Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Of travels in quite another way are a John Geyler's Navicula Sive Speculum Fatuorum, printed in quarto at Strasburg, in 1510; and Brandt's Ship of Fooles (1570), with many of the figures with which readers of The Bookworm are probably familiar."--The Bookworm "In the midst of the popularity which greeted the appearance of the work of Sebastian Brandt, it attracted the special attention of a celebrated preacher of the time named Johann Geiler. [...] He was a bold man, too, in the cause of truth, and declaimed with earnest zeal against the corruptions of the church, and especially against the monkish orders, for he compared the black monks to the devil, the white monks to his dam, and the others he said were their chickens. On another occasion he said that the qualities of a good monk were an almighty belly, an ass's back, and a raven's mouth. He told his congregation from the pulpit that a great reformation was at hand, that he did not expect to live to see it himself, but that many of those who heard him would live to see it. As may be supposed, the monks hated him, and spoke of him with contempt. They said, that in his sermons he took his texts, not from the Scriptures, but from the "Ship of Fools" of Sebastian Brandt; and, in fact, during the year 1498, Geiler preached at Strasburg a series of sermons on the follies of his time, which were evidently founded upon Brandt's book, for the various follies were taken in the same order. They were originally compiled in German, but one of Geiler's scholars, Jacob Other, translated them into Latin, and published them, in 1501, under the title of "Navicula sive Speculum Fatuorum præstantissimi sacrarum literarum doctoris Johannis Geiler." Within a few years this work went through several editions both in Latin and in German, some of them illustrated by woodcuts. The style of preaching is quaint and curious, full of satirical wit, which is often coarse, according to the manner of the time, sometimes very indelicate. Each sermon is headed by the motto, "Stultorum infinitus est numerus." Geiler takes for his theme in each sermon one of the titles of Brandt's "Ship of Fools," and he separates them into subdivisions, or branches, which he calls the bells (_nolas_) from the fool's-cap."--History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art (1865) by Thomas Wright |
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Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1445 – 1510) was a Swiss-born preacher, considered one of the greatest of the popular preachers of the 15th century, remembered for Navicula sive speculum fatuorum.
Work
Among the many volumes published under his name only two appear to have had the benefit of his revision, namely, Der Seelen Paradies von waren und volkumen Tugenden, and that entitled Das irrig Schaf. Of the rest, probably the best-known is a series of lectures on his friend Sebastian Brant's work, Das Narrenschiff or the Navicula or Speculum fatuorum, of which an edition was published at Strassburg in 1511 under the following title: Navicula sive speculum fatuorum praestantissimi sacrarumliterarum doctoris Joannis Geiler Keysersbergii.
The numerous volumes of Geiler's sermons and writings which have been published do not give a complete picture of the characteristic qualities of the preacher. An orator, Geiler sought, without regard to other considerations, was to produce the most powerful effect on his hearers. He prepared himself with great care for the pulpit, writing out his sermons beforehand, as his contemporary Beatus Rhenanus reports; those preparatory compositions were drawn up not in German, but in Latin.
Only a very small part of the sermons that have been issued under his name are directly his. At a very early date his addresses were taken down by others and published. The best critic of Geiler's works, E. Martin of Strasburg, attempted, in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, to give a summary of Geiler's genuine writings; according to him the authenticated writings number thirty-five.
It is not certain that any of the extant works give exactly what Geiler said. It is evident from them that the Strasburg preacher was widely read, not only in theology, but also in the secular literature of the day. This is shown by the sermons having Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools, which appeared in 1494, for their theme; these sermons attained the greatest popularity. Geiler displayed also facility in using public events to attract and hold the attention of his hearers.
In originality of speech Geiler is in form, as in time, between Berthold of Ratisbon and Abraham a Sancta Clara. Geiler himself complained bitterly that neither clergy nor laity were willing to join in a common reform. His works are an important source for the history of the civilization of those times. His thoughts were expressed in the language of ordinary life: Geiler's writings are a source for the knowledge of the speech, customs and beliefs of the common people at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
