Fool's literature

Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch

A fool there was and he made his prayer

(Even as you or I!)

To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair,

(We called her the woman who did not care),

But the fool he called her his lady fair—

(Even as you or I!)

--"The Vampire" (1897) by Rudyard Kipling

Friar John and Panurge give the Blason and contreblason du couillon by Rabelais

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Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Fool's literature was a literary tradition in medieval Europe in which a the stock character of a fool was used as an allegory to satirize the contemporary society.

Notable examples

Der Ring (1410, The Ring), a satirical poem by Heinrich Wittenwiler
Daß Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam (1494; Ship of Fools), a poem by the German satirist Sebastian Brant
Moriae Encomium, sive Stultitiae Laus (1509, The Praise of Folly), by Erasmus of Rotterdam
Narrenbeschwörung (1512; Exorcism of Fools), Die Schelmenzunft (1512); Die Gäuchmatt (1519, Fools' Meadow), Die Mühle von Schwindelsheim und Gretmüllerin Jahrzeit by Thomas Murner