Hi all--
>The reputation of cats can't have been all bad. I've always loved the
>picture of the cat overseeing mice nibbling on a Host at the bottom of the
>Chi-Rho page of the Book of Kells.
The impression of cats in the Middle Ages I've generally gotten has been
more amused tolerance than fear or association with devils. I have a
wonderful series of postcards I got while doing research at the Bodleian
showing various cats in manuscripts--one in the act of licking himself with
a hind leg in the air which is immediately recognizable to anyone who's ever
lived with cats. I also remember attending a paper at Kzoo some years ago
which discussed a rather fun poem about cats written by a monk whose name
I've now forgotten....
Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this thread so far--it's tended to
confirm my suspicion that any cat-persecution on a large scale was likely
early modern, if it ever really happened at all.
Susan Carroll-Clark
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