Sebastian Brant

Sebastian Brant (1457–1521) was a German humanist, jurist and satirist from Strasbourg. He studied and taught law at the University of Basel and later served as legal adviser and city clerk of Strasbourg. His verse satire Das Narrenschiff, The Ship of Fools, published in Basel in 1494 with woodcuts, some attributed to the young Albrecht Dürer, became one of the most widely read books of its age, translated into Latin, French, English and Dutch. Brant also wrote legal works, religious poems and political verse in support of the Holy Roman Emperor.