Ship of Fools (satire)


Ship of Fools is a satirical allegory in German verse published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by the humanism in Northern Europe|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. It was printed by Michael Furter for Johann Bergann von Olpe. The book consists of a prologue, 112 brief satires, and an epilogue, all illustrated with woodcuts. Brant takes up the ship of fools trope, popular at the time, lashing with unsparing vigor the weaknesses and vices of his time. He conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people.
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 "An den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation von des christlichen Standes Besserung". 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. The abbot of Sponheim Johannes Trithemius lamented Brant's title choice and would have preferred the book to be called Divina Satyra. He compared the work to Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia for the use in both of their local languages. 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.
Image:Nürnberg Narrenschiff Jürgen Weber.jpg|thumb|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. 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.
The book was translated into Latin by in 1497, into French by in 1497 and by in 1498, into English by Alexander Barclay and by in 1509.
Of the 103 woodcuts, two-thirds are attributed to the young Albrecht Dürer, and the additional wood-cuts are the work of the so-called, the gnad-her-Meister and two other anonymous artists.
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. The painting is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Modern interpretations

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

Translations

Translations into English