A forgotten classic worth rediscovering

BarcelonaEven with classic authors, it happens that one day they stop being read. What non-German reader will dedicate days of effort to reading the SplendorGoethe's work, even if it's been artfully translated into a familiar language? Few. Who delves into the Comedy, from Dante, later "divine", although the translation is very fluid, like that of Josep Maria de SagarraAnd, moreover, include the explanatory notes that such a wise and complex book requires? Few. Who will dedicate time to Sartor Resartus (The Patched Tailor), by Carlyle, even though it is one of the great books of the 19th century? Almost nobody.

This has also happened to The Ship of Fools...or of fools, or of the stupid, by Sebastian Brant (1457-1521), which was widely read in his century, but has fallen out of favor with the public since Erasmus of Rotterdam surpassed him far, and not dogmatically, with his In Praise of Madness.

However, Brant's book—as a kind ofEssays, of MontaigneBut on a satirical scale and in accordance with the principles of the Christian religion, he speaks of very diverse aspects of daily life in his time, and of any kind, such as "Useless Books," "The Education of Children," "Adultery," "Medicines That Are Useless," "Going to Court" and "Inheriting"—the latter of which, in Catalonia, mixes hope with despair when an heir realizes the brutal taxes he must pay to the treasury.

Among these articles in the book, there is one that is perfectly relevant today, "On Current Fashions." Brant says: "There are many new fashions in the country: scandalously short and low-cut dresses that barely cover the navel. A disgrace to the German nation! What nature wants to hide is laid bare and revealed. That is why things are not going well now, and will soon get worse. It is not expected."

This was written around the beginning of the 16th century. Like almost every chapter of this emblematic book, it represented yet another example—there are so many—of the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. This is also the case with the Essays by Francis Bacon – who Josep Carner translated into Catalan, now impossible to find – or from the aforementioned works of Montaigne.

What is interesting about these "transitional" essays is that the reader – not the reader of today, but the reader of that time, because now we receive history folded like an accordion, without linearity or causality – was almost unconsciously highlighting the shift from a moral culture centered on dogma and theology to one less so, rationality.