2 cites it (p. 16) for the 1247 and 1374 outbreaks. *Das Mittelalter* 2018 article: empty download.
- "Exorbitantzien […]: Tanzwallfahrten am Oberrhein (16.–17. Jahrhundert)", *ZGO* 168 (2020) 215–241 — read in full. On Strasbourg 1518 he says only (p. 216): "Im Sommer 1518, wenige Monate, nachdem Luther mit seiner Kritik an der kirchlichen Heilsvermittlung an die gelehrte Öffentlichkeit getreten war, hatten in Straßburg (und vereinzelt auch in Basel) Hunderte wochenlang auf den Straßen und Plätzen der Stadt getanzt", n. 2 referring to the 2018 catalogue (ed. Dupeux) and n. 4 to Martin 1914, Waller 2008, Gotman 2018 and his own *Tanzwut*; n. 10 cites Clementz, "La danse de 1518 à l'épreuve des sources", catalogue pp. 33–63 (at pp. 61 f.) and her "Documents concernant la danse de Saint-Guy (Veitstanz) à Strasbourg ou dans sa région, rassemblés, transcrits et traduits", pp. 136–152; n. 26 Roberto Poma, "Paracelse et la danse de Saint-Guy", in the catalogue. His own argument concerns the 16th–17th-century *Tanzwallfahrten* (dance pilgrimages to St Vitus/St John shrines, e.g. Obernai 1463 "Item den siechen tantzenden luten", Breisach 1602) as votive religious practice — "Tanzwut" as a devotional, not primarily medical, phenomenon; he warns against "einer unbesehenen Rückprojektion der Tanzwut" of later centuries onto the Middle Ages (p. 240). He does not discuss Troffea, numbers or deaths at Strasbourg.

### 2.7 Kélina Gotman, *Choreomania: Dance and Disorder* (OUP 2018) — not obtained

Only the publisher's one-line description (Google Books feed) and Crossref records of reviews (Chaleff 2019; Ellis 2019; Thoms 2021; Kabir 2021; Mukherjee 2021 with Gotman's "Forum Response"; Cusack 2024) were retrieved; none read. Gotman wrote "Danse et désordre" for the 2018 Strasbourg catalogue (press kit, p. 9). I cannot report what she says about Troffea.

### 2.8 Lynneth J. Miller, "Divine Punishment or Disease?", *Dance Research* 35/2 (2017) 149–164 — read in full

Opens (p. 149): "On 14 July 1518, a solitary woman began to dance in the streets of Strasbourg. By mid-August, hundreds of people were dancing uncontrollably in the streets. Eventually, dancers began to die – unable to stop dancing, as many as fifteen people a day simply dropped dead and yet the dance continued on." (no note; the Schilter/Hecker verses follow, in Backman's translation "Many hundreds in Strassburg began …"). Her chronicle summary (pp. 151–152, nn. 11–17) rests entirely on Backman pp. 236–238 (n. 11: "Backman's, Martin's, Russell's and Waller's works contain sections of the chronicles. In Backman's monograph, they are often reprinted almost in their entirety"): Imlin "places the beginning … on 14 July 1518" (six days; 34 within four days; drummers and pipers forbidden; guild halls; "more than four hundred persons were afflicted within four weeks"); "Four of the six chronicle accounts also make this assertion that a solitary woman by the name of Lady Troffea began the plague" (n. 13: Backman p. 237) — see Part 3, claim 3; Brant/Wencker: start 22 July 1518, small crosses and red shoes with consecrated oil and holy water (n. 14: Backman p. 236, "Backmann takes this from Mitt. Gesch. Denkm. Elsass 15"); the 10 August decree; Specklin's two market places and paid dancers (n. 16: "Specklin's chronicle … survives only in secondary scholarship … Backman, Religious Dances, p. 15" [sic]). On the council and physicians: the vicar's reply "seemed quite unnecessary to him, seeing that the physicians had declared that it was a natural sickness. Accordingly one should try natural means with it" (n. 50: Martin p. 119; Midelfort p. 34); Brant's note "dated 3 August 1518": the councillors "forbade, on pain of a fine of 30 shillings, that anyone, no matter who, should hold a dance until 29 September in this city or its suburbs or in its whole jurisdiction. For by doing so they take away the recovery of such persons" (n. 51: Midelfort p. 35). Her Paracelsus section quotes Sigerist/Zilboorg 1941 pp. 157–160, 180–183: "Vitista inherited its name from St. Vitus …"; "We do not wish to admit, in this chapter, that the saints can cause a plague …"; the whores-and-lute passage; the cure "shut the patients into a dark, unpleasant place and let them fast on water and bread for some time, without mercy"; "the best cure, and one which rarely fails, is to throw such persons into cold water"; the "laughing veins"; "a natural one from the laughing veins, and an incidental one from the imagination"; and she asserts (p. 158) "Paracelsus's account of Lady Troffea's stubborn sinfulness and wanton dancing, which Paracelsus and the chronicle authors identified as the initial cause of the dancing plague" — the chronicle authors do not name her. Miller also states "Paracelsus was the first to view continuous dancing as a disease and the creator of the term choreomania" and that the 1518 event was "the first attempt at explaining the natural causes of the disease".

### 2.9 Other scholarship 2000–2026 (abstracts / identifications only)

- Donaldson, Cavanagh & Rankin, "The dancing plague: a public health conundrum", *Public Health* 111 (1997) 201–204 — abstract: multifactorial, "unlikely that Dancing Mania resulted from a single cause"; cited by Bartholomew against ergot.
- Lanska, "The Dancing Manias: Psychogenic Illness as a Social Phenomenon", *Front Neurol Neurosci* 42 (2018) 132–141 — abstract: "in the 16th century Paracelsus discounted the idea that the saints caused or interceded in the cure of the dancing mania; he instead suggested a psychogenic or malingered etiology"; "component causes likely included psychogenic illness, malingering, and ritualized behaviors".
- Clementz 2018 (catalogue chapter "La danse de 1518 à l'épreuve des sources", pp. 33–63) and Bischoff 2018 ("Vérités historiques"): not obtained; known through the press kit extracts (p. 9–10), the teachers' dossier, Rohmann 2020 n. 10 and the Rue89 interview (Part 3). Press-kit extract (Clementz): "Au mois de juillet 1518, la ville de Strasbourg est confrontée à un curieux problème de santé publique. Quelque cinquante personnes se mettent à danser jusqu'à épuisement dans les rues de la ville. … Pour Witkowski, un psychiatre du XIXe siècle, la femme qui s'était mise à danser en premier était 'sujette à des attaques de nerfs' … Witkowski précise qu'il existe à ce sujet de nombreux témoignages de contemporains. Or il n'en est rien." Press-kit extract (the following one, attributed on the next line of the kit — see B_SOURCES): "Frau Trofféa n'a jamais existé. … La femme qui a ouvert le bal des 'danseurs fous de Strasbourg' et qui aurait dansé sans discontinuer pendant quatre ou six jours est restée anonyme dans le seul document authentique qui lui attribue les débuts de cette mystérieuse épidémie. … Son patronyme est une invention pédante de Paracelse (1493-1541), à partir du substantif grec *tropaia* (τροπαία), dont …" [cut in the kit].
- Murdock 2009 (review of Waller, *German History*), Dickason 2017, Miller Renberg 2026 (Routledge entry), Prochwicz & Sobczyk 2011, Marillier & Godard 2023 (congress abstract), Patel & Surti 2025: identified in Crossref/PubMed searches, not read.

