Nauicula siue speculu[m] fatuor[um]

1511
Bound volume
Argentorati [ie Strassburg]: J Otmar, [1511]
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
SAFE/ 51/1

A man of austere morality, Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg was one of the most popular preachers in Europe in the 15th century. His forceful and unusual sermons, delivered with ‘extraordinary daring … in the language of ordinary life’* were renowned for attracting and holding the public’s attention as he sought to turn them away from their lives of vice, sin and moral decay. He was also a prolific writer, and his writings provide an enduring source of information about the lives and beliefs of common people of the day.

In 1511 he published this collection of sermons inspired by Brandt’s hugely popular satire Ship of Fools. The volume also includes the woodcut illustrations used by Brandt in his original publication, many of which are thought to have been carved by Albrecht Dürer during a short stay in Basel in 1494. Each woodcut provides a literal or allegorical interpretation of the particular sin or vice featured in that chapter. Most feature a fool wearing a fool’s cap decorated with bells, engaging in the activity being ridiculed. The image shown on this spread, one of those attributed Dürer, is titled ‘Of Crude Fools’.