SOURCE: Dünnhaupt, Gerhard. “Sebastian Brant: The Ship of Fools.” In The Renaissance and Reformation in Germany: An Introduction, edited by Gerhart Hoffmeister, pp. 69-81. New York: Ungar, 1977.

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 Goethe can match the resounding popular success and lasting influence both at home and abroad of Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools—or, to give it its original name, Das Narrenschiff. The phenomenal speed with which this book became known and popular throughout Renaissance Europe is as astonishing as the variety of genres in which its influence may be felt to this day.

As early as 1494, the year of the first Basel printing, pirated versions of the High German original of The Ship of Fools appeared in Nürnberg, Reutlingen...