1 Sebastian Brant. Hie vahet sich an das neü narren schiff von

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THE FAMOUS SATIRE SHIP OF FOOLS
Sebastian Brant. Hie vahet sich an das neü narren schiff von narrogonia.
Augsburg: Johann Schönsperger, 29. Mai 1498.
Fifth edition of the Strasbourg interpolation.
4°, 212 x 151 mm. 99 (of 102) leaves (e1 and e6 supplied in facsimile; without final blank). Collation:
a8, b-h6, ik4, l6, mn4, o-r6, s6-1. – Two columns of 35 lines, type 4:150G and 9:87G. – With full-page
title woodcut (repeated twice, on a1v and i2v) and 117 column-wide text illustrations (including
repeats). – A good copy with wide margins, slight soiling in only a few places. First and last leaves
with marginal tears restored, rear endpapers with traces of old pen trials. Several bibliographical notes
in pencil on flyleaves. – Blind-tooled dark brown calf over wooden boards. Modern spine and clasps,
resewn and recased, with vellum endleaves from a manuscript choirbook.
TEXT
A rare edition of the enlarged adaptation of the famous Ship of Fools.
The humanist Sebastian Brant (1457-1521) originated from Strasbourg, studied at Basel,
where he received the doctor’s degree of laws in 1489, and from 1496 on he held a
professorship of Roman and canon law. Around 1500 Brant returned to his home town
Strasbourg and was appointed town clerk and imperial councillor of Maximilian I. Brant’s
diversified oeuvre comprises juridical and historical tracts and editions, (Latin) poetry,
translations of authors of classical antiquity, as well as pamphlets and satirical works.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
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Moreover, he was considerably engaged in the production of books in Basel from 1480 to
1500, working as advisor, corrector and lector for several printers and publishers.
In his main work, the famous moralising satire poem Das Narrenschiff (‘the ship of fools’),
Brant tries to gather the critical situations of his time in an allegory. Although based on a
medieval tradition, Brant with this work actually founded the genre of fools-literature. “In a
ship laden with one hundred fools, steered by fools to the fools’ paradise of Narragonia, Brant
satirizes all the weaknesses, follies and vices of his time. … Brant’s purpose was a moral one:
he wanted to improve the life of his contemporaries and to help in the regeneration of the
Holy Roman Empire and the Church. The follies of the clergy did not escape his censure”
(PMM 37 on the original edition).
The book was first published on 11 February 1494 by Brant’s friend Johan Bergmann de
Olpe. It was immediately a great success: from 1494 to 1512 six authorised editions were
published, in the year of the first edition alone appeared further four unauthorised reprints in
Nuremberg, Reutlingen and Augsburg. In 1497 appeared the Latin translation by Brant’s
disciple Jacob Locher (1471-1528). The Latin version was also reprinted several times in the
same year, which enhanced the widespread circulation of the work and lead to translations
into all the leading European languages.
Moreover, possibly in early 1495 appeared an
adaptation in Strasbourg (Das nüv schiff von
Narragonia), the text of which is considerably
enlarged and the order of chapters partly changed.
This version, called ‘the Strasbourg interpolation’,
gives Brant’s name in the title woodcut, although
Brant had not approved that edition. Instead, he
actually tried to take action against it, and
published a protest in his Basel edition of 1499.
Nevertheless, the extensive adaptation became very
popular and was in turn reprinted four times:
Schönsperger 1495, Grüninger 1496 and 1497, and
the present edition, Schönsperger 1498. The
interpolation ‘founded another line in the
Narrenschiff’s history of reception and impact that
runs parallel to the history of Brant’s original
editions’ (translated from Voss p. 27). For
example, it served as a model of the Low German
translation Dat narren schyp, published in Lübeck
in 1497. The famous preacher from Strasbourg
cathedral, Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg, also used the interpolation as one of the
source/basis for his sermons on the ‘ship of fools’ (first Latin edition in 1510, German in
1520).
The German versions were reprinted and revised up to the year 1625, and, following to the
Narrenschiff, the new genre of fools-literature was created by authors such as Johannes Geiler
von Kaysersberg, Thomas Murner, Hans Sachs and Johann Fischart – they all refer to
Sebastian Brant.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
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ILLUSTRATION
The title woodcut and a few other depictions of a ship laden with fools point to the allegorical
character of the work. At the beginning of each chapter is a woodcut depicting one of the
hundred fools, representing all positions and classes of society. They point to all the vices and
follies described in the text, such as the corrupt judge, the drunkard, the untrained physician,
and lead to a moralising conclusion at the end. Presumably, Brant initiated the abundant
illustration himself, true to his Motto: Imperitis pro lectione pictura est (‘for illiterate people,
a picture is the best reading’). The enormous impact of the Narrenschiff is not least based on
the memorability of these illustrations, a number of which are attributed to Albrecht Dürer.
The original Basel woodcuts of almost full-page size were reused for all Basel editions in
German and Latin until 1512. The first reprints of 1494 contained already copies of those
illustrations, which were decisive for the success of the book. The woodcuts of
Schönsperger’s editions are accurate and true-sided copies of the woodcuts of the earliest
reprint: Nuremberg, Peter Wagner, 1 July 1494. Our woodcut on fol. a8r contains the same
date as in that edition: 1494. The contents of these illustrations are close to the originals from
Basel, but their size is considerably reduced to column-width. Consequently, they are also
simplified and, moreover, mostly mirror-reversed. Schönsperger used these woodcuts already
in his first reprint of the Narrenschiff, 1494, as well as his editions of the neü Narrenschiff.
RARITY
Extremely rare. All early German editions survive
only in a few copies. According to ISTC and
MRFH merely 13 copies (2 incomplete) and one
fragment of the present edition are known to be
extant. MRFH list 3 further copies with unknown
whereabouts, however, these might also be
included among the known copies.
PROVENANCE
Collection Heinrich Legel, with his modern
bookplate on front pastedown, and pencil note
“Legel 96” on first paper flyleaf.
LITERATURE
Hain/Copinger 3745. – GW 5052. – ISTC
ib01085000. – Goff B-1085. – London, BMC II, p.
372. – Munich, BSB-Ink B-823. – Oxford, Bod-Inc B505. – Schreiber 3566. – Marburger Repertorium zur
Übersetzungsliteratur im deutschen Frühhumanismus,
MRFH 20690: www.mrfh.de/20690.
On the Strasbourg interpolation: Friedericke Voß, Das mittelniederdeutsche Narrenschiff (Lübeck
1497) und seine hochdeutschen Vorlagen, Cologne et al. 1994, esp. pp. 25-35.
Compare the woodcuts of Nuremberg 1494: Schramm XVIII, p. 7, 19 and no. 414-527.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
info@guenther-rarebooks.com · www.guenther-rarebooks.com