Sebastian Brant

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Portrait of Brant; Drawing by Albrecht Dürer (detail), 1492

Sebastian Brant or Sebastian Brandt ( Latinized Titio ; born 1457 or 1458 in Strasbourg ; died May 10, 1521 there ) was a German humanist , lawyer, professor of law at the University of Basel (1489-1500) and from 1502 until his death in 1521 City Counsel and Chancellor of the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg. He was one of the most prolific writers of Latin devotional poetry and editor of ancient classics and writings by Italian humanists. His moral satire Das Narrenschiff , published in 1494established his fame as the author of German humanism .

Life

Sebastian Brant was first child of the Strasbourg councilman and innkeeper of the "Great hostel to Golden Lion" Diebolt Brant the Younger and his wife Barbara Brant, born picker in Strasbourg born. His father died in 1468. Nothing is known about Brant's life until he began studying in Basel in 1475. According to his two professional spheres of activity and domicile, his life is commonly divided into the Basel period (1475–1500) and the Strasbourg period (1500–1521).

Basel period (1475-1500)

Sebastian Brant, woodcut from 1590 from Nicolaus Reussner's Icones
Haus zum Sunnenluft , Basel, Augustinergasse, where Sebastian Brant lived in 1494

In the winter semester of 1475/76, Brant began studying Artes and Law at the municipal University of Basel in Basel . Study books with a Horace transcript and a Cisiojanus have survived as autographs from his student days . He obtained his bachelor's degree in law in the semester of 1477/78, and a few years later, in 1484, also his licentiate . After completing his studies, he married the Basel citizen Elisabeth Burgis in 1485 (in other sources also Burg or Bürgi). Her father was a guild master at the Basel cutlery. The couple had seven children together. A son of Brant, Onophrius Brant, later emerged as a lawyer and occasional poet and was elected to the council of the city of Strasbourg. Brant received his doctorate in 1489 as Doctor utriusque iuris and has been a full member of the college of professors ever since. He taught both rights, i.e. canonical (ecclesiastical) and Roman (civil) law, and since 1484 regularly poetry. In 1492 Brant was dean of the law school for a year . Corresponding entries in the rectorate and faculty registers from his hand have been preserved. In addition to his work in university teaching, he also worked as a legal expert, lawyer and judge during his time in Basel. It was not until 1496 that he received a paid professorship for Roman and canon law. From 1497 to 1500 he then only taught canon law.

In the literary field, Brant's Basel years were characterized by a lively publication activity that developed from the 1490s. In addition to poetry, he also published specialist literature and was involved in the field of topical and occasional poetry with flyers and pamphlets. During this time he was not only active as an author, but also as a promoter and editor of literature. The years between 1490 and 1500 established his literary fame with the Ship of Fools (1494) and numerous other poems.

He left the university in the winter semester of 1500 and was preparing to move to Strasbourg.

Strasbourg period (1500–1521)

Strasbourg around 1490

Brant moved to Strasbourg in the spring of 1501, and on January 14, 1501, took up the post of syndic . After working for some time as a lawyer, lawyer and diplomat, he was appointed town clerk and chancellor in 1502 and thus the highest administrative officer of the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg. The recruitment letter has been preserved. In his Strasbourg years, Brant's literary activity changed, he appeared increasingly as a promoter of literary works, but published hardly any of his own works. As a censor, Brant was responsible for the approval of all Strasbourg prints. The testimonies from Brant's ministry are treated in a separate section . In 1520 Brant traveled to Ghent , where he paid homage to the new emperor, Charles V , for the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg.

plant

German seals

The Ship of Fools

Title page from Brant's Ship of Fools , Albrecht Dürer around 1493
Main article: Ship of Fools

The Ship of Fools is generally considered to be Brant's main work and for a long time dominated Brant's mainly Germanic occupation. The richly illustrated and lavishly designed humanistic book with didactic and satirical wisdom of life and allegorically glossing the grievances, follies and vices of the 15th century, was published in 1494 by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in Basel .

Structure and content of the work

The book consists of 112 largely independent chapters. The outer bracket of the work is the ship allegory, which is introduced with the title page and the preface, but is only taken up again in the text in chapters 103, 108 and 109. The chapters themselves follow each other in a loose order and are thematically unconnected. The connecting element between the chapters is the figure of the fool and the same structure of the chapters.

All chapters follow a simple construction scheme that is maintained for the entire work. The chapter usually begins on the left with a three- or four-line motto followed by the woodcut and then the proverb. Ideally, the verse poem 34 consists mostly of iambic verses. Since 30 verses fit on one page, Brant ensures that a chapter fills exactly one double page and the reader has a whole in front of them when reading it. Where Brant adds one or more pages of 30 verses to the chapter, the basic scheme of the ship of fools is necessarily abandoned. The following chapter then begins on the right instead of the left.

Another element of the work that creates unity is the fool. There are 109 fools who board the ship and set off on the journey to “Narragonia”. Seafarers or a helmsman are not among the fools. The folly in Brant's work is understood as folly or a lack of insight into the demands of life. The fool “is the person who gives in to his questionable inclinations, such as quackery or litigation, fashion follies or the trade in relics. Foolishness and moral deficiency are united in the fool. ”In summarizing chapters (Chapters 22, 107 and 112) Brant contrasts the fool with people striving for wisdom.

The woodcuts

Brant and Bergmann von Olpe hired at least four tearers to illustrate the work, including the young Albrecht Dürer , to whom a good two thirds of the woodcuts are ascribed. The following applies to the illustration of the work: “The text directs,” ie the text was already available when work on the woodcuts began. The woodcuts deal thematically differently with the content of the chapters. Sometimes they refer to the chapter topic and implement it graphically, but sometimes they only take up individual aspects of the chapter or expand the chapter content.

Prints and translations

14 copies of the first printing (Basel 1494) have been preserved. There were a total of 16 editions up to Brant's death , both authorized reprints and pirated prints in German.