### 2.10 Wikipedia, "Dancing plague of 1518" — page history read; 25 revisions read in full

- 8 Aug 2008, rev 230695239 (Pillsberry), the first revision, citing Discovery News only: "In July of 1518, in Strasbourg, France, a woman began a dancing craze in a narrow street that lasted for 4-6 days. The crowd swelled to over 400 others by the end of the week. Most of them died due to strokes, heart attacks and exhaustion due to nonstop 'jigging'."
- 9 Aug 2008, rev 230759997 (Twas Now, "expand; more to come"): lead "over the period of about one month, most of the people died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion"; "The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg. This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Most of these people eventually died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion." — all cited to Viegas/Discovery News.
- 15 Jan 2009, rev 264197100 (Intothewoods29, "+ ref … goal: FA for April Fool's Day"): adds, cited to Waller's *Endeavour* article, "physicians, who ruled out astrological and supernatural causes, instead announcing that the plague was a 'natural disease' caused by 'hot blood'. However, instead of prescribing bleeding, authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage … authorities even paid for musicians to keep the afflicted moving."
- By 2013 "Most of these people eventually died" had become "Some of these people eventually died".
- 8 Apr 2016, rev 714168375 (Czeer, "Deaths caused per day"): "One report indicates that for a period the plague killed around around fifteen people per day", citing Waller, *Lancet* 2009 — the first appearance of "fifteen".
- 2021 onward: "Somewhere between 50 and 400 people" (cited to History.com, Andrews 2015).
- 17 Aug 2026, rev 1369894564 (current): lead "from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks … There is controversy concerning the number of deaths, but the total is unknown"; narrative largely from Pennant-Rea 2018 (Troffea "on July 14th", guild halls, "musicians and strong people", ban on music, red shoes with holy water and painted crosses, "ceased in September, when the remaining dancers were led to a mountaintop chapel"); "Historians disagree over whether and how many deaths occurred, though some claim there were as many as 15 deaths per day during the outbreak's peak" (cited to the Icon 2008 book's publisher page); a section "Veracity of deaths": "Some sources claim that for a period the plague killed around fifteen people per day, but the sources of the city of Strasbourg at the time of the events did not mention the number of deaths, or even if there were fatalities" (cited to Clementz 2016); "Of the six chronicle accounts, four support Lady Troffea as the first dancer" (from Miller 2017).

### 2.11 Press: Public Domain Review 2018; Rue89 Strasbourg 2018

- Ned Pennant-Rea, "The Dancing Plague of 1518", PDR, 10 July 2018 (CC BY-SA): "The physician and alchemist Paracelsus visited Strasbourg eight years after the plague … According to his Opus Paramirum [sic — the passage is in *De causis morborum invisibilium*], and various chronicles agree, it all started with one woman. Frau Troffea had started dancing on July 14th on the narrow cobbled street outside her half-timbered home …"; "The dancing plague had lasted for over a month, from mid-July to late August or early September. At its height, as many as fifteen people were dying each day. The final toll is unknown but, if such a daily death rate was true, could have been into the hundreds."; the ban with Brant's exception "if honourable persons wish to dance at weddings or celebrations of first Mass in their houses, they may do so using stringed instruments, but they are on their conscience not to use tambourines and drums" (n. 8: AVES "R3, fol. 72 recto, quoted in Midelfort p. 35"); red shoes, holy water, crosses of consecrated oil (n. 9: Specklin in Martin 1914 p. 121, quoted in Midelfort p. 36). Sources: Backman pp. 237, 238, 313; Waller 2009 pp. xv, 104, 109; Midelfort pp. 33, 35, 36, 49; Sigerist ed. 1996 pp. 181–2.
- Rue89 Strasbourg, 31 Jan 2018 (on Jean Teulé's novel *Entrez dans la danse*): "Madame Toffea lance la transe le 14 juillet 1518. … Dix jours plus tard : 50 individus sont contaminés. À la fin de cette épidémie … ils sont près de 400 victimes. … On dénombre une quinzaine de morts quotidiens. Les danseurs sont victimes de déshydratation ou d'accidents cardio-vasculaires."
- Rue89 Strasbourg, 18 Oct 2018 (Pauline Ruhlmann, on Clementz's work for the exhibition): "Le 15 juillet 1518, le Magistrat de Strasbourg et le greffier de Strasbourg Sébastian Brant rapportent qu'une femme atteinte du 'mal de Saint-Guy' ne peut s'arrêter de danser … Quinze nouvelles personnes seraient contaminées chaque jour, d'après une chronique contemporaine aux événements mais extérieure à Strasbourg. D'après une autre chronique, écrite 30 ans après les événements, '[la femme] dansa quatre jours d'affilée, quelques jours plus tard, ils étaient déjà trente-quatre à danser, et dans la quatrième semaine, leur nombre s'éleva à plus de deux cent.' Ces récits sont cohérents avec les faits rapportés par les archives, mais les nombres ne sont pas vérifiables. Elles sont en tout cas une cinquantaine à danser en même temps …"; "Contrairement à ce qui a été beaucoup rapporté, les malades ne sont pas placés sur une estrade. À l'inverse, ils sont cachés dans des pièces fermées pour éviter les contaminations. La ville les répartit dans deux poêles (salles) de corporations, avant d'embaucher des personnes pour danser avec elles afin de les encourager. Aucune source ne mentionne l'efficacité de cette initiative."; "Aucun mort n'est mentionné par les archives de l'époque, aucun bilan de malades n'est fait non plus. Seuls cinq cas sont documentés …"; "une chronique écrite vers 1580, 62 ans après l'épidémie, parle d'une centaine de malades dansant en même temps sur des pistes de danse dressées pour elles et d'un rituel avec des chaussures rouges aspergées d'eau bénite pour les guérir, sans citer de source. Cent ans plus tard, un autre auteur reprend ces faits et ajoute que certains en sont morts."; "Paracelse … n'étant venu pour la première fois à Strasbourg qu'en 1526. Celui-ci a inventé une identité et une histoire à la toute première personne atteinte par la manie dansante : 'Frau Troffea' aurait simulé la maladie pour irriter son mari … En réalité, Troffea est un nom imaginé par Paracelse. Il signifie 'qui fait tourner' en grec."; "L'historien John Waller … reprend le nom de Frau Troffea et en fait la première victime strasbourgeoise. Il ne garde pas l'histoire de Paracelse mais décrit le personnage comme une femme touchée par la famine."

---

## 3. Part 3 — The ten claims, traced

**Method.** For each claim I give (a) what the 1518 documents and the sixteenth/seventeenth-century Strasbourg narratives actually say, verbatim, with the file in which I checked the reading; (b) the conduits — Schilter 1698 → Hecker 1832 → Martin 1914 → Backman 1952 → Midelfort 1999; (c) Waller (*Endeavour* 2008, *Lancet* 2009, the 2009 US book through search-inside snippets), Discovery News (1 Aug 2008), Wikipedia (revision ids), the Public Domain Review essay (2018) and the 2018 Strasbourg exhibition material. "Earliest appearance" always means the earliest text *I retrieved and read*; a link established only from a snippet or from a file listed in B_SOURCES §8 is marked as such. Backman 1952 and Waller's book were **not** read (snippets only; see Part 2), so "first in Waller/Backman" means "first *found* there", not "absent from everything earlier".

Files (all under `../sources/`): Imlin = `imlin-reuss1875/imlin_p26_bsb11312752_00034.jpg` (Reuss 1875 p. 26, image checked); Rem = `cds-25-rem-1896/images/p088.jpg` (CDS 25 p. 88, image checked); Martin 1914 = `martin-zvfv-24-1914/martin_1914_pp113-134_ocr_raw.txt` (OCR; printed pp. 113–134); Dacheux 1892 (Wencker/Extractus) = `wencker-trausch-dacheux1892/` (my reading of the OCR, see B_SOURCES §8); Midelfort 1999 = `midelfort-a2/midelfort_history_of_madness_archiveorg_2022scan_djvu.txt` (unofficial archive.org upload — provenance flagged; I read the section "A Dancing Mania", pp. 32–49, in full from it; page numbers as printed); Hecker 1832 = `hecker1832/hecker1832_tanzwuth_b30797160_djvu.txt`; Babington's translation (1859 ed.) = `hecker-english/hecker1859_epidemics_epidemicsofmiddl00heck_djvu.txt`; Waller = `waller/Waller_2008_Endeavour_In_a_spin.txt`, `waller/Waller_2009_Lancet_wayback.txt`, `waller/Waller_2009_Psychologist_wayback.txt`; Waller 2009 book and Backman 1952 snippets = `openlibrary-snippets/ol_snippets_batch1–4.json` (plus the ad-hoc phrase searches recorded in B_SOURCES §4); Discovery News = `press/DiscoveryNews_2008-08-01_Viegas_wayback.txt`; Wikipedia = `wikipedia/rev_*.wiki`, `wikipedia/revisions_list.json`; PDR = `press/PublicDomainReview_2018-07-10_PennantRea.txt`; Miller 2017 = `miller2017/Miller_2017_DanceResearch_wayback.txt`; 2018 exhibition = `strasbourg2018/`.

