Editing Sebastian Brant

{{Short description|German humanist and satirist (1458–1521)}}
[[Image:Duerer brant.png|thumb|Sebastian Brant by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]
'''Sebastian Brant''' (also '''Brandt'''; 1457/1458 – 10 May 1521) was a German [[Humanism|humanist]] and [[satirist]].<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Brant, Sebastian}}</ref> He is best known for his [[satire]] ''[[Das Narrenschiff]]''  (''The Ship of Fools'').<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E12vAnnt_uQC&q=The+Ship+of+Fools++Por+Sebastian+Brant,Edwin+Hermann+Zeydel ''The Ship of Fools'']</ref>

==Early life and education==
Brant was born in either 1457 or 1458 in [[Strasbourg]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zeydel |first=Edwin H. |date=1966 |title=Wann wurde Sebastian Brant geboren? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20655345 |journal=Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=319–320 |jstor=20655345 |issn=0044-2518}}</ref> [[Holy Roman Empire]], to  innkeeper Diebold Brant and Barbara Brant (née Rickler).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Brant, Sebastian |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/011593/2004-08-19/ |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=hls-dhs-dss.ch |language=de}}</ref> He entered the [[University of Basel]] in October 1475 and as an assistant to Jacobus Hugonius he did not pay the matriculation.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |title=Sebastian Brant, Forschungsbeiträge zu seinem Leben, zum Narrenschiff und zum übrigen Werk |date=2002 |publisher=[[Schwabe Verlag]] |isbn=3-7965-1734-X |editor-last=Wilhelmi |editor-first=Thomas |location=Basel |pages=11 |language=de}}</ref> For five years he lived in the [[Dormitory|dorm]] of magister Hieronymus Berlin,<ref name=":3" /> initially studying philosophy and then transferring to the school of law.<ref name=":1" /> He was taught [[Latin]] by Johann Matthias von Gengenbach, who also lectured philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy.<ref>Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).pp.11–12</ref> Initially studying at the Faculty of Philosophy he later studied law. It is assumed he began his law studies in 1476, as his [[Bachelor of Laws|bachelor]] is already mentioned in the winter of 1477-1478 and in 1484 Brant obtained a licentiate.<ref name=":4">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.14</ref> In 1483 he began teaching at the university and completed his doctorate in law in 1489.<ref name=":1" /> He graduated in both [[Canon law|canon]] and [[Civil law (legal system)|civil law]].<ref name=":4" />

== Professional career ==
Brant first attracted attention in humanistic circles by his [[Neo-Latin]] poetry but, realising that this gave him only a limited audience, he began translating his own work and the Latin poems of others into German, publishing them through the press of his friend  {{III|Johann Bergmann von Olpe|lt=Johann Bergmann von Olpe|de}}, from which appeared his best known German work, the satirical ''[[Das Narrenschiff]]'' (Ship of Fools, 1494), the popularity and influence of which were not limited to Germany. In this [[allegory]], the author lashes the weaknesses and vices of his time. It is an episodic work in which a ship laden with and steered by fools goes to the fools' paradise of Narragonia. Here he conceives [[Saint Grobian]], whom he imagines to be the [[patron saint]] of vulgar and coarse people. He was employed by the printer [[Johann Amerbach]] with whom he collaborated in the publications of the works of [[Church Fathers|christian fathers]] [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine's]] and [[Ambrose]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Haegen |first=Pierre Louis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5KcmAQAAIAAJ |title=Der frühe Basler Buchdruck: ökonomische, sozio-politische und informationssystematische Standortfaktoren und Rahmenbedingungen |date=2001 |publisher=Schwabe |isbn=978-3-7965-1090-8 |pages=140 |language=de}}</ref> In jurisprudence, he also worked on the ''Corpus Juridici canonici,''  which Amerbach was to print jointly with [[Johann Froben|Johannes Froben]] in 1500.<ref name=":2" /> He was very close with several printers of Basel.<ref>Haegen, Pierre Louis (2001),p.142</ref> Between 1488 and 1501 it is known he worked on ninety-five books and it is assumed he worked on several more.<ref name=":9">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.24</ref> Among others, forty-one were published by Johann Bergmann von Olpe, seventeen by Johann Amerbach and twenty-four by Michael Furter.<ref name=":9" /> Most of Brant's important writing, including many works on civil and canon law, were written while he was living in Basel.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Kisch |first=Guido |title=Die Anfänge der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Basel 1459 - 1529 |publisher=von Helbing & Lichtenhahn |year=1962 |location=Basel |pages=77–80 |language=de}}</ref> Other sources mention Brant's involvement in about a third of all books published in Basel the late 1500s, but this number is disputed.<ref name=":9" />   