Page (47 v ) from the Latin edition of the "Stultifera navis" Lochers by Johannes Grüninger , Strasbourg 1497

Jakob Locher was responsible for the Latin edition of the Ship of Fools . His translation was published in 1497 by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in Basel under the title “Stultifera navis”. Locher shortened the chapters and replaced some completely, but otherwise kept the work concept of the ship of fools. He added a philologically-learned apparatus to the text. The Latin translation was important for the dissemination of the work, as it got going outside the German-speaking area or was made possible at all. Soon after publication, translations of the Latin text into the vernacular appeared, and French, English and Dutch editions of the Ship of Fools soon appeared. The English edition is the first ever translation of a German-language work into English. A Low German translation of the ship of fools was also published in 1497 under the title "Dat narren schyp" in Lübeck . However, the basis for this was the German text.

importance

Both the richly interspersed proverbs and the effective woodcuts contributed to the great success of the ship of fools. Joachim Knape sums up the significance of the ship of fools as follows: “As a German poet, Brant cannot dispute his position among his contemporaries. During this time, no one has created a literary figure as famous and enthusiastically received in Europe as the fool in the 'Ship of Fools'. No living contemporary in Germany could show a German printed work comparable to the 'Ship of Fools', which combines poetry, visual art and book art into an ensemble of similar rank. The claim and the novelty of the work did not remain without effect among contemporaries. Its sensational success immediately resulted in numerous pirated prints. In literary terms it established the European tradition of fool's literature. "

Brant wrote the “German satire of his time” and thus created “the representative German original poetry of his generation.” Brant oriented himself towards Horace and Roman satire. A variety of literary sources flowed into his work, which Brant interwoven with many allusions and allusions to form an elaborate reference system.

The game of Hercules and virtue

During his time in Strasbourg, Brant was also involved in public drama. In this context he probably wrote a German Hercules game in 1512/13 . A Tugent Spyl is documented for 1518 . As part of the game of virtue, the battle between virtue and lust is brought to the stage. The piece was arranged according to the two-day scheme and conceived in the form of a station drama.

The freedom panel

In addition to the ship of fools, the freedom panel is considered to be the “second major German text and image cycle that negotiates a unified theme in variations”. The freedom panel consisted of 52 epigrams that Brant wrote between 1517 and 1519 for the design of the XIIIer-Stube of the Strasbourg city hall. In his epigrams he illuminates the idea of ​​freedom from different perspectives and thus illuminates the philosophical, religious, legal and social aspects of the idea of ​​freedom. Hans Baldung Grien , a pupil of Albrecht Dürer , who lived in Strasbourg from 1517 onwards, could have been responsible for the technical implementation of Brant's freedom panel and the attachment of the frescoes .

Unprinted epigrams and occasional poems

In Brant's literary estate, a number of epigrams and occasional poems have survived that were not published at the time. This includes many German-Latin poems on religious, ethical and political topics. They are preserved in two copies from the 17th century and handed down under the heading Epigrams. In some cases it is also likely to be drafts that Brant partially incorporated into some of his larger German poems. Also preserved are the poem Schild von Murten about a Burgundian shield captured in the battle of Murten in 1476 , a three-verse German-Latin mocking poem Against the Swiss from 1511 and, as an occasional poem , his city ​​complaint , in which he describes the burden on cities and peasants during the war 1513 thematized. A flood forecast for 1524 has also been received and is dated to the year 1520.

German and Latin seals

Single-sheet prints and leaflets on current and natural history topics

The Ensisheim Thunderstone, a leaflet by Brants from 1492

Since at least 1488, Brant has also emerged as the author of daily occasional poems. In these poems, which he circulates as flyers or flyers, he expresses himself on questions of politics. The poems are often written in Latin and German (Latin distiches and German Knittelverse). External occasions were mostly special or extraordinary events in nature or politics, which he reported about, but which he also commented on and interpreted as miraculous signs with a view to imperial politics. Particular attention was paid to the situation of the emperor and empire and the danger of war and the Turks. In doing so, he took on the role of an "Erzaugur of the Holy Roman Empire".

A large part of the poems has probably been lost today, about 16 poems can be identified as separately published work units from the surviving printed copies:

  1. Contra Flamingos - a Latin poem against the Flemings who captured the German King Maximilian I in February 1488.
  2. The Thunderstone of Ensisheim - Latin-German pamphlet of 1492 over the meteor in Ensisheim in Alsace came down
  3. Battle of Salins - German poem on Maximilian's victory over the French in 1493 ( Treaty of Senlis )
  4. The Worms Twins - Latin-German leaflet on a freak in Worms 1495. The leaflet appeared with a view to the Worms Reichstag in the same year.
  5. Confoederatio Alexandri Vi. et Maximiliani I. - Latin congratulatio on the occasion of the European Prince's Day against the Turks of 1495
  6. Inundatio Tybridis - Latin elegy on the occasion of the Tiber flood in Rome in 1495
  7. Die Sau zu Landser - Latin-German leaflet on the occasion of the freak birth of a sow in Landser in Sundgau from 1496
  8. The goose of Gugenheim - Latin-German leaflet on the occasion of the freak birth of a twin goose and two six-legged piglets in Gugenheim in 1496
  9. De pestilentiali scorra sive mala de Franzos - Latin leaflet from 1496, which he dedicated to Johannes Reuchlin . The leaflet is considered to be the first work in syphilis literature
  10. Anna von Endingen - Latin-German poem from 1496 about the discharge of blood and worms by Anna von Endingen from Strasbourg. For Brant, the medical interest in the case seems to be in the foreground; the usual interpretation is missing here.
  11. Fuchshartz - Latin-German hunting allegory as a warning of lurking foxes. By addressing Maximilian I directly, there is a political context. The poem has only survived in the Varia Carmina .
  12. Peace and War - Latin-German debate between peace and war on the occasion of the Swabian War of 1499
  13. Dream - Latin leaflet with 100 distiches from 1499/1500. A German-language pamphlet with 509 verses followed in 1502. Brant is included as a poet in the dream vision. In the leaflet he calls for the crusade, the call is emphasized by the direct speech of Christ's mourning cross.
  14. Türkenanschlag - German poem on the occasion of a Franco-German agreement against the Turks of 1501.
  15. Merging the planets - German poem on a special planetary constellation from 1504
  16. Ad Maximilianum nenia - complaint about the triumph of the Turks. The poem contains a call to the crusade, addressed to Maximilian and the other Christian rulers and peoples

Religious and moralistic poems

Brant wrote a rosary (1494), a lamentation of Mary and a consolation speech of Jesus (1494), a checkmate game and a text that is addressed in research as the wrongness of the world .

