Stultifera navis (Ship of Fools)

1st August, 1497

Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

Various Artists

Artist

Sebastian Brant

Author, Swiss, 1458 - 1521

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bound volume with 117 woodcut illustrations from 112 blocks

  • Credit Line

    William B. O'Neal Fund

  • Dimensions

    book: 21.59 × 16.19 × 3.02 cm (8 1/2 × 6 3/8 × 1 3/16 in.)

  • Accession

    2016.40.1

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, p. 275, no. VII, 1497b

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres (bookplate). Henry Anthony Littledale (bookplate). Acquired in 1938 by Maurice Burrus [1882-1959], Alsace (bookplate); (Sims Reed Rare Books, London, sale December 15, 2015); purchased 2016 by NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2018

  • Sense of Humor: Caricature, Satire, and the Comical in Prints and Drawings from Leonardo to the Present, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018 - 2019.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971: 275, no. VII, 1497b.

1964

  • Goff, Frederick R. _Incunabula in American Libraries, a third census of fifteenth-century books recorded in North American collections._New York, 1964: no. B-1090.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 2: no. 266.III.

Inscriptions

by later hands, first free endpaper in graphite upper left: 975 / Kain 3750 / (underlined:) Twu ff. 102 / ft. 72 pendu, vestauré / sans perte / 14380 / 3ff. table [m?] guent. / iire / hsgg / 16fy, [sf?]; in brown ink on title page top center: (not deciphered); on final endpaper upper left in brown ink: 1219 / a +[?]

Markings

2 stickers on last free endpaper printed, 1 in purple ink: [not deciphered] 1938; the other: [not deciphered] x, NT

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