### 3.0 Overview

| # | Claim | What the earliest sources say | Where the modern form first appears (as retrieved) | Wikipedia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "fifteen a day were dying" | Rem (Augsburg, written 1518–c.1530): "daß ain tag wol bei 15 menschen ankam" — fifteen a day *were seized*; no deaths in any 1518 text | conversion to a death-rate: Waller, *Lancet* Feb 2009 ("about 15 lives a day"); Waller 2009 book ("fifteen were dying each day"); *Endeavour* 2008 has only "dozens were dying" | 8 Apr 2016, rev 714168375, citing the *Lancet* |
| 2 | "400 dancers" | Imlin (hand of 1516–43): "mehr dan 200"; Brant's *Annales*: "uff fünfzig personen"; Specklin: "über 100 … auff einmal"; Schilter's verse: "Viel hundert" | "400" is Martin 1914's (after Witkowski 1879) reading of Imlin → Backman 1952 pp. 235–42 (as quoted by Miller) → Midelfort 1999 p. 33 → Waller 2008 | 8 Aug 2008, first revision (from Discovery News) |
| 3 | "Frau Troffea", 14 July 1518 | name: Paracelsus only, no place, no date (Part 1); date: Imlin "acht tag vor S. Maria Magdalena tag" = 14 July | identification of Paracelsus's woman with the Strasbourg dancer: Backman 1952 ("i.e., the Strassburg dance. 'Mistress T…'"); date "about July 14, 1518": Midelfort 1999 p. 33; name + date + Strasbourg in one sentence: Waller 2009 book; name in the press: Discovery News 1 Aug 2008 | name 9 Aug 2008 (rev 230759997); "July 14th" via Pennant-Rea 2018 |
| 4 | "34 within a week / 400 within a month" | Imlin: "in 4 tagen bey 34 frauwen und man"; "in 4 wuchen … mehr dan 200" | "34 … 400 within four weeks": Martin → Backman → Midelfort p. 33; "within a week … within a month": Discovery News 2008 (Waller *Endeavour*: "Within a week another 34"; "by the end of August … 400") | 9 Aug 2008 |
| 5 | stage(s), hired musicians, "strong men", guildhalls | guildhalls: Imlin; stages on horse- and grain-market, people paid to dance with them, drums and pipes: Specklin (c. 1580), Wencker (1637); "strong men": Gebwiler (1520s; guards for the first woman) and Platter (Basel, 1540s) | Hecker 1832 (general: magistrates hire musicians, "athletic men"); Midelfort pp. 34–35; Waller *Endeavour* p. 117 ("wooden stage … musicians and professional dancers … hired dancers held them firm") | 15 Jan 2009, rev 264197100 (from *Endeavour*) |
| 6 | physicians: "hot blood"; prescription "more dancing" | letter to the bishop, 25 July 1518: "maladie naturelle due à une conjonction astrale et à la chaleur du moment"; Extractus fol. 171 (Jung's résumé): "natürliche krankheit, die von hitzigem geblüt herkomme"; physicians prescribed diet and quiet string music | Martin 1914 p. 119 → Midelfort p. 34 ("a natural sickness that came from hot blood") → Waller *Endeavour* ("Having excluded astrological and supernatural causes … Instead they prescribed 'more dancing'") | 15 Jan 2009 |
| 7 | ban on dancing until St Michael's day, wedding exception | Brant's *Annales*/Extractus no. 3443: "niemand tantzen soll bis Michaelis … wol möchte man bey brautläuften und ersten messen mit saitenspiel tantzen"; mandate AVES 1 MR 3 f. 72r (2/3 Aug 1518) | Martin 1914 p. 116; Midelfort 1999 p. 35 (full translation); not in Hecker, *Endeavour* or *Lancet*; PDR 2018 (from Midelfort) | never (no revision mentions it) |
| 8 | pilgrimage to St Vitus at Saverne; red shoes, small crosses, holy water | pilgrimage: council 23 July 1518, Imlin, *Annales*; wax image: Extractus 4398; red shoes, "creuzle", chrism, holy water: Specklin (c. 1580), Wencker | Hecker 1832 p. 8 (pilgrimage, "Zabern und Rotestein", procession round the altar; no shoes); Backman 1952 pp. 235–42 (Specklin translated); Midelfort p. 36; Waller *Endeavour* | red shoes/Saverne: 2024 (from PDR) |
| 9 | "ended early September" | letter of 25 July: "touche néanmoins à sa fin"; Imlin: four weeks; council orders 2/3 and 10 Aug; ban until 29 Sept; no end date anywhere | Waller 2009 book: "late August or early September"; *Endeavour*: "by the end of August … In the following weeks the epidemic abated" | "about one month" 2008–2020; "July 1518 to September 1518" current |
| 10 | deaths from "heart attack, stroke or exhaustion" | no deaths in any 1518 text; first deaths: Specklin c. 1580 ("Viel tanzten sich zu tode"), Kleine Chronik, Wencker, Kleinlawel 1625, 1636 chronicle | Waller *Endeavour* 2008: "dozens were dying from exhaustion"; "those with weak hearts or prone to strokes began to die"; Discovery News: "died of heart attacks, strokes and sheer exhaustion" | 8 Aug 2008 ("Most of them died…"); "most" → "some" Dec 2010; "Veracity of deaths" 2022 |

### 3.1 "Fifteen a day were dying"

**1518.** The only contemporary text with the number fifteen is the Augsburg merchant-chronicler Wilhelm Rem (*Cronica newer geschichten*, ed. F. Roth, Chroniken der deutschen Städte 25, 1896, p. 88; image checked): "Wie zů Straspurg vil leut sant Veitz tantz ankam. Anno dni. 1518 im sumer da kam es zů Straspurg fast vil leutt sant Veitz tantz an, daß ain tag wol bei 15 menschen ankam. es weret fast lang, also verbott man das tantzen und pfeiffen und paugkenschlagen." — "How at Strasbourg St Vitus's dance came upon many people. In the year 1518, in summer, St Vitus's dance came upon very many people at Strasbourg, so that on one day it seized a good fifteen people. It lasted very long, so they forbade dancing and piping and drum-beating" (tr. B). *Ankommen* here means "to befall/seize" (cf. the heading "vil leut … ankam"); Rem says nothing about deaths. No Strasbourg document of 1518 (commission of 23 July, letter of 25 July, Brant's *Annales*), and neither Imlin nor Gebwiler, mentions a death (A1, A2; Clementz 2016: "Aucun auteur contemporain n'évoque de décès liés à cette épidémie").

**Conduits.** Martin 1914 p. 114 is the first modern author to quote Rem (OCR read): "Bei einer gelegentlichen Durchsicht der Chronica neuer Geschichten des Nürnberger [sic] Chronisten Wilhelm Rem fiel mir auf, dass dort die Epidemie 1518 datiert ist. Es heisst da: 'Wie zu Straspurg vil leut sant Veitz tantz ankam. Anno dni. 1518 im Summer da kam es zu Straspurg fast vil leutt sant Veitz tantz an, daß ain tag wol bei 15 menschen ankam. es weret fast lang, also verbott man das tantzen und pfeiffen und paugkenschlagen'" — used by Martin to overturn Hecker's date 1418, not as a death toll. Hecker 1832 has no figure of fifteen and no deaths at Strasbourg. Whether Backman 1952 renders Rem, and how, I could not establish (no snippet). Midelfort 1999 pp. 32–49 (read in full): no "fifteen".