Brants Rosary from 1494 has survived in three versions and each offers an overview of the life and passion of Christ in song form. Brant also added a focus on the painful Mother of God. Its Latin version contains 50 sapphic stanzas . The number of stanzas corresponds to the "50 pearls of the painful prayer rosary". Brant took the Latin version in 1494 in the Carmina in laudem Mariae and in 1498 in the Carmina varia . A German version with 51 stanzas has also survived. The Latin version was adapted at the beginning of the 16th century. The rosary was expanded and now comprised 63 stanzas. The editor is unknown.

Man of Sorrows and Mater Dolorosa with Brant's consolation speech of Jesus Querulosa Christi consolatio ad dolorosam virginis Marie compassionem , print by Hieronymus Höltzel (1512)

In 1494 Brant also wrote a Lamentation of Mary and a subsequent consolation speech by Jesus. Under the cross Mary laments her grief over the suffering of her son. Jesus comforts them and indicates that the work of redemption will be completed with his crucifixion. The text has been handed down twice. Once in the form of two Latin poems with 17 distiches each. The Latin poems were included in the Carmina in laudem Mariae in 1494 and in the Carmina varia in 1498 . A German translation is available for 1515 in the form of a single sheet print.

The Checkmate Game is a short verse drama that deals with the transience of the earthly world. Enter an angel with a clock, death, the emperor, and a rich man.

The text Wrongness of the World has come down to us in two versions. Once in a German long version with 22 rhyme and then in a German and Latin version, which is a lot shorter. A "priamelike enumerating lament about the perversions and corruptions of the moral world" is offered.

The bilingual version of the perversity of the world as well as the checkmate game found their way into the anthology of works Varia carmina in 1498 . Here Brant also published the Latin version of his lamentation to Mary and the subsequent consolation speech of Jesus.

Latin seals

Carmina on saint

Brant wrote four Carmina on saints , namely on Saint Ivo (St. Ivo) , on Saint Sebastian (St. Sebastian) , on Saint Onophrius and the hermits as well as on the Three Kings . The poem on Saint Ivo is probably from 1493, while the next two texts are from 1494. He published the poems by means of single-sheet printing. These are saints to whom Brant felt personally or professionally connected: Saint Ivo is the patron saint of lawyers, Saint Sebastian is his namesake and Saint Onophrius is the namesake of his son. The poem on the Magi is a contribution to a compilation from 1514.

Carmina in laudem Mariae

The Carmina in laudem Mariae were a joint project by Brant and Johann Bergmann von Olpe , which both published in 1494. The anthology comprises 37 texts and contains poems and small prose texts written by Brant. The print is committed to the picture book concept and is divided into 15 large chapters. Each major chapter is preceded by a woodcut. In terms of content, mariological, then christological and finally hagiographic topics are dealt with first. Only one poem about the solar eclipse of 1485 falls out. Various formal schemes are played out in the texts.

Varia carmina

Like the Carmina in laudem Mariae, the Varia Carmina is an anthology of the texts written by Brant in Latin, which he published in collaboration with Bergmann von Olpe. The edition, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, contains 124 texts, including three with parts in both German and Latin. The text corpus includes poems on the saints Laurentius , Bruno, Germanus, Konrad, Ulrich, Joachim and Cyriacus as well as a small passion. Some seals that Brant had previously published separately as single-sheet prints or as pamphlets have also found acceptance. Poems on Emperor Maximilian, on King Ferdinand II as well as texts that deal with the Turkish threat are also included, as well as occasional poems about friends and acquaintances, a lawyer scolding and poems about natural phenomena. Poems about Baden's thermal springs, about new church bells and a horological prose treatise can also be found in the Varia Carmina , which are apparently designed to represent Brant's entire spectrum of Latin poetry. The Varia carmina appeared in 1498 in two editions, which differ in terms of differences in text.

Aesopus additiones

Page 7 from Brant's 1501 edition of Aesop. As a reward, Aesop receives the gift of intelligent speech from the goddess of hospitality for entertaining a traveling priest

In 1501, at the beginning of his time in Strasbourg, Brant published the fables of Aesop . The edition consists of two parts. The second part contains an extensive collection (additions) of fables, facets, verses and reports about strange animals and people, which Brant had compiled from different sources and from different authors. At the beginning of the second part, Brant has Giovanni Boccaccio and Lorenzo Valla make some poetological remarks.

The work was completely digitized in 1997 by the MATEO (MAnnheimer TExte Online) project at the University of Mannheim and is now available online free of charge.

Carmina in laudem Maximiliani I.

After the death of Emperor Maximilian I, whom Brant met several times and whom he had served as an adviser several times, Brant published an anthology consisting of 20 texts. The first 12 texts document Brant's journalistic advocacy for Maximilian and imperial politics since 1488. This also includes the most important leaflet poems, such as the “Donnerstein von Ensisheim”, the “Sau von Landser”, the “Wormser Zwilinge” and the syphilis poem. The first 12 texts are followed by more recent poems of praise and mourning for Maximilian and other Habsburgs. A French scolding on Francis I is also included. The anthology is concluded by a poem on the top imperial chancellery Petrus Aegidius in Antwerp .

