m 



among others, throwing overboard one of their companions — 

 and singing "Ad Narragoniam, Gaudeamus omnes/' "To 

 Fool- land, let us all be joyful/' The wood cuts of the original 

 work were executed by Johan de Bergman, a native of Olpe. 

 They have often been erroneously attributed to Brandt himself. 

 Following out the idea of Brandt, Badius Ascensius com- 

 posed a short Latin satire entitled "The ship of Foolish 

 Women" This work did not however proceed from the 

 ** prelum ascensianum,'* but was printed at Paris A.D. 1500, 

 by Thielman Kerver. The author, after expressing high 

 admiration of his famed prototype, who is entitled in his 

 estimation to equal renown with ^sop, intimates that 

 Brandt had not fully exposed the source of all the folly 

 and misery by which the human race had been afflicted. 

 The original sin of man (says he) proceeded from the folly 

 of Eve ; and in after times the fall of Sampson, David, and 

 other worthies, was attributable to the same female influences. 

 An engraving is then given, wherein our mother Eve is 

 represented as embarked on board of the first fool-bearing 

 ship, plucking the forbidden fruit from the tree (which stands 

 as the mast of the vessel), and preparing to present it to 

 Adam, who lifts up his hands and his eyes in horror at the 

 deed. Five other engravings follow, of vessels crowded with 

 females, who, through the medium of the five senses, are 

 practising their arts of seduction upon the other sex. Indeed 

 Badius declares that the five foolish virgins in the parable, 

 who forgot to bring oil in their lamps, are merely intended to 

 shadow forth this abuse of the senses of sight, hearing, smell, 

 taste, and touch. In force and humour the prose and metri- 

 cal illustrations are not comparable with those of Brandt, nor 

 are the wood cuts by any means equal. Two or three French 

 translations however immediately made their appearance ; but 

 copies of the " Scapha fatuarum mulierum," whether in the 

 original liatin or in the translation, are now rarely to be met 

 with. 