**Waller.** *Endeavour* 2008 p. 117: "Seldom pausing to eat, drink or rest, many of them danced for days or even weeks. And before long, the chronicles agree, dozens were dying from exhaustion." — no "fifteen". *Lancet* 373 (21 Feb 2009) 624: "On a far larger scale was the outbreak that struck the city of Strasbourg in 1518, consuming as many as 400 people. One chronicle states that it claimed, for a brief period at least, about 15 lives a day as men, women, and children danced in the punishing summer heat." — the earliest statement retrieved in which Rem's fifteen *cases* a day have become fifteen *deaths* a day; the chronicle is not named. 2009 book (snippet, batch 2): "…chronicle suggests that (at least for a time) fifteen were dying each day as they danced in the punishing summer heat, seldom pausing…" (page not visible). Rem is the only chronicle with "15 … a day", and his verb is *ankam*; the conversion is therefore Waller's (unless Backman's translation already did it — unverified).

**Onward.** Wikipedia: absent 2008–2015; added 8 Apr 2016 by user Czeer (rev 714168375, edit summary "Deaths caused per day"): "One report indicates that for a period the plague killed around around fifteen people per day.<ref name = lancet>" (citing Waller, *Lancet* 2009); since 2021/22 in the section "Veracity of deaths": "Some sources claim that for a period the plague killed around fifteen people per day, but the sources of the city of Strasbourg at the time of the events did not mention the number of deaths, or even if there were fatalities" (citing Clementz 2016). Miller 2017 p. 149: "Eventually, dancers began to die – unable to stop dancing, as many as fifteen people a day simply dropped dead and yet the dance continued on" (no citation attached; her chronicle citations are to Backman). Pennant-Rea, PDR 2018: "At its height, as many as fifteen people were dying each day. The final toll is unknown but, if such a daily death rate was true, could have been into the hundreds" (no note). Rue89 Strasbourg, 18 Oct 2018 (Clementz): no deaths in the sources (Part 2.11).

### 3.2 "400 dancers"

**Sources.** Imlin family chronicle (hand of 1516–43), Reuss 1875 p. 26 (image checked): "und in 4 wuchen wurden ir mehr dan 200 dantzet" — "and within four weeks more than 200 of them danced". Kleine Strassburger Chronik (c. 1600–33; A2): "in vier wochen uber 200". Brant's *Annales* (Extractus no. 3443, Dacheux 1892 p. 239): "uff fünfzig personen". Specklin (c. 1580; Martin p. 119): "über 100 zu Strassburg auff einmal tanzten". Schilter 1698's verse (Hecker 1832 p. 7 n. 1): "Viel hundert fingen zu Straßburg an / Zu tanzen und springen, Frau und Mann". The Basel notice (before 1537; A2): "etliche hundert". Nobody writes 400.

**Where 400 comes from.** Martin 1914 p. 119 prints Imlin from Witkowski (1879) with the reading "vnd in 4 Wochen wurden Ir mehr denn 400 Dantzer" (OCR read; A2 traced the variant to Witkowski). Reuss's 1875 edition "nach der Originalhandschrift" has 200. Midelfort 1999 p. 33 (read): "According to the seventeenth-century chronicle of Oseas Schad, despite efforts to curb the spread of the dancing mania, soon two hundred were afflicted. The Imlin family chronicle claims that within four weeks, more than four hundred were beset with exhausting, uncontrollable dancing" (n. 22: Martin pp. 116, 119; Backman pp. 235–42). Backman 1952 (not read) is quoted by Miller 2017 n. 12 (Backman pp. 236–237) as translating Imlin: "in spite of all this more than four hundred persons were afflicted within four weeks". Hecker 1832 has no number beyond the verse's "Viel hundert".

**Waller.** *Endeavour* 2008 p. 117: "What was it that could have impelled as many as 400 people to dance, in some cases to death?"; "And by the end of August, one chronicler asserts, 400 people had experienced the madness, dancing wildly, uncontrollably around the city [1,2,4,5]" (refs: Backman, Midelfort, Waller's book, Martin). *Lancet* 2009: "consuming as many as 400 people". *Psychologist* 2009: "Chronicles indicate that it then consumed about 400 men, women and children". 2009 book (snippets, batch 3): "…as four hundred people had become infected. Duntzenheim says only two hundred were involved. Even if…" — so Waller knew the 200 reading (he calls Reuss's *Kleine Chronik*/"Pro memoria" the "Duntzenheim chronicle") and preferred 400. Discovery News, 1 Aug 2008 (Viegas, interviewing Waller): "By the end of the week, 34 others had joined her and, within a month, the crowd of dancing, hopping and leaping individuals had swelled to 400."

**Wikipedia.** First revision, 8 Aug 2008 (Pillsberry, rev 230695239): "The crowd swelled to over 400 others by the end of the week." 9 Aug 2008 (Twas Now, rev 230759997): "within a month, there were around 400 dancers" (citing Discovery). Lead "Around 400 people took to dancing" from 2013; "Somewhere between 50 and 400 people" from 2021 (the 50 being the *Annales*' "uff fünfzig"). PDR 2018: "The Imlin family chronicle records that within a month the plague had seized four hundred citizens" (n. 6: Midelfort p. 33).

### 3.3 "Frau Troffea" as first dancer, and "14 July 1518"

**The name.** Paracelsus alone: "Die Fraw Troffea ist die erste gsein in der kranckheit" (Huser 1589, I,263 = Sudhoff I/9, 278; Part 1.2), in a chapter without place-name, year, numbers or deaths; first printed 1565 (Sudhoff's introduction to Bd. 9; the Bischoff/Clementz press kit 2018 p. 10 likewise: "sa première mention n'apparaît qu'en 1565"). No Strasbourg text names the first dancer: Imlin "hub ein frauw an zu dantzen"; Kleine Chronik "hub eine frau ahn zu tantzen"; Gebwiler "one woman" (Midelfort p. 34); the magistrate's letter of 25 July "Ça a commencé avec une femme" (A1 §3.5); *Annales*, Specklin, Wencker, Kleinlawel, Rem — no name. "Troffea" does not occur in Hecker 1832, Martin 1914 (OCR of pp. 113–134, 225–239 searched) or Midelfort 1999 (whole scan searched).

**The date.** Imlin: "Anno 1518 iar, acht tag vor S. Maria Magdalena tag hub ein frauw an zu dantzen" — eight days before 22 July = 14 July (inclusive count); the *Annales* say "um Margarethen" and the Kleine Chronik "umb S. Margredentag" (13 or 20 July; A2). Martin 1914 p. 119 prints Imlin's dating; Midelfort 1999 p. 33 computes it: "The dancing in Strasbourg apparently began with one woman, about July 14, 1518, but within four days, thirty-four men and women were infected." Miller 2017 p. 151: "Imlin's family chronicle account places the beginning of the dancing plague in Strasbourg on 14 July 1518" (her text from Backman pp. 236–37).