Unprinted epigrams and casual carmina

Occasional poems (Kasualcarmina) by Brant can be found in numerous prints and in numerous manuscripts, for example in the Basel rectorate register. They were often included in the anthologies of his contemporaries. Wilhelm Gisenheim's exercise book from Schlettstadt, which is dated to 1494, contains some poems. The St. Gallen study booklet also contains signed poems by various authors, but here poems cannot be clearly assigned to Brant due to a lack of parallel tradition. The manuscript Clm 4408 offers numerous Latin poems by Brant on pages 60 r –95 v . The final date is June 19, 1495. A manuscript in the British Library contains the text Tetrastichon in Virginem Mariam .

Latin and German historical prose

Brant's Latin or German-language prose work comprises a history of Jerusalem, a history of the emperors Titus, Vespasian and Trajan and an unfinished chronicle.

Jerusalem

The title page of the History of Jerusalem (1495)

Brant sought to present the history of Jerusalem from the times of the Old Testament to the Turkish threat to the West in his time in an extensive prose chronicle. The work entitled De Origine et conuersa | tione bonorum Regum: & laude Ciuitatis | Hierosolymae: cum exhortatione eiusdem | recuperandae was published in Basel in 1495 and is one of the earlier humanistic works of history north of the Alps. As sources, he used, among others, Aeneas Silvius Piccolominis Epitome of the Decades Flavio Biondos and his speeches with the Turks. He wrote the work as a "Chronicle of the good kings" who tried to defend the city against the unbelievers or to win it back. Towards the end of the chronicle there is an appeal for the crusade addressed to Maximilian. He should follow the example of the good kings. Attached is a short version of the work in 321 distiches under the title Epilogus Regum circa Hierosolymam consuersantium . A German prose translation was obtained by Kaspar Frey in 1512 and printed in Strasbourg in 1518.

Titus, Vespasian and Trajan

The work consists of two parts. In the first part, Flavius ​​Josephus is told of the exemplary Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian and the destruction of Jerusalem. In the second part, Brant then turns to the deeds of Emperor Trajan . The sources for this were the descriptions in Eutropius , Orosius and the Historia Lombardica . Trajan, who ascended to heaven after his death, came from Spain like Charles V and is presented as the ancestor of the Habsburgs.

The writing, which is linked in content with the Jerusalem work, was possibly part of a genealogical work on the Habsburgs, which should contain the saints of the dynasty and their history. Brant's son Onophrius took care of the printing of the work in 1520, which Sebastian Brant was able to present to the newly elected German Emperor Charles V in the summer of 1520 at the homage of the estates in Ghent .

timeline

There are indications that Brant, who as Strasbourg chancellor from 1502 was also responsible for the so-called city book literature, worked on a coherent chronicle of the city and also consulted the historical and legal documents that were important for the city. The work has only survived in three fragments: on the one hand, the prose report on the assumption of office by the new Strasbourg bishop Wilhelm von Hohnstein is to be mentioned (Bishop Wilhelm's election and entry in 1506 et. 1507) , and on the other hand a prose description of travel routes for the messenger system and diplomatic intercourse between the German cities and countries (description of several opportunities in Germany) . Another fragmentary excerpt, perhaps of uncertain origin, was published in 1892 as an appendix to the city chronicle by Jean Wencker (1590–1659) and his successors (son and grandson).

Edits and translations

Brant began translating Latin texts as early as the 1480s, although he did not publish them in print until 1490. The publication then took place in bulk and in relatively quick succession. Two text groups can be distinguished. On the one hand, collections of sayings or gnomish-didactic educational teachings , including the translations of the texts Thesmophagia (Fagifacetus) , Facetus , Cato , Moretius and Freidank, and then on the other hand, religious songs, prayer and edification texts; In addition to sacred songs, he also published a translation of the Hortulus Animae (Little Soul Garden). The translations of the Geiler letter and the writing Contra bellisequaces by Jakob Wimpheling that Brant had arranged cannot be assigned to these two groups .

Gnomish-didactic educational teachings and collections of sayings

The Thesmophagia text is a guide to good behavior at the table, which Brant published in a bilingual edition under the title Fagifacetus . As a basis for the Latin text, Brant could fall back on the work of a little-known author Reiner from the 13th century. The text was published by Michael Furter in Basel in 1490 under the title De moribus et facetijs mense .

An edition of the Facetus followed in 1496 (first printing) in Basel by Johann Bergmann von Olpe . Brant gave the genomic collection, which was very popular in the late Middle Ages, in a bilingual edition under the title Liber Faceti docens more hominum (...) per Sebastianum Brant in vulgare moviter translatus. out.

In 1498 it was published again by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in Basel under the title Catho in latin. by Sebastianum Brant getützschet (first printing) a bilingual edition of the Disticha Catonis . This is a school book that was divided into four books in the 9th century and expanded to include the breves sententiae . The school book was translated into many vernacular languages ​​in the Middle Ages.

In 1499 (first print) Johann Bergmann von Olpe published under the title Liber moreti docens Juuenum (...) per Sebastianum Brant: in vulgare nouiter translatus a bilingual edition of the text Facetus Moribus et vita, which has been passed down since the 13th century . It is the first and only German translation. Brant had only translated the estates idax. However, the text consists of three parts. In addition to the profession and class-related behavioral theory, there is also an Ars amatoria and a Remedia amoris, which follow the Ovid model.

Brant's Freidank edition was published by Hans Grüninger in Strasbourg in 1508 . It is a collection of German sayings from the 13th century that rhymed in pairs. The text was widely used in Brant's day, as the sayings take a stand on many religious, ethical, and political issues. Brant used a text from the Freidank manuscript group CDE as the basis for his edition. The edition is based on a picture book concept. 46 woodcuts were made for the edition and added to the print.

