Basel: Johann Bergmann, de Olpe, 1 August 1497
Brant’s moral satire featured over one hundred ‘fools’ sailing to the land of Narragonia; shown here is the ‘Book fool’, a doctor who dusted his books with feathers but never read them, fearing that this would create confusing fantasies in his mind.
SSS.15.12
Basel: Johann Bergmann, de Olpe, 1 August 1497
The Ship of fools is one of the most influential moral satires ever written. It was composed in German by Sebastian Brant, then a professor of law at Basel University and prolific author of poetry. First published for the carnival period in February 1494, the plot revolves around 109 fools who board a ship to travel to the land of fools, Narragonia. Each of them is introduced through his or her particular obsession or moral failing. We famously find the bespectacled doctor with donkey-ears who collects books he never reads and dusts them with feathers, fearing that too much studying creates confusing fantasies. There are fools who worry too much, others who constantly wish for too much, gothic men of fashion with their long curly hair and pointed shoes, and many others who over-invest in love, eating, the pursuit of wealth and other selfish, un-Christian behaviour.
The whole book is an ode to true wisdom, and Brant states his humanist aim in the first line: to cultivate ‘wisdom, reason and good manners’ not just among the elites but in everyone. Brant therefore wrote in the vernacular, and his Basel printer engaged a pioneering art team to design an unprecedented number of fine woodcuts to illustrate each fool. The young Albrecht Dürer was among the artists who skilfully drew their interpretation of the fools onto the wooden blocks with ink. They were then cut by specialized craftsmen, the block-cutters. In 1497, Brant’s disciple Jacob Locher, a crowned poet laureate, adapted the verse in Latin and added a preface on the classical tradition of moral guidance.
The Stultifera navis sailed as one of the first international bestsellers into the early modern world and was soon translated into English, French and Dutch. Its pioneering combination of mottoes, verses and many dynamic, densely contextual images, rooted in recognizable references from everyday life, made it accessible even to those with few literary skills. The Cambridge edition shows what beauty and appeal was achieved by the most ambitious among the first printed books. The typeface is stunningly clear, and the whole look of the book is deeply alluring. This publisher wanted to do something new, combining images with a theme which touched the core of people’s lives. Brant held up a mirror to each person to guide him or her poetically into piety and peace.
Essay by Ulinka Rublack
