German Studies Lecture Series: Misinformation, Reformation, and the English Sweating Sickness featured lecture by Christopher Hutchinson (Assistant Professor of German, University of Mississippi)
Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
450 Jane èצӰ Way, Building 260, èצӰ, CA 94305
Room 216
The Department of German Studies invites you to join us for a featured lecture:
Misinformation, Reformation, and the English Sweating Sickness featured lecture by (Assistant Professor of German, University of Mississippi)
In an August 1529 letter, Martin Luther wrote of a frightening new disease taking root in Wittenberg: “The rumor of a new plague, which they call the English one, compels me to write. Many baseless things are being spring about this business [by] the published pamphlet of remedies.” According to Luther, this disease, the English sweating sickness, circulated not only as a biological entity, but also as rumor and misinformation spread by printed texts. This talk examines the pamphlets that Luther accused of spreading false information about the disease and argues Luther’s own Wittenberg, and the networks of pamphlet circulation that built up around it during the first decade of the Reformation, played a central role in amplifying the misinformation spread about the sweating sickness.
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