Religious hymns, prayer and edification texts

Brant's translations of sacred songs occupy a special place among his “numerous religious poems (...) because they are his most aesthetically demanding German poems. Brant tried to recreate the artistic form of his Latin originals in German. ”Between 1490 and 1496 he translated the Ave salve gaude vale by Konrad von Hainburg , around 1491 the Corpus Christi hymn Pange lingua gloriosi and around 1496 the sequence Ave praeclara maris stella des Hermann von Reichenau . During his time in Strasbourg, the hymns Verbum bonum and Stabat mater dolorosa were written around 1502 . Brant's authorship is not certain for this last text. The text is dated to 1502.

The Hortulus Animae (little soul garden) is a prayer antology that emerged from the tradition of the book of hours . It contains texts on mass, saints' offices and commemoration of the dead. Song and litany components are also included. In 1501 Brant brought out his own edition, for which he looked through the existing texts, revised and, above all, added new texts. For this text, Brant's share has not yet been definitively declared. The text was published in 1501 by Johannes Wähinger in Strasbourg under the title Ortulus animae. The selenium ga | rtlin (...) At Strasbourg in seym vatterlant | Got me Sebastianus Brant | Viewed and vastly corrected | To | tütschen ouch vil transferred. A total of 36 editions are recorded, which, however, rarely mention Brant's name. Two years later, an edition was published jointly reviewed and corrected by Brant and Wimpheling , which was also published by Johannes Wähinger.

Texts by other humanists

Translating a Geiler letter can be seen as casual work. The translation has been preserved in the Strasbourg City Archives. The letter from Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg to Wimpheling reports on an encounter with Emperor Maximilian I in 1503.

Brant translated the text Contra bellisequaces by Wimpheling against soldiers who were too eager for acts of war in 12 German verses.

Expenses and contributions

expenditure

Brant edited many texts and contributed to the editions of others. According to Knape, the editions of Petrarca's works provided by Brant , the 1496 edition of Petrarca's opera latina and around 1520 the German edition of the text De remediis utriusque fortunae , as well as the work edition of Virgil from 1502 are considered to be outstanding .

In 1496 he was involved as editor in the first attempt at a complete edition of the works of Petrarch. The work edition was published by Johannes Amerbach in Basel before July 14, 1496 and comprises a total of 15 texts, including three letter corpora alone. The majority of the texts were taken over from other prints for output; manuscripts were available for four texts. Brant acted as proofreader for the edition and supervised the artwork. 394 copies of this edition have been preserved.

As a consultant, Brant was apparently also involved in a German translation of Petrarch's De remediis utriusque fortunae , which, however, was only published by Heinrich Steiner in Augsburg in 1532 . The translator was initially Peter Stahel from Nuremberg and, after his death, Georg Spalatin . The Augsburg-based Grimm and Wirsung were involved as publishers, and the translation was ready in September 1521. From Steiner's preface to the edition it is known that the publishers consulted Brant as a Petrarch expert and also participated in the conception of the illustration of the work. The anonymous Petrarca master illustrated the edition and made 261 woodcuts.

An edition of Virgil's works obtained by Brant was published by Hans Grüninger in Strasbourg in 1502 . This edition was the first illustrated edition with 214 woodcuts, which Brant himself noted as a novelty in his preface. Brant had already completed the text in 1491, ie revised, reorganized and supplemented.

Literary additions

In other editions of his time for which other editors were responsible, Brant was involved with literary additions, which could turn out very differently. Both dedication letters and occasional prose have been preserved. In some cases, his contributions are to be understood as a useful addition to the core text. References to the content of the work, printers and authors can be found in the articles, which are often epigrammatic.

Learned literature

Two specialist publications by Brants have survived, namely a speech on the maculist dispute and the other Brants Expositiones .

Speech on the maculist dispute

In the dispute between Dominicans and Franciscans in 1478, Brant took a clear position against the maculists. His invective Disputatio brevissima De Immaculata Conceptione Virginis Gloriosae is only passed down in a collective work from 1664. He was also involved in the dispute in the following years: in 1489 he took part in a disputation on the Immaculata conceptio in Leipzig with a Latin speech and between 1501 and 1503, as a canon lawyer, he defended the Frankfurt city pastor Hensel against the maculistic monk Wigand Werden accepted. His defense was successful, whereupon Brant was attacked with a polemic by Werden.

Exposurees

The expositions are explanations and comments on the main paragraphs (tituli) of ecclesiastical and Roman law . The work first appeared in print in 1494 and was continuously reprinted until the Baroque period . By 1632, Knape and Wilhelmi were able to prove 54 prints in Basel , Leuven , Lyon , Paris and Venice . This illustrates the popularity that the typeface enjoyed as a teaching tool for both areas of law.

Letters

Both letters from and to Brant have survived. Brant's letters include his personal letters as well as his semi-literary dedication letters and his official letters. 31 personal letters have been preserved according to current knowledge, including a demand Brants on the occasion of his application to the Stettmeister (noble magistrate in Strasbourg) and the Council of the City of Strasbourg on 10 July 1500 and a request Brants to the City Council, his salary supplement .

According to Knape, the letters to Brant only include those independent letters that were specifically addressed to Brant and not additionally to the Council of the City of Strasbourg. The group of personal letters to Brant comprises 128 letters. The letters show that Brant was in contact with leading figures of his time, including Peter Schott , Johann Bergmann von Olpe , Maximilian I , Thomas Murner , Konrad Peutinger , Willibald Pirckheimer , Johannes Reuchlin , Beatus Rhenanus , and Jakob Wimpheling and Ulrich Zasius .

Certificates of official activity

Beginning of the Strasbourg Freedoms, autograph by Sebastian Brant

Many testimonies from Brant's official activities, especially autographs, have survived in the Strasbourg city archive - albeit largely scientifically undeveloped. In total, there are around 150 pieces, which come from all areas of his official activity, but also include legal opinions that Brant prepared as a lawyer on behalf of foreign clients. Particularly noteworthy are the annals and the Strasbourg freedoms among the testimonies to his official activities . In the 19th century, Brant's annals were taken to mean copies of the minutes of the council, the drafting or archiving of which Brant, as Strasbourg chancellor and city archivist, is likely to have initiated or accompanied. Only copies of the annals have been preserved. The Strasbourg Freedoms are an overview of the privileges , rights and freedoms of the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg, written by Brant himself , which Brant probably made around 1520.