**The coupling.** Backman 1952 (snippets from the phrase searches, B_SOURCES §4; page not visible, c. p. 313 per PDR nn. 3 and 10): "In his Opus Paramirium Paracelsus described the origin and cause of St Vitus' dance, i.e., the Strassburg dance. 'Mistress Trophaca [OCR; presumably Troffea] was the first to suffer from this disease…'"; "In the year 1526 Paracelsus was in Strassburg [Sticker]. As we may remember, in 1518 … excited much surprise and terror. It is very probable that Paracelsus shared that experience." So the identification of Paracelsus's woman with the first Strasbourg dancer is at least as old as Backman, who presents it as "very probable", not as fact. Waller 2009 book (snippets, batches 1–3): chapter "FRAU TROFFEA'S DANCE"; "It was a week before the holy festival of Mary Magdalene, on July 14, 1518, that Frau Troffea began her dance"; "sometime in late July, just a week or more after Frau Troffea had started to dance, the epidemic had taken…"; and, from the husband of the parable, a "Herr Troffea" ("the long-suffering Herr Troffea 'had asked something of her which she did not…'"; "Frau Troffea had an unhappy relationship with Herr Troffea") — Paracelsus gives the husband no name. *Endeavour* 2008 does not use the name ("a lone woman", "the lone woman"); Discovery News, 1 Aug 2008, does: "In July of 1518, a woman referred to as Frau Troffea stepped into a narrow street in Strasbourg, France and began a fervent dancing vigil that lasted between four and six days."

**Onward.** Wikipedia 9 Aug 2008 (rev 230759997): "The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg" (citing Discovery) — "Mrs. Troffea" in 2013–17 (with vandalism: "Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone" in the 3 Mar 2013 snapshot, "Frau Lee" in the 5 Jan 2020 snapshot). Miller 2017 p. 151: "Four of the six chronicle accounts also make this assertion that a solitary woman by the name of Lady Troffea began the plague" (n. 13: Backman p. 237) — wrong on the evidence read here: no chronicle names her. Wikipedia (2022– ) copies Miller: "Of the six chronicle accounts, four support Lady Troffea as the first dancer." PDR 2018: "According to his Opus Paramirum, and various chronicles agree, it all started with one woman. Frau Troffea had started dancing on July 14th on the narrow cobbled street outside her half-timbered home … a ploy to embarrass Herr Troffea" (nn. 3, 10: Backman p. 313); the current Wikipedia lead quotes this sentence. The 2018 exhibition (press kit p. 10, Bischoff/Clementz): "Frau Trofféa n'a jamais existé … est restée anonyme dans le seul document authentique … Son patronyme est une invention pédante de Paracelse (1493-1541), à partir du substantif grec tropaia"; Clementz 2016: "un nom fort improbable". Two further OL findings: a modern German *Werke* edition (scan `werke0000para`) reads "Frau Troffea ist die erste in dieser Krankheit gewesen"; the name has since spread through popular books (OL full-text search: 81 scanned books contain "Troffea", among them *Get Well Soon*, *The Rhine*, History Channel and "unexplained" compendia — none earlier than Waller as far as the hit list shows).

### 3.4 "Within a week 34 / within a month 400"

**Source.** Imlin (image checked): the first woman danced "woll 6 tag"; while she was on the way to Saverne "fingen noch mehr an zu dantzen, bey dem Herrenstall also daß in 4 tagen bey 34 frauwen und man waren" — "so that within four days there were about 34 women and men"; "in 4 wuchen … mehr dan 200". The Kleine Chronik has the same 34 in four days and ">200" in four weeks (A2). Brant's *Annales*: fifty. Nothing says "within a week" or "within a month … 400".

**Chain.** Martin 1914 p. 119 (Imlin with 400) → Backman pp. 236–37 (per Miller n. 12: "thirty-four men and women were involved within four days … more than four hundred persons were afflicted within four weeks") → Midelfort p. 33 ("within four days, thirty-four … within four weeks, more than four hundred"). Waller *Endeavour* p. 117: "Some time in mid-July 1518 a lone woman stepped into one of its narrow streets and began a dancing vigil that was to last four or even 6 days in succession. Within a week another 34 had joined the dance. And by the end of August, one chronicler asserts, 400 people had experienced the madness" — "within a week" for Imlin's four days (after the first woman's six), "end of August" for Imlin's four weeks (which run from 14 July to about 11 August). 2009 book (snippet): "According to the Imlin'sche and Duntzenheim chronicles, by about July 21 as many as thirty-four…". Discovery News 2008: "By the end of the week, 34 others had joined her and, within a month … 400". Wikipedia 9 Aug 2008: "This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers" — unchanged until 2020; current text: "Soon, three dozen others joined in … By August, the 'dancing plague' afflicted between 50 and 400 people" (citing History.com 2015). PDR 2018: "within days more than thirty choreomaniacs were in motion"; "within a month … four hundred".

### 3.5 Wooden stage(s), hired musicians, "strong men", guildhalls

**Sources.** Guildhalls — Imlin (image): "Da verbotten meine herren die drummeln und pfiffer, und fürt ein theil uff die gerwerstub, das ander uff die zimmerleut stub" — "Then my lords forbade the drums and pipers, and led one part to the tanners' hall, the other to the carpenters' hall" (i.e. the council *suppressed* the music). Gebwiler (early 1520s, Stenzel 1926 pp. 74–75, in Midelfort's translation p. 34): he "had seen one woman dance for six days in a row, 'and strong men had to replace one another as guards in the job of protecting her from hurting herself'"; "the Council of Twenty-One ordered two guildhalls to be set aside for the dancers and for them to be provided with guards … 'they danced day and night with those poor people, but toward evening they tied them all onto wagons and took them to St. Vitus of Hohlenstein'" — the "strong men" are guards of the first woman, and the dancing "with those poor people" is Gebwiler's phrase for the guards. Stages, paid dancers and drums appear only in Specklin (c. 1580; Martin 1914 p. 119): "Da gab man in etliche zunftstuben ein, auch auff dem Ross- und Kornmarckt macht man gerüst und bestellte eigene leutt umb lohn, die mussten stets mit ihnen, tanzten mit trummen und pfeiffen; es half alles nichts" — "They gave them some guildhalls, and on the horse- and grain-market they made scaffolds and engaged special people for pay, who had to be with them constantly; they danced with drums and pipes; it all helped nothing" (tr. B); and in Wencker's chronicle (Dacheux 1892 no. 3007): "das man ihnen zu Strassburg der Zimmerleut- und Gerberstub gab, und sondere leute bestellet die genug mit ihnen tantzten … Auf dem Rossmarck schlug man ein gerüst auf, liess sie bey trummel und pfeiffen tantzen, half aber alles nicht". The 1518 records point the other way: the physicians allowed only string music (letter of 25 July; A1), the council ordered on "5a Mariae Magdalenae" that drums be stopped and "heimlich seitenspiel" used (Extractus, Dacheux p. 240; Midelfort p. 35 n. 28), and the *Annales* record "kein brucken/beucken schlagen". Platter's Basel woman of the 1540s (Observationes 1614; Midelfort pp. 37–38) danced "with specially chosen guards ('strong men'), dressed in red, who took turns for almost a full month".

**Conduits.** Hecker 1832 p. 7 gives Strasbourg dancers "begleitet von aufspielenden Sackpfeifern" (bagpipers — from his 1374 material, not from any Strasbourg source read here) and, in his general account of the later sixteenth century (Babington 1859 p. 96, after Schenck and Plater): "the magistrates hired musicians for the purpose of carrying the St. Vitus's dancers so much the quicker through the attacks, and directed, that athletic men should be sent among them in order to complete the exhaustion"; Babington's note adds Burton's "magistrates in Germany will hire musicians to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions to dance with them". Midelfort p. 35 translates Specklin ("set up platforms in the horse market and in the grain market and paid people to stay with them and to dance with them, [accompanied] by fife and drum") and p. 37: "the city's Council of Twenty-One ordered fife and drum, guards, and special dance stages. Within two weeks, however, it appeared that music was actually spreading the disorder".

