BRANT, SEBASTIAN. - German satirical poet and humanist, born in Strasbourg in 1457 and died there in 1521. After studying at the University of Basel, he remained there as a lecturer in Roman and canon law until, when Basel was ceded by Maximilian to Switzerland, he was recalled with great honours to Strasbourg. A learned humanist and distinguished jurist, editor of legal and ecclesiastical texts, he always fought in defence of imperial authority and of the Catholic Church, threatened by the first signs of the Reformation.
The work that brought him fame is Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools), hailed by Hutten upon its appearance (1494) as the beginning of a new literary age. It is, however, merely a recapitulation of all the political and moral ideas of the dying Middle Ages: beneath an easy allegorical veil, all the weaknesses and vices of humanity are deplored, generally caused by insufficient self-knowledge. Among his other works may also be mentioned S. Bernhards Rosenkranz; Der Heiligen Leben and a reworking of the Freidank.
(from W. Fraenger, Hans Weiditz und Seb. Brant, Leipzig 1700)
BRANT, SEBASTIAN - The tree of the social estates.
Woodcut by H. Weiditz for S. B.