Significance for legal history

Sebastian Brant also plays an important role in legal history , not only because of his work as a professor in Basel and city clerk in Strasbourg. In 1494 Brants published “Expositiones sive declarationes omnium titulorum iuris tam civilis quam canonici” (see above). The brief commentary on the most important titles of Roman and Canon Law was probably intended as a textbook for Brant's students. Although it was written in Latin, it quickly became a bestseller, which was reprinted well into the Baroque period. In addition, Brant wrote prefaces to several mostly Latin legal text editions, especially of canon law , such as the Decretum Gratiani, the decretals and the Liber sextus. More important, however, are his partly rhymed, German-language prefaces to two important legal books of the time: Ulrich Tengler's Laienspiegel, first printed in 1509, and the Klagspiegel written by Conrad Heyden around 1436 , which Brant reissued in 1516. Brant used to be the publisher of Laienspiegel, but the Augsburg publisher Johann Rynmann was solely responsible for this. Nevertheless, Brant's role in the dissemination of Laienspiegel and Klagspiegel should not be underestimated: his famous name may have contributed significantly to the popularity of the two legal books.

research

Brant research is mainly carried out by German studies and has long concentrated on Brant's ship of fools. The beginning of the scientific engagement with Sebastian Brant and his work is usually set with A. W. Strobel's contributions and his edition of The Ship of Fools 1839. Friedrich Zarncke's edition of the Ship of Fools marks an important milestone and enabled a solid foundation for Brant research.

Lemmer said in 1977 that numerous tasks in Brant research were still unfinished: “These include an edition of his letters and other materials from his estate, a complete edition of the (partly scattered) poems including the leaflets, a critical new edition of the 'Ship of Fools' as well as other works (if not a complete edition), a complete presentation of the effect of the 'Ship of Fools', a modern appraisal of Brant as a lawyer, finally an exhaustive bibliography and an overall presentation of Brant and his diverse literary work since then worked on this task list.

Works

  • The Ship of Fools . Edited from the first edition (Basel 1494) with the additions of the editions from 1495 and 1499 as well as the woodcuts of the German original editions. by Manfred Lemmer. 4th, exp. Edition. Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-484-17105-7 .
  • '' The Ship of Fools ''. Edited by Hans-Joachim Mähl (Reclams Universal Library 899 [6]). Stuttgart 1964 2nd edition 1980 - unsurpassed translation by HA Junghans 1877.
  • The Ship of Fools . Edited by Joachim Knape (Reclams Universal Library 18333). Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-018333-2 .
  • Small texts . Edited by Thomas Wilhelmi. 3rd vol. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1998, ISBN 3-7728-1898-6 .
  • Sebastian Brant: Tugent Spyl. After the edition of the Magister Johann Winckel von Straßburg (1554) . Edited by Hans-Gert Roloff. de Gruyter, Berlin 1968 (editions of German literature from the XVth to XVIIIth centuries, series Drama 1).
  • Silke Umbach: Sebastian Brants table breeding (Thesmophagia 1490): Edition and word index. German Latin. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-447-03750-4 .
  • Leaflets by Sebastian Brant (= annual editions of the Society for Alsatian Literature. Vol. 3). Edited by Paul Heitz. Heitz, Strasbourg 1915 ( digitized version ).

Digital copies

  • Sebastian Brant: The Ship of Fools . Johann Bergmann, Basel 1494. Digitized .
  • Carmina in laudem Mariae . Johann Bergmann, Basel 1494. Digitized .
  • Sebastian Brant: De origine et conversatione bonorum regum et laude civitatis Hierosolymae . Johann Bergmann, Basel 1495. Digitized .
  • Francesco Petrarca: Opera Latina . Edited by Sebastian Brant. Johannes Amerbach, Basel 1496. Digitized .
  • Sebastian Brant: The Ship of Fools. Stultifera navis . Tr: Jacobus Locher Philomusus, Basel 1498. Digitized .
  • Sebastian Brant: Varia Carmina . Johann Bergmann, Basel 1498. Digitized .
  • Sebastian Brant: Liber faceti docens mores hominum praecipue iuvenum, in supplementum illorum, qui a Cathone erant omissi, in vulgare noviter translatus . Jakob Wolf von Pforzheim, Basel 1498. Digitized .
  • Catho in Latin, treated by Sebastianum Brant . Jakob Wolf von Pforzheim, Basel 1498. Digitized .
  • Liber Moreti docens mores iuvenum, in supplementum illorum, qui a Cathone erant omissi, per Sebastianum Brant in vulgare noviter translatus . Johann Bergmann, Basel 1499. Digitized .
  • Aesopus: Esopi appologi sive mythologi, cum quibusdam carminum et fabularum additionibus Sebastiani Brant . Jakob Wolf von Pforzheim, Basel 1501. Digitized .
  • Publius Virgilius Maro : Opera. Hans Grüninger, Strasbourg 1502. Digitized
  • The Freydanck . Edited by Sebastian Brant. Strasbourg 1508. Digitized
  • Catho in latin: Germanized by Sebastianum Brant. Heumann, Mainz 1509. [1] Digitized
  • In honorem trium Magorum regumque sacratissimorum . In: Johannes von Hildesheim and others: Historia gloriosissimor [um] triu [m] regum integra , with contributions by […], Sebastian Brant. Heinrich Quentell Erben, Cologne 1514, unpaginated. Digitized
  • Francesco Petrarca: From Artzney Bayder luck . Heinrich Steiner, Augsburg 1532 digitized

