BRANT Sebastian Stultifera navis, qua omnium mortalium narratur stultitia […]The Ship of Fooles, wherein is shewed the folly of all States, with divers other workes adioyned unto the same very profitable and fruitful for all men.

USTC 507051; Pforzheimer 41; Pompen 30.2 ; Olive Classe, “Sebastian Brant” in Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English, 2000.

Second edition in English of Brant’s satire mocking the vices of humanity, which also includes Locher’s Latin version and reproductions of Brant’s 1494 original woodcuts, inspired by Dürer. This edition brought the allegory of the “ship of fools” back into vogue in England. Beautifully illustrated with 118 woodcuts (107 woodblocks, some of which were reused).

The illustrations in this edition follow the iconographic tradition of the Nefs des fous inspired by the woodcuts used in the first Basel edition of 1494, which contained 113 illustrations, many of which attributed to Albrecht Dürer.

The series of woodblocks was first used in Richard Pynson’s exceedingly rare first English edition of 1509, which, “with the exception of two or three, are very well preserved” (Pforzheimer). All but seven blocks were copied from Pierre Rivière’s 1497 French edition, which in turn were derived from the cuts by Albrecht Dürer and others from the 1494 Basel first edition.

The idea of a pilotless ship filled with irrational humans originates in Plato’s Republic. Brant’s didactic poem, composed in High German and first published as Das Narrenschiff, is the most famous literary treatment of this theme. The ship is bound for Narragonia, a “fool’s paradise”. More than 100 brief chapters, each dedicated to a particular form of folly (including vices and crimes), are illustrated with a woodcut. The work was a Renaissance best-seller, with 26 different editions being published before 1500, including the first Latin translation by Jacob Locher in 1497 and the first French by Pierre Rivière in 1497.

Barclay’s translation is mainly based on the versions of Locher and Rivière, with some original additions. These are “proverbs, exempla and hortatory ‘envois’, written in Chaucerian stanzas and in generally simple English. The popular homiletic style means that, in spite of the fact that he almost certainly never read Brant’s text at first hand, the spirit of Barclay’s work is probably closer to that of the original German that to that of Locher’s cultivated Latin” (Classe, p. 178).

The work enabled Barclay to “mount attacks on a range of contemporary social groups and practices: attacks which accord with traditions of social criticism going back to the fourteenth century, while reflecting some of the concerns of humanist writers in the early sixteenth. His targets included fond parents and ungrateful children, inconstant and evil women, all who wore extravagant clothes, pluralist clergy, ignorant gentlemen, avaricious merchants, corrupt lawyers and physicians, riotous servants, and sturdy undeserving beggars. He also took the opportunity to settle some private scores” (ODNB).

Barclay’s translation of Mancini’s The Mirror of Good Manners (first published in 1523) and the first collected edition of Barclay’s Eclogues, previously only available as separate editions are also printed at the end of the volume. Pforzheimer notes that this book is “of considerable interest and value because of the Eclogues appended, the original editions of which are exceedingly rare”.

Barclay also uses the Nefs des Fous to resonate the text with English culture. In addition to the English geographical references that appear from time to time in the text, he quotes the legendary Robin Hood (leaves 23, 183 and 259). The epic is evoked in opposition to the Bible in the chapter devoted to atheists. Barclay criticises readers who prefer entertaining stories to the solemnity of religious texts.

« The holy Bible grounde of truth and of lawe,           
Is nowe of many abiect and nought set by      
Nor godly scripture is not woorth an hawe:    
But tales are loued ground of ribaudry                       
And many are to blinded with their foly,         
That no scripture thinke they so true nor good           
As is a foolishe iest of Robin hood.”

(Of contempts or despising of holy Scripture, f.23)

However, Barclay is not the only one to take some liberties with the German version. The Latin version presented in our edition, on which Barclay based his translation, already contains alterations. Jacob Locher, known as Philomusus (1471-1528), transcribed the text in 1497, removing the crudest elements and adding more controversial themes.

The Ship of Fools, and Barclay’s translation of it, are deeply rooted in their time. The subject matter is licentious, allowing for the exploitation of an ambivalent theme while distancing the concerns of the world in a narrative. The fool embodies a dual character, echoing both derision and ridicule, but also putting the madness of the world into perspective.

« Avec Brant, avec Érasme, avec toute la tradition humaniste, la folie est prise dans l’univers du discours. Elle s’y raffine, elle s’y subtilise, elle s’y désarme aussi. Elle change d’échelle ; elle naît dans le cœur des hommes, elle règle et dérègle leur conduite ; quand bien même elle gouverne les cités, la vérité calme des choses, la grande nature l’ignore. » (Foucault, Histoire de la Folie à l’âge classique, 1977, p.29.)

Title washed and soiled. Minor wormholes throughout the volume, restored on certain pages. Page 99 incorrectly numbered 96, f. 200 incorrectly numbered 100, f 201 incorrectly numbered 205, as in the digitised copies.

Provenance: Pastor John Mitford (1781-1859) with his copper-engraved book plate.

Mitford wrote two pages of notes in English as a preliminary to the work. Notes in brown ink dated 1819, and an addition in black ink by the same hand dated July 1826. The notes focus on editions of the text, on Alexander Barclay, mentioning bibliographies such as Phillips’ Theatrum poetarum anglicanorum, and on specific quotations from the texts in the work.