[[Image:Sebastian Brant - Die Unsinnigkeit.png|thumb|left|{{center|Woodcut from ''[[Das Narrenschiff]]''}}]]He returned to Strasbourg, where he was made [[syndic]] in August 1500<ref>Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.30</ref> and remained for the rest of his life. He assumed the office of the syndic in January 1501.<ref name=":6">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.31</ref> In 1502 [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] nominated him an Imperial Councilor.<ref name=":10">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.32</ref> He would also earn the title of a Count Palatine and later be a judge for the [[Reichskammergericht|Imperial Court in Speyer]].<ref name=":10" /> In 1503 he secured the influential position of chancellor (''stadtschreiber'')<ref name=":6" /> and his engagement in public affairs prevented him from pursuing a literature career as before.<ref name=":11" /> Brant was a catholic, but he remained tolerant to the protestants, who were allowed to preach in the market square and publish books during his tenure as a chancellor.<ref name=":11">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.33</ref> In Strasbourg his literary work included a translation into German of the [[Hortulus Animae]] in 1501/1502, a Vergil edition in 1503 and he also prepared an edition of [[Petrarch|Petrarcas]] "[[De remediis utriusque fortunae|''Glücksbuch'']]" for 1520.<ref>Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.34</ref>  

Brant made several petitions to the Emperor Maximilian to drive back the [[Ottoman wars in Europe|Turks]] in order to save the West.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harrison |first=E. L. |date=1981 |title=Virgil, Sebastian Brant, and Maximilian I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3727014 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=104–106 |doi=10.2307/3727014 |jstor=3727014 |issn=0026-7937|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In the same spirit, he had sung the praises of [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]] in 1492 for having conquered the Moors and unified Spain. A staunch proponent of German cultural nationalism, he believed that moral reform was necessary for the security of the Empire against the [[Ottoman wars in Europe|Ottoman threat]].<ref>{{cite book
|title= Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume II: A Century of Wonder
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|last= Lach
|first= Donald F.
|year=1994
|isbn=9780226467122
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hhE3sPY78s0C
|accessdate=2009-08-30}}</ref>

Although essentially conservative in his religious views, Brant's eyes were open to abuses in the church. He published the ''Narrenschiff'' in 1494, printed by [[Michael Furter]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kisch |first=Guido |title="Die Anfänge der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Basel 1459–1529" |publisher=Helbing & Lichtenhahn |year=1962 |location=Basel |pages=78 |language=de}}</ref> [[Alexander Barclay]]'s ''Ship of Fools'' (1509) is a free imitation into early [[Tudor period]] English of the German poem, and a Latin version by [[:de:Jakob Locher|Jakob Locher]] (1497)<ref>1498 edition of [https://archive.org/details/stultiferanauisn00bran_0 Stultifera Navis]</ref> was hardly less popular than the original. ''Cock Lorell's Bote'' (printed by [[Wynkyn de Worde]], c. 1510) was a shorter imitation of the ''Narrenschiff''. In this work Cock Lorell, a notorious fraudulent [[tinker]] of the period, gathers round him a rascally collection of tradesmen and sets off to sail through [[England]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1JVTAAAAcAAJ&dq=cock+lorell%27s+bote&pg=PR10 1843 reprint]</ref> 

