The assignment of Gertrude as patron of cats and the designation of the cat as one of her attributes seems to date from the 1980s. It is not mentioned at all in Madou's extensive historical survey from 1975. A more superficial association of Gertrude with the cat as a mouse hunter goes further back. Her veneration as protector against rats and mice dates from the early 15th century and spread from Southwestern Germany to the Netherlands and Catalonia. 20th-century folkloristic research associated her with the Germanic goddess Frigg, who may have been depicted riding a cat.[38] Again, the authoritative Handbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens (1927-1942) does not verify this. The first major English-language publication presenting her as patron of the cats is a 1981 Catalogue of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[39]
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