**Waller.** *Endeavour* p. 117: "Instead they prescribed 'more dancing'. To this end they cleared two guildhalls and the outdoor grain market and they even had a wooden stage constructed opposite the horse fair … the authorities next paid for musicians and professional dancers to keep the afflicted moving. Every time the sick flagged, fainted, stumbled or slowed, the musicians raised the tempo of their playing and hired dancers held them firm and quickened their pace. 'They danced day and night with those poor people', one eye-witness recalled [1,2,4]" — Gebwiler's guards have become hired dancers, and "raised the tempo" has no source. *Lancet*: "they constructed a special stage in the heart of the city … They even hired professional dancers and musicians to keep them in constant motion." 2009 book (snippets): "…florins to pay, as the chronicles of Specklin and Wencker both relate, for robust men to…" (p. 125 visible). Wikipedia 15 Jan 2009 (Intothewoods29, rev 264197100): "authorities encouraged more dancing, in part by opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage" (from *Endeavour*). PDR 2018: "set up platforms in the horse market and in the grain market" (n. 5: Midelfort p. 35), then embellished: "dozens of musicians were paid to play drums, fiddles, pipes, and horns, with healthy dancers brought in for further encouragement". Current Wikipedia: "musicians and strong people to help keep those dealing with the dancing mania to stay upright" (citing PDR, which does not say "strong").

### 3.6 The physicians' "hot blood" and the advice to let them dance

**Sources.** The magistrate's letter to Bishop Wilhelm, 25 July 1518 (ADBR 12 J 1495; only the exhibition's French translation retrieved, dossier pp. 11–12): "Ça a commencé avec une femme, puis avec d'autres personnes qui se sont mises à danser. Nous avons gardé ces personnes quelques jours et interrogé les médecins, qui nous ont dit qu'il s'agissait d'une maladie naturelle due à une conjonction astrale et à la chaleur du moment. Elle touche néanmoins à sa fin" — a *natural* illness from an astral conjunction and the heat; the physicians' regimen (same dossier): no wine, barley water, and music only with "cithares, violons, luths ou orgues positifs". Wencker's Extractus fol. 171 as summarised by Jung (Dacheux, BSCMHA XIX, 1899, p. 42 no. 4398; image checked by A1): "die Aerzte erklärten es für eine natürliche krankheit, die von hitzigem geblüt herkomme" — Jung's résumé, not the protocol's words; the only verbatim words are the vicar's: "diwyl die Artz anzeigen, daß es eine natürlich krankheit sy, daß man auch natürlich mittel mit in versuche" (Martin 1914 p. 119; A1 §3.2). No source says the physicians advised dancing; the council's therapeutic dancing is Specklin's/Wencker's report (3.5).

**Conduits.** Martin 1914 p. 119 prints Jung's résumé and the vicar's reply. Midelfort p. 34: "physicians testified to the Council of the Twenty-One that the disease was 'a natural sickness that came from hot blood.' When the afflicted dancers petitioned for a Mass … the council consulted with the bishop's vicar, who replied 'that this seemed quite unnecessary to him, seeing that the physicians had declared that it was a natural sickness…'" (n. 25: Dacheux, *Fragments des anciennes chroniques d'Alsace* 4, 1901, p. 252; Martin pp. 118–19). Hecker: nothing of this.

**Waller.** *Endeavour* p. 117: "As the dance turned epidemic, troubled nobles and burghers consulted local physicians. Having excluded astrological and supernatural causes, the members of the medical fraternity declared it to be a 'natural disease' caused by 'hot blood' [2,4,5]. This was orthodox physic, consistent with Galen's view that bloody fluxes could overheat the brain … But the response of the authorities was neither to bleed nor to provide cooling diets. Instead they prescribed 'more dancing'." The 25 July letter contradicts "excluded astrological … causes". Wikipedia 15 Jan 2009: "concerned nobles sought the advice of local physicians, who ruled out astrological and supernatural causes, instead announcing that the plague was a 'natural disease' caused by 'hot blood'. However, instead of prescribing bleeding, authorities encouraged more dancing" — a paraphrase of *Endeavour*, kept until 2020; the current article has "Contemporaneous explanations included demonic possession, divine judgement and overheated blood" (citing Miller). PDR 2018: "the councillors listened instead to the guild of physicians, declaring the dance to be 'a natural disease, which comes from overheated blood'" (n. 4: "Annales de Sebastian Brant (1899), quoted in Waller 2009 p. 109" — i.e. Jung's résumé); "But the physicians instead recommended the treatment given to past victims … They must dance themselves free of it" — no source.

### 3.7 The ban on music and dancing until St Michael's day, with the wedding exception

**Sources.** Brant's *Annales* (Wencker's Extractus no. 3443; Dacheux 1892 p. 239, OCR read; A1 image): "Da setzten unsere herren uff und lissen ein gebot üssgon, dass niemand tantzen soll bis Michaelis in der ganzen Statt und burgban, bei 30 sch. pf. und kein brucken schlagen; wol möchte man bey brautläuften und ersten messen mit Saitenspiel tantzen nach eines jeden conscienz" — "Then our lords resolved and issued an order that nobody shall dance until Michaelmas in the whole city and its jurisdiction, on pain of 30 shillings, and no drum-beating; but at weddings and first masses one might dance to string music, according to each one's conscience" (tr. B; Martin p. 116 prints "beucken [Pauken] schlagen"). The original leaf, signed by Brant, is AVES 1 MR 3 f. 72r (shown in 2018 as "Interdiction des danses publiques … 2 août 1518"; Midelfort p. 35 n. 27 dates the same entry "On the second day after Vincula Petri [i.e., on August 3] anno 18" and translates it in full: "…forbade, on pain of a fine of 30 shillings, that anyone, no matter who, should hold a dance until St. Michael's Day [September 29] in this city or its suburbs or in its whole jurisdiction. For by so doing they take away the recovery of such persons. The only exception is that if honorable persons wish to dance at weddings or celebrations of first Mass in their houses, they may do so using stringed instruments, but they are on their conscience not to use tambourines and drums"). Imlin and Rem confirm the ban on drums and pipers.

**Chain.** Not in Hecker 1832 (whose Strasbourg page knows only the pilgrimage). Martin 1914 p. 116; Midelfort p. 35; Backman: unknown (no snippet). Waller: not in *Endeavour* or *Lancet*; the 2009 book — no snippet retrieved ("weddings" query failed). PDR 2018: "prohibiting almost all dance and music in the city until September … Sebastian Brant … detailed the exception to the ban: 'if honourable persons wish to dance at weddings…'" (n. 8: AMS R3 fol. 72r, quoted in Midelfort p. 35). Wikipedia: no revision read (2008–2026) mentions Michaelmas or the wedding exception.

### 3.8 Pilgrimage to St Vitus at Saverne; red shoes, small crosses, holy water

**Sources.** Pilgrimage: council commission of Friday 23 July 1518 with the *Instruction* for the escorts (AVES III 200/15; Martin 1914 pp. 117, 122–24 — "Nach jedem Amt sollten die armen Leute um den Altar geführt werden und jeder Kranke 1 Pfennig opfern"), Imlin ("da leiß sey meine herren nach S. Vit gehn Zabern füren … an dem andern tag da leiß man sey alle nach S. Vit füren"), the *Annales* ("zu dem lieben heil. St. Vit im Hohenstein bei Zabern geführt und fast erledigt"), Gebwiler ("tied them all onto wagons and took them to St. Vitus of Hohlenstein"); the wax image "ein centner schwer" in Jung's résumé no. 4398. Red shoes, crosses, chrism and holy water are Specklin's (c. 1580; Martin p. 119): "Do schickte man sie hinder Zabern zu St. Veit, zum holen stein, auf waegen; da gab man ihnen creuzle und rothe schuh, und macht mess über sie. An den schuhen war unten und oben creutz mit dem chrisam gemacht und mit weywasser besprengt in St. Veits nahmen, das halff ihn vast allen" — "Then they sent them on wagons beyond Saverne to St Vitus at the Hohlenstein; there they gave them little crosses and red shoes and said mass over them. On the shoes, below and above, a cross was made with chrism and sprinkled with holy water in St Vitus's name; that helped almost all of them" (tr. B); repeated by Wencker (no. 3007: "creuzlein und rothe schue daran oben und unden † mit chrisam gestrichen und mit weyhewasser in S. Viti nammen besprengt"). "Small crosses" = *creuzle/creuzlein*.

