APRIL FOOLS!!
An assembly of fools for April Fools Day from a 1982 printing of The Shyp of Fooles by Sebastian Brandt, translated by Alexander Barclay, edited by Phyllis C. Robinson, and printed in an edition of 200 copies in 16 pt. Blado on Gutenberg paper by Tom Coleman and Karen MacDonald at August Heckscher’s Printing Office at High Loft in Seal Harbor, Maine.
This compendium of fools and foibles was originally written in German and first published in Basel as Das Narrenschiff by Johann Bergmann von Olpe in 1494. A popular narrative, it was translated into Latin and several European languages, including several English translations. This edition uses Alexander Barclay’s 1509 version, originally printed by Richard Pynson. The illustrations are derived from John T. Reid’s 1874 recutting of Albrecht Dürer’s woodcuts for Bergmann von Olpe’s 1497 Latin edition.
We include “The Assemblinge of Unprofytable Bookes” for our foolish colleagues, and “Them that be Diseasyd & are Impacient & Inobedyent to the Phesycyan” as a warning in these sober times of the coronavirus. Still, “The Longer They Live the More They are Given to Foly.”
Yet, we suppose we are all on that “Unyversall Shyp Wherein They Rowe that yet Hath Had No Ore or Place.” Our copy of The Shyp of Fooles is yet another donation from our friend and benefactor Jerry Buff.
