In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the emergence of bourgeois and merchant society, a new morality had to be found. Carnival and cognate, fools’ texts provided for such a new morality by showing the world upside-down. Sometimes, the metaphor used was the fools’ ship. In the Low Countries, there was, for instance, the late medieval poem “The Blue Barge,” in which all people with inappropriate behavior were welcome. A similar, highly influential text was Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (1494), which was spread mainly by the Latin translation made by Jakob Locher in his Stultifera Navis (1497). Josse Bade reworked its second edition (also 1497) into Dutch as Dit is der zotten ende der narren scip (1500), for which he is said to have used the Locher Latin translation (which was true) and a French one (which he did not use). Bade also made another Latin version, Navis Stultifera (1505), reprinted as Navis Stultifere Collectanea (1507). At the time Brandt died, in 1521, five printings had been issued by Bergmann, and eight by other printers; Locher's version was printed three times by Bergmann and six times by others; four French translations of Locher's version were printed and two in English; Bade's first Stultifera Navis was reworked into French five times, and the Narrenscip was printed six times, all listed by the editors. The number of editions, translations, and reworkings show that there must have been, in this transnational culture, an international market for such texts.

Now the Dutch reworking has been published by Theo Janssen, emeritus professor of Dutch language at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Ann Marynissen, professor of Dutch linguistics at University of Cologne. Volume 1 contains a facsimile of the first edition, reprinted from the Gallica site, with a parallel (and excellent) translation into modern Dutch (sometimes it is put in Flemish Dutch, such as “Hij is echt zot, die met zotten speelt” [“He is really a fool who plays with fools,” 1:140], where in Dutch Dutch one would use dwaas and dwazen instead of zot and zotten). Volume 2 contains an extensive, 212-page introduction, in which the editors/translators discuss the genre of fools’ ships in the Low Countries and the author Josse Bade; compare Narrenschiff, Stultifera Navis, and Narrenschip; trace the aim of fraternal reproof; discuss the content of Narrenschip, including the seven deadly sins and their remedies; and discuss the composition of the text and the processes of reworking and conversion. They write of the influence of the Narrenschip on Erasmus's Praise of Folly—where this reviewer would rather speak of the possible reception of the text by Erasmus, stressing the active role of the recipient. The other pages in volume 2 are devoted to annotations to text and translation. It is beautifully illustrated with color plates throughout the book. Some of the annotations are very lengthy and informative, such as in the essay on the wheel of fortune (376–89).

This is a masterpiece of scholarly editing. Normally, I would suggest a transcription of the original, rather than a facsimile, which can easily be found on the internet. But in this case, the facsimile works very well. The editors/translators have used a broad range of material and literature. Though understandable, my only regret is the choice to publish this book in Dutch, since it would be very useful also for anglophone and German- and French-speaking scholars to be able to use it in an English edition.