The Ship of Fools

The Ship of Fools

The The Ship of Fools is an allegory that has been repeatedly used in Western literature and art since its inception in Book VI of the Republic by Plato (428/7 or 424/3 – 348/7 BC). The original allegory is that of a ship whose captain is unable to navigate and whose crew, consisting of fools who are all unqualified to steer the ship but unwilling to concede to anyone else doing so, quarrel with one another over who should assume control. All suffer as a result. This allegory has been commonly used to represent the flaws, immoralities, and absurdity of contemporary society. This specimen of “Fool’s Literature” is a complimentary text to the famous Das Narrenschiff, written by Sebastian Brant (1457–1521) and published in Basel, Switzerland ca. 1494. Jodocus Badius Ascensius (1462–1535) was a grammarian and pedagogue, first living in Lyon before moving to Paris in 1503, where he set up a printing house. The Spanish edition of his Stultiferae naves was first printed ca. 1500 by Fadrique Biel de Basilea (active 1484–1517) in Burgos, in the first printing house in the city. The codex reuses the eight precise woodcuts from the Parisian edition.