In the summer of 1518, something extraordinarily strange happened in Strasbourg.

People began dancing.

What started with a single woman reportedly dancing in the street grew into a disturbing outbreak involving dozens—and possibly hundreds—of people. Some danced for days. Authorities did not immediately stop the phenomenon. Instead, their response reflected the medical knowledge, religious beliefs, fears, and assumptions of the sixteenth century.
The episode became known as the Dancing Plague of 1518, one of history's most bizarre and enduring mysteries.
But what actually happened?
This book explores the documented history behind Strasbourg's extraordinary dancing outbreak, placing the event within the world of early-modern Europe. It examines contemporary accounts, the city's social and religious environment, the medical ideas of the period, and the explanations historians have proposed over the centuries.
Was it religious hysteria? Mass psychogenic illness? A response to extreme social stress? Something connected to contaminated food? Or a combination of circumstances that modern observers can never completely reconstruct?

The evidence does not provide a simple answer.
Instead, the Dancing Plague offers a remarkable glimpse into how people in 1518 understood illness, fear, faith, and the mysterious behavior of the human body.

Strasbourg danced. The authorities watched. The explanations multiplied.

And five centuries later, the questions have never completely stopped.