**Conduits.** Hecker 1832 pp. 7–8 (from Schilter): "So wurden sie denn zu Fuß und zu Wagen zu den Kapellen des heiligen Veit nach Zabern und Rotestein geleitet, wo ihrer Priester warteten … Nach vollbrachtem Gottesdienst führte man sie in feierlichem Umzuge um den Altar, ließ sie von ihren Almosen ein Geringes opfern" — no shoes; "Rotestein" is Schilter's misreading of "Holenstein" (Martin p. 117: "Schilter hat falsch gelesen, es steht im Original Holenstein … Hecker und Häser schreiben sogar zu den Kapellen des heiligen Veit zu Zabern und Rotenstein"). Backman 1952 pp. 235–42 translates Specklin and the *Annales* (snippets: "Then they were sent to St Vitus, to Hohlenstein, quite near Zabern. There they were given…"; "crosses were drawn in consecrated oil and in the name of St Vitus they were sprinkled"; "taken to the shrine of the holy St Vitus at Hohlenstein near Zabern, where they were almost cured") and describes the grotto chapel with its group of saints including "Pope Marcellus" (snippets). Midelfort p. 36 (Specklin in translation: "given a little cross and red shoes, on which the sign of the cross had been made in holy oil, on both the tops and the soles. In St. Vitus' name they were sprinkled with holy water") and p. 37 on the Vixberg grotto.

**Waller and after.** *Endeavour* p. 117: "the dancers were despatched to a mountaintop shrine in the Vosges mountains to pray for divine intercession. There they were led around an altar, wearing red shoes provided for the ceremony, upon which stood a bas-relief carving of St. Vitus, the Virgin and Pope Marcellus" — "around an altar" is the council's *Instruction* (via Hecker/Martin), the red shoes Specklin's, the carving Backman's description of the chapel. PDR 2018: "bundled into wagons and taken the three-day ride to the shrine of Saint Vitus, where Frau Troffea had been cured. Priests placed the choreomaniacs … underneath a wooden carving of Vitus. They put small crosses in their hands and red shoes on their feet. On the soles and tops of these shoes, they sprinkled holy water and painted crosses of consecrated oil" (n. 9: Specklin in Martin p. 121 via Midelfort p. 36). Wikipedia: the pilgrimage and red shoes enter only in the 2024 snapshot (from PDR).

### 3.9 "It ended in early September" / duration

**Sources.** The dated record: 22 July (drums to be stopped), 23 July (commission; first convoys to Saverne), 25 July (letter: "Elle touche néanmoins à sa fin" — "it is nevertheless coming to its end"), 2/3 August (dance ban until 29 September), 10 August (guilds to send their sick to St Vitus; Midelfort p. 36 n. 29, Martin p. 121) and further orders in mid/late August (A1, A2). Imlin and the Kleine Chronik count "in 4 wuchen"; Rem "es weret fast lang"; no text gives an end date.

**Modern.** Hecker: no dates. Midelfort p. 37: "Within two weeks, however, it appeared that music was actually spreading the disorder". *Endeavour*: "by the end of August, one chronicler asserts, 400 people…"; "In the following weeks the epidemic abated." 2009 book (snippet, batch 2): "Only in late August or early September 1518 did the epidemic finally subside, leaving many people…". PDR 2018: "from mid-July to late August or early September". Wikipedia: "over the period of about one month" (2008–2020); current: "from July 1518 to September 1518".

### 3.10 Deaths "from heart attack, stroke or exhaustion"

**Sources.** No 1518 text mentions a death (commission, letter, *Annales*, Imlin, Gebwiler, Rem). The earliest death notices are two or more generations later: Specklin (c. 1580; Martin p. 119): "Viel tanzten sich zu tode"; the Kleine Chronik (c. 1600–33; A2): "biss etliche starben, erlagen oder miedt wurden"; Wencker (1637; no. 3007): "Etliche stürben dran"; Kleinlawel 1625 (Martin p. 116; Midelfort p. 48 n. 77): "Biß das sie fielen in ohnmacht, / Viel sind Todt drüber blieben"; the 1636 astrological chronicle (Backman p. 238 via PDR n. 2): "until finally they fell down unconscious and succumbed to death". Hecker's verse (Schilter): "Bis ihn das Wüthen wieder gelag" — the raging subsided; no deaths.

**Modern.** Hecker 1832: none for Strasbourg. Midelfort p. 33: "many danced until they fell to the ground unconscious, and some never recovered"; p. 35: "Many persons danced themselves to death." *Endeavour* p. 117: "before long, the chronicles agree, dozens were dying from exhaustion"; "Only after those with weak hearts or prone to strokes began to die did the governors rethink their strategy" — the cardiological gloss is Waller's, without a source. Discovery News 2008: "by summer's end, dozens in the Alsatian city had died of heart attacks, strokes and sheer exhaustion due to nonstop dancing". Wikipedia 8 Aug 2008: "Most of them died due to strokes, heart attacks and exhaustion due to nonstop 'jigging'"; 9 Aug 2008 (rev 230759997): "over the period of about one month, most of the people died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion" (citing Discovery, which says "dozens"); "most" became "some" between the 5 Jan 2010 and 4 Jan 2011 snapshots (an anonymous edit of 29 Dec 2010, rev 404843287, has the summary "Need citation if going to claim most or many died" — the diff itself was not retrieved); 2021: "Controversy exists over whether people ultimately danced to their deaths"; from 2022 the section "Veracity of deaths" citing Clementz 2016. PDR 2018: "the most fatal and best documented" of the dancing plagues.

### 3.11 What this shows

1. None of the ten claims is in Hecker 1832, who dates the Strasbourg dance to 1418 (Schilter's misprint, exposed by Martin 1914 pp. 114–15), knows no number but "Viel hundert", no deaths, no Troffea and no stage; the modern narrative is not "Hecker's".
2. Four claims have a genuine sixteenth-century base but in a different form: fifteen *cases* a day (Rem), 200 dancers (Imlin), 34 in four days (Imlin), the pilgrimage with red shoes (Specklin, two generations later). Two are seventeenth-century (Michaelmas ban as recorded in the *Annales* is contemporary in substance; deaths are not).
3. The transformations are located: 200 → 400 (Witkowski/Martin, 1879/1914); Paracelsus's parable → the first Strasbourg dancer (Backman 1952, "very probable"; Waller 2008–09, as fact, with a date and a husband); "seized" → "dying" (Waller 2009); guards → hired dancers, "excluded astrological causes", "heart attack/stroke" (Waller 2008); "dozens died" → "most died" (Wikipedia 2008–10).
4. Wikipedia's article was built (8–9 Aug 2008) from a single press article about Waller's forthcoming book, then (Jan 2009) from *Endeavour*, then (2016) from the *Lancet*, then (2022–24) from Pennant-Rea 2018 and Miller 2017; the corrective material (Clementz 2016) arrived in 2021–22 but the lead still carries "Frau Troffea".

