The German writer Sebastian Brant (1457-1521) was the author of the "Narrenschiff," or "Ship of Fools," one of the most famous secular works in European letters.Sebastian Brant, born in Strassburg, lo...
Read more
The name Sebastian Brant is inextricably tied to Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools, 1494), by far his best-known work. The identities of author and work are so interdependent that literary histories...
Read more
In the following essays, Zeydel examines Brant's poetical exercises and broadsides, which the critic argues reveal similar religious and social concerns as those presented in his Latin prose an...
Read more
In the following essay, DuBruck examines Brant's attitudes toward books and education.
In his recent monograph (Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools in Critical Perspective. Columbia S...
Read more
In the following essay, Classen explores what insights The Ship of Fools provides for understanding the daily mental, social, economic, and political conditions of late medieval life.
Talking about...
Read more
In the following essay, Gaier discusses the reception of The Ship of Fools by Brant's contemporaries.
The place of Sebastian Brant in the intellectual currents of his time is far from settle...
Read more
In the following essay, Zeydel surveys Brant's more important works as a writer and editor before discussing his use of language, both Latin and the vernacular German he used to reach a wider a...
Read more
In the following essay, Skrine analyzes The Ship of Fools as a commentary on the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes.
In Canto III of the Inferno the souls of the damned gather waiting
...
Read more
In the following essay, originally delivered as a lecture in 1973, Wilkie presents the historical context in which Brant lived and wrote, describes the contents of The Ship of Fools, reviews the criti...
Read more
In the following essay, Dünnhaupt offers an overview of the composition, influences, content, themes, and literary success of The Ship of Fools.
No other work of German literature before Goe...
Read more
In the following essay, Nordenfalk explores the liberal humanist ethic of The Ship of Fools, with its focus on the social consequences of human actions.
It is most unusual for an author to make cle...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Moxey examines The Ship of Fools in the context of moralizing, didactic Netherlandish literature, noting its distinctive voice and serious stance compared to other works of i...
Read more
In the following essay, Halporn discusses Brant's work as an editor of texts used by law students, which, the critic asserts, he did in part because he believed in making the law accessible to ...
Read more
Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant
Critical Essay by Edwin H. Zeydel