Among Brant's many other works was his compilation of fables and other popular stories, published in 1501 under the title ''Aesopi Appologi sive Mythologi cum quibusdam Carminum et Fabularum additionibus'', the beauty of whose production is still appreciated. Though based on [[Heinrich Steinhöwel]]'s 1476 edition of Aesop, the Latin prose was emended by Brant, who also added verse commentaries with his characteristic combination of wit and style. The second part of the work is entirely new, consisting of riddles, additional fables culled from varied sources, and accounts of miracles and wonders of nature both from his own times and reaching back to antiquity.

The letters by Brant that have survived show that he was in correspondence with Peter Schott, Johann Bergmann von Olpe, [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Maximilian]], [[Thomas Murner]], [[Konrad Peutinger]], [[Willibald Pirckheimer]], [[Johannes Reuchlin]], [[Beatus Rhenanus]], [[Jakob Wimpfeling]] and [[Ulrich Zasius]].

== Personal life ==
In 1485 he had married Elisabeth Bürg, the daughter of a [[cutlery|cutler]] in the town.<ref>Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.15</ref> Brant was the father of seven children.<ref name=":7">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.18</ref> Two of the godfathers to the children were [[Johann Amerbach]] and [[Johann Froben]].<ref name=":7" /> Keen for his eldest son Onophrius to become a humanist, he taught him Latin in the cradle and enrolled him in the university at the age of seven. Onophrius was to study law with [[Ulrich Zasius]] in [[Freiburg im Breisgau|Freiburg]].<ref name=":8">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.19</ref> Later he would be employed in the public service in Strasbourg.<ref name=":8" /> His daughter Anna was married to Paul Butz, Sebastian Brants successor.<ref name=":8" /> He at times signed as '''Titio''', a rarely used Latin term for firebrand, mostly when it rhymed.<ref name=":5">Wilhelmi, Thomas (ed.).p.12</ref> [[Johannes Trithemius]] seemed to be more fond of the name than Brant himself, though.<ref name=":5" />

He died in Strasbourg.

==Editions==
* ''Das Narrenschiff'', Studienausgabe, ed. by Joachim Knape (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2005)
* Online facsimile of [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/8973/view/1/1/ the original] 
* Edwin H. Zeydel's 1944 translation of ''The Ship of Fools'', of which there is a limited selection on [https://books.google.com/books?id=qLzCAgAAQBAJ&dq=Edwin+H.+Zeydel++%22Ship+of+Fools%22&pg=PP3 Google Books]
* ''Aesopi Appologi'', an unpaged facsimile on [https://books.google.com/books?id=UX9eAAAAcAAJ Google Books]; a page by page online facsimile with short German descriptions from [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/desbillons/esop.html Mannheim University]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[C. H. Herford]], ''The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 16th Century'' (1886) discusses the influence of Brant in [[England]].
*[[John W. Van Cleve]], ''Sebastian Brant's 'The Ship of Fools' in Critical Perspective, 1800-1991'' (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993).

==External links==
{{commons}}
{{Wikisourcelang|de|Sebastian Brant}}
{{Collier's Poster|Brandt, Sebastian}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=9167| name=Sebastian Brant}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=( -collection:arxiv AND mediatype:texts AND Sebastian AND (Brant OR Brandt OR "1458-1521") )}}
* {{Librivox author |id=5688}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brant, Sebastian}}
[[Category:1450s births]]
[[Category:1521 deaths]]
[[Category:15th-century German jurists]]
[[Category:15th-century German writers]]
[[Category:15th-century Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:16th-century German jurists]]
[[Category:16th-century German male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:German Roman Catholic writers]]
[[Category:German satirists]]
[[Category:German male poets]]
[[Category:German satirical poets]]
[[Category:15th-century German poets]]
[[Category:16th-century German poets]]
[[Category:Writers from Strasbourg]]