Cats in Germany 1600s

cooeedownunder

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I am trying to find out if cats might have been kept as pets as dogs were in Germany or possibly let run stray to assist with limiting rats.

It appears during this period the French would burn them alive and that there were many in Venice.
 

frimble3

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I don't know the specifics on Germany, but cats are sneaky. Even if they were theoretically only supposed to be running loose to catch vermin, once they know that the warmth and the food are inside the houses, they're going to try to charm their way in. And, the kittens are adorable. If a culture keeps dogs as pets, I can't see cats being unlikely. (Even in those places that killed cats during the 'witchcraft' hysteria, the implication is that cats are common enough domestically to pose a risk.)
 

benbenberi

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In 18c France there was an episode where a group of printshop employees who resented how well their boss's pet cat was treated (& they were not) rounded up and murdered all the cats in the neighborhood -- it was the funniest thing they ever did!

So keeping cats as pampered pets and butchering them wholesale were not exclusive behaviors, but could exists side by side, sometimes in the same people.
 

Roxxsmom

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In 18c France there was an episode where a group of printshop employees who resented how well their boss's pet cat was treated (& they were not) rounded up and murdered all the cats in the neighborhood -- it was the funniest thing they ever did!

So keeping cats as pampered pets and butchering them wholesale were not exclusive behaviors, but could exists side by side, sometimes in the same people.

It definitely shows how our definition of "funny" has shifted over the centuries, though I've run across some pretty vitriolic cat haters in the 20th and 21st centuries too.

There are many paintings of people posing with pet cats, even in times and places when cats were supposed to be universally regarded as devil's spawn and owning one was a sure ticket to the stake. I'm guessing the truth is more complicated and situational than our history teachers sometimes let on.

This painting, Barbershop With Monkeys and Cats, by Abraham Teniers, is one of the strangest. It makes me think of the (in)famous Dogs Playing Poker etc. paintings, but it predates them by about 300 years. Teniers lived in the 1600s, but he was Flemish, not German. Still...
 

Flicka

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I'm pretty sure cats show up in witchcraft trials - obviously kept as pets but interpreted as a witch's familiar. No sources at hand, but it could be something to look at.
 

Versailles

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I think there's a passage in Pepys' diary complaining about how adorable kittens are and how he wastes too many hours playing with them. I think the awwwww factor cute animals evoke in many of us is timeless!
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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This painting, Barbershop With Monkeys and Cats, by Abraham Teniers, is one of the strangest. It makes me think of the (in)famous Dogs Playing Poker etc. paintings, but it predates them by about 300 years. Teniers lived in the 1600s, but he was Flemish, not German. Still...

Wow. What strikes me most about that picture is that it looks so modern. Are you sure Teniers isn't the same guy who painted the poker playing dogs, and also just happens to be a time traveller?