SOURCE: Nordenfalk, Carl. “The Moral Issue in Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools.” In The Humanist as Citizen, edited by John Agresto and Peter Riesenberg, pp. 72-93. Chapel Hill, N.C.: National Humanities Center, 1981.

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 clear to his readers that he does not care to have his book sold. Yet this is what Sebastian Brant does at the end of his Narren-Schyff:

My fool's book, does it anger you? I beg of you to pass it by I ask no one to come and buy!(1) 

As a matter of fact, when the book first appeared in Basel, on All Fools' Day 1494, it sold out almost immediately, and in less than a year the same thing...