124 



tilian and other autient classics ; and in allusion to some of his 

 licentious compositions, thus gravely concludes : — " Scripsit 

 '' et quaedam turpia nee lectione bonorum digna. Nam, ut ait 

 " Trithemius, hoc opus a Catalogo illustrium scriptorum reji- 

 "ciendum censemus, quoniam ejus lectio devotos offendit, 

 " incautis nocet, et carnales iuficit." 



At the very close of the fifteenth century appeared a work 

 which long enjoyed a remarkable popularity, namely the Navis 

 StuUifera or Ship of Fools, a satire on the times, written in 

 German by Sebastian Brandt (called also Titio) an advocate 

 born at Strasburg A.D. 1458. So great was its celebrity that 

 a course of sermons was preached upon it by Johan Geiler 

 Von Keysenberg, a divine of note in the sixteenth century, 

 which sermons appeared in print under the title of " Navicula 

 sive speculum Fatuorum/' Brandt was the author of several 

 works, but none of them met with so much success as the 

 Ship ofFooU (Das narren schyff), which was published in 1494, 

 at Basle and three other cities. It comprised one hundred 

 and fourteen very spirited and curious wood engravings, each 

 accompanied by an elucidation in German verse. It was soon 

 translated into Latin verse by James Locher, a pupil of the 

 author (by whom it was revised), and published with the same 

 cuts. Frencli, Dutch, and English versions speedily followed. 

 Badins Ascensius, the eminent printer and scholar of Paris, 

 issued editions of the Latin and "French versions, with com- 

 ments and translations of his own, and with some additional 

 graphic illustrations. New editions of the work continued to 

 follow one another at different times during the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, with variations in verse and prose. Translations of it 

 into English are amongst the most interesting fruits of our 

 early press. In the year 1509, Pynson issued from his press 

 the translation made by Alexander Barclay, priest, and chap- 

 lain at the college of St. Mary Ottery, in Devonshire, who says 

 in his preface, " Sothely he hath taken upon hym the trans- 

 " lacion of this present boke, neyther for liope of rewarde nor 



