Ship of Fools (satire)

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Title page of a 1549 edition of Ship of Fools.
lang}}) was translated into Latin in 1497; some of the woodcuts illustrating the manuscript may have been created by Albrecht Dürer. The University of Edinburgh holds a copy of the Latin edition.

Ship of Fools (Modern German: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}; Template:Langx; original medieval German title: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) is a satirical allegory in German verse published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by the humanist and theologian Sebastian Brant. It is the most famous treatment of the ship of fools trope and circulated in numerous translations.

Overview

The Ship of Fools was published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by Sebastian Brant.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It was printed by Michael Furter for Johann Bergann von Olpe.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The book consists of a prologue, 112 brief satires, and an epilogue, all illustrated with woodcuts.<ref>W Gillis, trans, The Ship of Fools, (1971)</ref> Brant takes up the ship of fools trope, popular at the time, lashing with unsparing vigor the weaknesses and vices of his time.Template:Cn He conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people.Template:Cn

The concept of foolishness was a frequently used trope in the pre-Reformation period to legitimize criticism, as also used by Erasmus in his Praise of Folly and Martin Luther in his "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" (Address to the Christian Nobility).Template:Cn Court fools were allowed to say much what they wanted; by writing his work in the voice of the fool, Brant could legitimize his criticism of the church.Template:Cn The abbot of Sponheim Johannes Trithemius lamented Brant's title choice and would have preferred the book to be called Divina Satyra.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> He compared the work to Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia for the use in both of their local languages.<ref name=":1" /> The educator Jacob Wimpfeling deemed the book worthy to be taught in school and Ulrich von Hutten praised Brant for his mixture of classical metrics with a barbarian dialect and the organization of the poetry in the Ship of Fools.<ref name=":1" />

Sculpture of Jürgen Weber based on the satire, located in Nuremberg, home of Albrecht Dürer.

The work immediately became extremely popular, being published in Reutlingen, Nuremberg, Strasbourg and Augsburg, with six authorized and several unauthorized editions until 1512.<ref name=":0" /> Brant's own views on humanism and the new, revolutionary views on Christianity emerging in the 16th century are unclear. The debate still continues about whether Ship of Fools is itself a humanist work or just a remnant of medieval sensibilities.<ref>Ulrich Gaier, “Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff and the Humanists”, PMLA (May, 1968) 83: 266–270.</ref>

The book was translated into Latin by Template:Interlanguage link multi in 1497,<ref>Full 1498 edition of Stultifera Navis.</ref><ref name=":0" /> into French by Template:Interlanguage link multi in 1497 and by Template:Ill in 1498, into English by Alexander Barclay and by Template:Ill in 1509.

Of the 103 woodcuts, two-thirds are attributed to the young Albrecht Dürer,<ref name=":0" /> and the additional wood-cuts are the work of the so-called Template:Interlanguage link multi, the gnad-her-Meister and two other anonymous artists.Template:Cn

An allegorical painting by Hieronymus Bosch, The Ship of Fools, a fragment of a triptych said to have been painted by Bosch between 1490 and 1500, may have been influenced by the frontispiece for the book.Template:Citation needed The painting is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Modern interpretations

Some 20th-century artists, including Template:Ill,Template:Cn Template:Interlanguage link multi,Template:Cn István Orosz,Template:Cn Template:Ill,Template:Cn Brian Williams,Template:Cn made images based on Das Narrenschiff, or drew illustrations for contemporary editions of The Ship of Fools.

Translations

Translations into English

  • Barclay, Alexander (1509). The Ship of Fooles. London: Richard Pynson.
  • Zeydel, Edwin (1944). The Ship of Fools. New York: Columbia University Press.

References

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