SOURCE: Gaier, Ulrich. “Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff and the Humanists.” PMLA 83, no. 2 (1968): 266-70.

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 settled. Many scholars¹ view him as an essentially medieval mind,² longingly and resignedly looking towards the past, and only accidentally helping to usher in the new age.³ Others, however, stress his desire to act immediately upon his time,⁴ even though several of his ideas are rooted in the past. Some consider him a Humanist,⁵ some a rationalist,⁶ some utterly medieval. Because of the divergence in the views of modern scholars, it seems appropriate to ask how he and his work were looked upon by his contemporaries. This brief discussion is limited to the reception of one of his works by a relatively small group of...