The Invention of Dancing Mania
Gregor Rohmann
Medieval ‘dancing mania’ has until recently remained an enigma in medical and religious history. This is because scholars tend to view it as invariable syndrome instead of examining example the historicity illness semantic network. Taking latter approach allows for grasping phenomenon a form insanity specific Rhine basin sixteenth seventeenth centuries, though one whose roots can be traced early medieval reception platonic cosmology ‘theurgy’. paper examines legend Kölbigk dancers above perspective establishes that its chief motif goes back Sulpicius Severus’ ‘Iamblichus’ ‘de mysteriis’. Thus, dancing mania appears have been insanity, indeed, but constructed through narratives.
Medieval History Journal