literature

Wikiversity: Research  Bibliography - Course Materials

Overview representations

Generally

  • Sebastian Brant: The ship of fools with the woodcuts of the printing Basel 1494, ed. and introduced v. Heinz-Joachim Fischer, marixverlag Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-130-8 .
  • Andreas Deutsch: Klagspiegel and Laienspiegel - Sebastian Brant's contribution to the fame of two legal books. In: Sebastian Brant and the culture of communication around 1500, ed. v. Klaus Bergdolt et al., Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 75–98.
  • Joachim Knape: Introduction to Sebastian Brant: 'The Ship of Fools'. In: Sebastian Brant: Das Narrenschiff, with all 114 woodcuts from the print Basel 1494, ed. v. Joachim Knape. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-018333-2 .
  • Joachim Knape: Who is speaking? Rhetorical voices and anthropological models in Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools' . In: Hans-Gert Roloff, Jean-Marie Valentin, Volkhard Wels (eds.): Sebastian Brant (1457–1521) (Memoria 9). Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89693-517-5 , pp. 267-298.
  • Joachim Knape and Thomas Wilhelmi : Sebastian Brant Bibliography. Works and traditions , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015 (Gratia, Volume 53), ISBN 978-3-447-10496-8 .
  • Manfred Lemmer (Ed.): The woodcuts for Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools'. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt 1994, ISBN 3-458-08593-9 .
  • K. Mayer: The Ship of Fools. Origin, Effect and Interpretation. Darmstadt 1983.
  • Barbara Könneker: Sebastian Brant, The Ship of Fools. Munich 1966.
  • Barbara Könneker: The essence and transformation of the fool's idea in the age of humanism: Brant, Murner, Erasmus. Wiesbaden 1966.
  • Annika Rockenberger: Production and printing of the editio princeps of Sebastian Brant's »Ship of Fools« (Basel 1494). A media historical pressure analysis study. Frankfurt / Main 2011 [recte 2010] (European university publications. Series I: German Language and Literature. 2009).
  • Annika Rockenberger: Albrecht Dürer, Sebastian Brant and the woodcuts of the "Ship of Fools" first edition (Basel, 1494). A research critical objection. In: Gutenberg Jahrbuch 86 (2011), 312–329. [Full text as .pdf: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281633288_Albrecht_Durer_Sebastian_Brant_und_die_Holzschnitte_des_Narrenschiff-Erstdrucks_Basel_1494_Ein_forschungskritischer_Einsracht]
  • Annika Rockenberger: Sebastian Brant's »Ship of Fools«. Critical appraisal of the existing editions and fundamental considerations for a new edition. In: editio 25 (2011), 42-73.
  • Annika Rockenberger, Per Röcken: Incunable materiality. On the interpretation of the typographical design of Sebastian Brant's »Ship of Fools« (Basel 1494). In: Euphorion 105.3 (2011), 283-316.
  • Michael Rupp: “Ship of Fools” and “Stultifera navis”: German and Latin moral satire by Sebastian Brant and Jakob Locher in Basel 1494–1498. Münster / Munich / Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-8309-1114-9 .
  • Thomas Wilhelmi (Ed.): Sebastian Brant. Research contributions on his life, the "Ship of Fools" and the rest of the work , Schwabe & Co. AG, Basel 2002.
  • Thomas Wilhelmi: 1494: Sebastian Brant's 'Ship of Fools' appears in Basel. ‹Zuo schyff zuo schyff, bruoder: eat gat, eat gat.› . In: Basler Stadtbuch 1994, pp. 25-28 .
  • Sébastien Brant, 500e anniversaire de La nef des folz: 1494-1994 (catalog, = Das Narren-Schyff, for the 500th anniversary of the book by Sebastian Brant ), ed. vd University Libraries Basel and Freiburg, Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe and Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg, Basel: Christoph-Merian-Verlag 1994, 214 pp.

Web links

Further content in the
sister projects of Wikipedia:

Commons-logo.svg Commons - Media content (category)
Wikiquote-logo.svg Wikiquote - Quotes
Wikisource-logo.svg Wikisource - Sources and full texts
Wikiversity-logo.svg Wikiversity - course materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Cf. Lemmer 1977, Sp. 992.
  2. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 247.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Wegner: Brant, Sebastian. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 206 f .; here: p. 206.
  4. ↑ "Between 1490 and 1500 he established his literary fame with the 'Ship of Fools' (1494) and numerous occasional poems". Knape 2005, Col. 248.
  5. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 247–248.
  6. ↑ Lemmer (1977, col. 992) writes about Brant's relocation: "That his departure from Basel was connected with the city's defection from the Reich seems more patriotic legend than true motive".
  7. ↑ a b Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 248.
  8. ↑ "B's main work is rightly considered to be the 'Ship of Fools', first published in 1494 in Basel by Bergmann von Olpe in an opulently designed print." Knape 2005, Col. 252.
  9. ↑ a b c Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 252.
  10. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 252 and Col. 253.
  11. ↑ On the structure of the chapter see Knape 2005, Sp. 252–253. The text edition (2005, RUB 18333), which Joachim Knape was responsible for and was published by Reclam-Verlag, which is common today, does not do justice to Brant's clear and strictly composed concept. In the Reclam edition, the motto and woodcut already fill the first page of the chapter so that the end of the chapter does not coincide with the end of the page. The holistic impression of the chapters that was characteristic of the first edition can no longer be achieved by the reader. The moldings are also missing.
  12. ↑ Knape 2005, Col. 252.
  13. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 253. - In more recent art and book history studies, Dürer's participation in the first edition of the Ship of Fools is questioned; cf. for example Anja Grebe: Albrecht Dürer. Artist, work and time. 2nd ed. Darmstadt 2013, 32 as well as in detail Annika Rockenberger: Albrecht Dürer, Sebastian Brant and the woodcuts of the first print of the "Ship of Fools" (Basel, 1494). A research critical objection. In: Gutenberg Yearbook 86 (2011), 312–329.
  14. ↑ See Knape 2005, col. 253, also Mausolf-Kiralp 1997, p. 130 and Bässler 2003, pp. 75–81.
  15. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 253-254. The Friborg copy is in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC The copy was long thought to be lost. See Knape 2005, col. 253.
  16. ↑ Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 254. Knape says: “Up to 1512, B. himself authorized six prints of the work.” Ibid., Col. 253-254.
  17. ↑ 05054 Brant, Sebastian: The ship of fools. In: General catalog of the Wiegendrucke , No. 05054; Digitized version of the 1498 edition as part of the “Distributed Digital Incunabula Library” project.
  18. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 254.
  19. ↑ a b c Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 254.
  20. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 253.
  21. ↑ So exuberantly praises the importance of the work Knape 2005, Col. 252.
  22. ↑ a b Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 255.
  23. ↑ Cf. Knape 1992, pp. 487–501 and Knape 2005, Sp. 255–256. An attempt to reconstruct the lost images can be found in Châtelet-Lange 1991, pp. 134–138.
  24. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 256.
  25. ↑ See Wuttke 1994.
  26. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 257–260.
  27. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 258.
  28. ↑ Knape 2005, Col. 260.
  29. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 260.
  30. ↑ Knape 2005, Col. 261-262.
  31. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 260–262.
  32. ↑ Dating from Knape 2005, Col. 262. There also further information.
  33. ↑ Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 263. An overview of the texts is provided by Stieglecker 2001, pp. 150–177, here pp. 126–129.
  34. ↑ These are the following texts: The Donnerstein von Ensisheim, the Worms Twins, the Sau zu Landser, the Gans von Gugenheim, Anna von Endingen and the Turkish attack. See Knape 2005, Col. 264.
  35. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 263–264. On the differences in the text stock of the two editions from 1498 see Ludwig 1997.
  36. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 264–265.
  37. ↑ For the digital edition see here . There is some information about the MATEO project here ( Memento from June 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  38. ^ Wolfgang Wegner: Brant, Sebastian. 2005, p. 206.
  39. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 265.
  40. ↑ Sélestat, Bibl. Humaniste, ms. 131.
  41. ↑ St. Gallen, Bibl. Vadiana, Ms. 469.
  42. ↑ Ms. Add. 19050, p. 78 r .
  43. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 265–266. Knape offers a detailed overview of the broad range of topics of Brant's occasional epigrams documented at WKT. Ibid., Col. 266.
  44. ^ Website of the SFB 541 / B5 ( Memento from February 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Training of collective identities in Renaissance humanism at the University of Freiburg, project Sebastian Brant as a historian by Antje Niederberger.
  45. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 266–267. Especially Antje Niederberger: Sebastian Brant as a historian. On the perception of the empire and Christianity in the shadow of the Ottoman expansion . (Diss.) Freiburg im Breisgau 2004.
  46. ↑ See the introduction written by Brant's son Onophrius, in which he reports on it.
  47. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 267.
  48. ↑ See Knape 1992, pp. 197-207.
  49. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 267–268.
  50. ↑ See L. Dacheux (ed.): Les chroniques strasbourgeoises de Jacques Trausch et de Jean Wencker, Les Annales de Sébastien Brant, Fragments recueillis. Imprimerie strasbourgeoise, Strasbourg 1892, pp. 211-279 ("Jac. Wencker Extractus ex Protocollis Dom.XXI vulgo Sebastian Brants Annalen").
  51. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 268–272.
  52. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 268–269.
  53. ↑ a b Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 269.
  54. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 269–270.
  55. ↑ Cf. Knape 2005, Sp. 272. On the picture book concept, especially Tiedge 1903.
  56. ↑ Knape 2005, Col. 270.
  57. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 270.
  58. ↑ a b Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 271.
  59. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 271–272. Strasbourg, city archives, AST 323, 7 v .
  60. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 272.
  61. ↑ Knape 2005, Col. 272.
  62. ↑ Proof of the specimens preserved in Geiss 2002, pp. 143–175. Also Knape 2005, Col. 272-273.
  63. ↑ “Brant's contribution to the content and also the formal conception of the illustrations differs in research, but has mostly been assessed as fundamental (Fränger, Raupp). The difficult question awaits a comprehensive analysis. ”Cf. Knape 2005, Col. 273.
  64. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 273.
  65. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 273–276. An overview of the additions - sorted thematically - can be found there, Col. 274–276.
  66. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 276–277.
  67. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 276.
  68. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 276–277. According to Knape, this pamphlet established Brant's position as a "legal scholar (...) of European standing". Ibid., Col. 276.
  69. ↑ The personal letters can be found at WKT 12-18, 21, 25, 28, 29, 57, 155, 168, 360, 364, 382, ​​384, 400, 405, 408, 411, 417, 423, 430, 435 , 438, 469 as well as Strasbourg, City Archives, Série III 24/30 (request Brants on the occasion of his application) and ibid., Série IV, 48 (request for an increase in his salary). WKT 451 is from a different hand and therefore cannot be counted among Brant's personal letters. See Knape 2005, Col. 277.
  70. ↑ See Knape 2005, Col. 277–278.
  71. ↑ A more detailed overview can be found in Knape 2005, Sp. 278–279. The evidence of his official activities includes a concept for a Reichstag report (1512), notes on the Cologne Reichstag (1512), a concept for a confirmation of the Strasbourg freedoms (1512), a memo on the Reichstag (1512), and a historical treatise on Strasbourg Citizenship, a speech manuscript for a declaration by the master and a concept for the city's response to a prince (1519).
  72. ↑ See Knape 1992, pp. 214-220.
  73. ↑ See Deutsch 2010, especially p. 79 ff .; also: Andreas Deutsch, Der Klagspiegel and its author Conrad Heyden, Cologne 2004, p. 16 ff.
  74. ↑ See Lemmer 1977, Col. 1003-1004.
  75. ↑ Lemmer 1977, col. 1003-1004.
  76. ^ Bavarian State Library Munich, Hist. eccl. 2029.
personal data
SURNAME Brant, Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German humanist and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1457 or 1458
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1521
PLACE OF DEATH Strasbourg