Cats at the time had a bad reputation, and even Gessner describes them as being in possession of ‘ingenium calliditas’ or a ‘cunning character’. Edward Topsell, the first translator of Gessner’s work, noted that: ‘The familiars of witches do most ordinarily appear in the shape of cats, which is an argument that the beast is dangerous to soul and body.’ Elsewhere, Gessner asserted ‘that men have been known to lose their strength, perspire violently, and even faint at the sight of a cat’.