---

## 4. Open questions and what could not be done

1. **Backman 1952 was not read.** The archive.org copy (`religiousdancesi0000back`) is lending-only; search-inside on archive.org returned "Item not available"; the Open Library search-inside API gave c. 60 fragments over four batches and a dozen ad-hoc phrase searches (B_SOURCES §4). Established from fragments only: Backman translates Kleinlawel's verse, Specklin, the *Annales* and Paracelsus's Troffea chapter; he identifies Paracelsus's St Vitus dance with "the Strassburg dance", dates Paracelsus's Strasbourg stay to 1526 "[Sticker]" and calls it "very probable" that Paracelsus "shared that experience"; the name after "Mistress" is OCR'd "Trophaca". Not established: how Backman prints the name, whether he uses Rem's "15", what he says about deaths, and his page numbers (PDR: pp. 237, 238, 313; Miller: pp. 236–38; Midelfort: pp. 235–42, 238–42, 303–27). Any judgement on Backman's ergot thesis in this report rests on Midelfort's and Waller's summaries, not on Backman.
2. **Waller's book was not read.** *A Time to Dance, a Time to Die* (Icon 2008) / *The Dancing Plague* (Sourcebooks 2009): lending-only on archive.org; c. 130 snippet fragments from the 2009 edition (batches 1–4). His three articles (2008–09) were read in full. What his book cites for "fifteen dying a day" and for Troffea's "July 14" (the snippet shows a note mark "*?" after that sentence) is unknown.
3. **Midelfort 1999** was read for the whole section "A Dancing Mania" (pp. 32–49) — from the text of an unofficial archive.org upload saved in `midelfort-a2/`; the provenance is flagged. The rest of the book was not read.
4. **Not obtained:** Rohmann 2013 (*Tanzwut*, V&R — JS challenge page) and Rohmann 2009 (*Medieval History Journal* — SAGE challenge page); Gotman 2018 (*Choreomania*, OUP — Google Books 403; only the publisher's blurb); Clementz 2016 (*Revue d'Alsace* 142 — OpenEdition served a bot-check to curl; a page fetch yielded quotations only) and her 2018 catalogue chapter ("La danse de 1518 à l'épreuve des sources", *1518. La fièvre de la danse*, pp. 33–63) — known only through the press kit, the teachers' dossier and Rue89; Bartholomew & Wessely 2002 (abstract only); Sigerist/Temkin's English *Four Treatises* (only an OL snippet: "Their thoughts are free, lewd and impertinent, full of lasciviousness and without fear"); the German original of the 25 July 1518 letter (ADBR 12 J 1495) and the text of the 2 August mandate (AVES 1 MR 3 f. 72r) — only the exhibition's French/Midelfort's English.
5. **Paracelsus, residual points.** (a) "in ein bleen kam" in the Troffea chapter is untranslated (obscure word; Sudhoff gives no gloss on the page read). (b) Whether the 1565 Birckmann print already has the name "Troffea" (Sudhoff says Huser's text differs "sehr erheblich" from the Erstdruck) is unverified — Sudhoff's apparatus for p. 278 was not checked line by line. (c) The Greek etymology proposed in the 2018 press kit (*tropaia*) is that author's conjecture; I found no evidence either way. (d) Paracelsus's Strasbourg residence in 1526–27 is attested in the retrieved literature only at second hand (Backman "[Sticker]"; press kit "fin 1526"; Rue89).
6. **Wikipedia.** I read 25 revisions (the first four of Aug 2008, one per January 2009–2026, the 15 Jan 2009 and 8 Apr 2016 revisions, and the current one). The exact revisions that changed "most" to "some" (Dec 2010), introduced "between 50 and 400" and "Veracity of deaths" (2021–22) and the PDR material (2023–24) were not individually retrieved; the year brackets come from the annual snapshots.
7. **Rem.** His text is the only contemporary "15"; whether Rem (Augsburg) had a Strasbourg informant or a written source is unknown; Roth's edition notes were not read beyond the page image.
8. **Not done on purpose:** no attempt to bypass OpenEdition's bot-check, the SAGE/V&R challenge pages, Google Books' 403, or the archive.org lending wall; no use of the Libgen upload of Midelfort (see 3 for the copy I did use).

### Appendix A — Wikipedia, "Dancing plague of 1518": the ten claims by revision

| Date | Revision | User | Change relevant here | Source cited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug 2008 | 230695239 | Pillsberry | article created: "a woman began a dancing craze … The crowd swelled to over 400 others by the end of the week. Most of them died due to strokes, heart attacks and exhaustion" | none |
| 9 Aug 2008 | 230759997 | Twas Now | "Frau Troffea"; "Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Most of these people eventually died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion"; Waller's MPI thesis | Discovery News, 1 Aug 2008 |
| 15 Jan 2009 | 264197100 | Intothewoods29 | physicians "ruled out astrological and supernatural causes … 'natural disease' caused by 'hot blood'"; "opening two guildhalls and a grain market, and even constructing a wooden stage" | Waller, *Endeavour* 2008 |
| Dec 2010 (between the 5 Jan 2010 and 4 Jan 2011 snapshots) | (404843287?) | anon | "most of the people died" → "some of the people died" | — |
| 2013 snapshot | — | — | lead "Around 400 people took to dancing" | — |
| 8 Apr 2016 | 714168375 | Czeer | "One report indicates that for a period the plague killed around around fifteen people per day" | Waller, *Lancet* 2009 |
| 2021 snapshot | — | — | "Somewhere between 50 and 400 people"; "Controversy exists over whether people ultimately danced to their deaths"; Waller named as "the main source for this claim" | *Lancet*; Clementz 2016 (from 2022) |
| 2022 snapshot | — | — | section "Veracity of deaths"; "Of the six chronicle accounts, four support Lady Troffea as the first dancer" | Clementz 2016; Miller 2017 |
| 2024 snapshot | — | — | Pennant-Rea's "July 14th … half-timbered home" quoted; pilgrimage, red shoes, "strong people" | PDR 2018; Midelfort p. 33 |
| 17 Aug 2026 | 1369894564 | (current) | lead "from July 1518 to September 1518. Somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks … There is controversy concerning the number of deaths, but the total is unknown" | Discovery, *Lancet*, PDR |

Never present in any revision read: the Michaelmas ban and the wedding exception; Rem; the 25 July letter; the 200 reading of Imlin.

### Appendix B — Open Library search-inside, fourth batch and ad-hoc phrase searches

Batch 4 (`openlibrary-snippets/ol_snippets_batch4.json`; c. 140 queries, many failed with connection resets; hits: Waller 2009 ×15 queries, Backman ×4, Midelfort ×7). New material: Waller 2009 — "correct to assert that Frau Troffea had an unhappy relationship with Herr Troffea"; "the long-suffering Herr Troffea 'had asked something of her which she did not…'"; "Two of Strasbourg's chroniclers, Specklin and Wencker, both state that there were 'many frauds trying…'"; "'danced until they were dead,' recorded Daniel Specklin"; "Gebwiler also spoke of a 'strong woman' who danced for…"; "as four hundred people had become infected. Duntzenheim says only two hundred were involved"; "the 'Chronique de Jean Wencker' and the 'Supplément à la Chronique de Wencker.' The Duntzenheim chronicle…". Backman 1952 — "Then they were sent to St Vitus, to Hohlenstein, quite near Zabern. There they were given [p.] 235"; "taken to the shrine of the holy St Vitus at Hohlenstein near Zabern, where they were almost cured"; "crosses were drawn in consecrated oil and in the name of St Vitus they were sprinkled"; captions "Zabern and the Chapel of St Vitus. The dance-epidemic of 1518 occurred here"; "Pope Marcellus was approximately contemporary with St Vitus".

Ad-hoc phrase searches (not saved as JSON): "Troffea" — 81 scanned books, none of them Backman or Midelfort; "deception as perfect as possible", "really give the impression of illness", "ceased dancing she fell", "Counting fifteen hundred years" — Backman only; "Mistress Paramirium" / "Strassburg dance" — Backman: "In his Opus Paramirium Paracelsus described the origin and cause of St Vitus' dance, i.e., the Strassburg dance. 'Mistress Trophaca was the first to suffer from this disease…'"; "In the year 1526 Paracelsus was in Strassburg [Sticker]. As we may remember, in 1518 … excited much surprise and terror. It is very probable that Paracelsus shared that experience"; "From Strassburg Paracelsus went back to Bale"; "the name he confused the 1374 dance with the Strassburg dance epidemic of 1518"; "Volumen Paramirium and Opus Paramirium, which were published by Paracelsus in 1526 and 1531 respectively" [Backman's dating]. Spelling variants (Trofea, Troffaea, Trophea, Troffca, Troflea) — no Backman hit.