The Ship of Fools

First printed in 1494 as Das Narrenschiff, this German verse satire catalogues types of fool who board a ship bound for Narragonia. Brant mocks scholars who pile unread books, greedy merchants, adulterers, astrologers, fashion slaves, and negligent priests, among many others, in short chapters often paired with woodcuts. The voyage is an allegory of a society adrift rather than a plotted adventure with one hero. The work is a late-medieval moral encyclopedia in verse, not a novel of a single captain and crew.

Bound in pale blue canvas blocked with a woodcut design in dark blue. Dark blue endleaves. Brown slipcase.