Theological Transformation of the Ship of Fools - Geiler von Kaysersberg and the so-called 'Interpolated Version'

Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg is said to be one of the most important preachers in the transitional period from the late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. Between 1498 and 1499 he preached sermons about Sebastian Brant's 'Narrenschiff' at Strasbourg Cathedral. These were religious interpretations of secular subjects which soon gained a wide audience designated as the so-called 'Narrenschiff' sermons. There must have been manifold literary sources, since Geiler seemed to have drawn his ideas from a 'caleidoscope' of topics of moral theology, and moral philosophy. Due to the use of identical examples, biblical passages and ancient as well as rhetorical authorities in his sermons one of the main sources (concerning the vernacular editions of the 'Narrenschiff') must have been the so-called 'interpolated version'. It is an anonymous adaptation of Sebastian Brant's 'Narrenschiff' which was probably published in 1495 at the printing workshop of Johannes Griininger at Strasbourg. The author of this edition has intentionally intervened in more than half of the original chapters of Brant's Warrenschiff': the text has been, most of all, modified and expanded. Connecting issues about the history of tradition and matters about translating or rather adapting, this paper intends to reflect upon the likely links between the Strasbourg adaptation of the Narrenschiff' and the so-called 'Narrenschiff' sermons of Geiler of Kaysersberg.