Anonymous: The ship of Fools (1494)

 

(Saxon State and University Library, Dresden, Germany)

A woodcut made by an unknown German artist. This page comes from the book "Das Narrenschiff" (= 'The ship of Fools'), written by the German humanist and satirist Sebastian Brant (1458 – 1521). A woodcut made by an unknown German artist. This page comes from the book "Das Narrenschiff" (= 'The ship of Fools'), written by the German humanist and satirist Sebastian Brant (1458 – 1521). Brant uses Plato's allegory of the ship of fools to ridicule the weaknesses and vices of his time. It describes a boat without a captain, which is driven by a group of fools. The group of fools is willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. The barge keeps going round and round and never reaches a harbour because the fools are ignorant. The real captain, who knows the stars, the wind and the course, is not addressed and is not seen by them. In the book, the ship goes to the fools' paradise of Narragonia. Here he conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people. Woodcut from 1494.

Sebastian Brant_Das Narrenschiff, folio2 (1494)