Why Do 16th-Century Manuscripts Show Cats With Flaming Backpacks?

National Geographic ^ | 3-10-2014 | Brad Scriber

[Renfield]

A series of 16th-century manuscripts that have been making waves on the Internet look like a Monty Python version of the Renaissance: They show cats outfitted with flaming backpacks, attacking castles and villages.

But the illustrations are legit. They're intended to show how cats and birds could in theory be used to set fire to a besieged city, according to a University of Pennsylvania scholar.

Mitch Fraas, scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania—the university digitized the manuscripts last year—says that the drawings are from artillery manuals and are accompanied by notes explaining how to use animals as incendiary devices....

[Fawn]

Horrible..

[grey_whiskers]

Scary. I have that as my screensaver on my Mac even as I type.
Shared it with someone at work about a year ago. :-)