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

* ' (1410, ''The Ring''), a satirical poem by Heinrich Wittenwiler * ''Daß Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam'' (1494; ''''), a poem by the German satirist

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Medieval Europe
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and transitioned into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. Population decline, counterurbanisation, the collapse of centralized authority, invasions, and mass migrations of tribes, which had begun in late antiquity, continued into the Early Middle Ages. The large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East—most recently part of the Eastern Rom ...
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Fool (stock Character)
There are several distinct, although overlapping categories of fool as a stock character in creative works (literature, film, etc.) and folklore: simpleton fool, clever fool, and serendipitous fool. Silly fool A silly, stupid, simpleton, luckless fool is a butt of numerous jokes and tales all over the world. Sometimes the foolishness is ascribed to a whole place, as exemplified by the Wise Men of Gotham. The localizing of fools is common to most countries, and there are many other reputed imbecile centres in England besides Gotham. Thus there are the people of Coggeshall, Essex, the "carles" of Austwick, Yorkshire, the "gowks" of Gordon, Berwickshire, and for many centuries the charge of folly has been made against silly Suffolk and Norfolk (''Descriptio Norfolciensium'' about twelfth century, printed in Wright's ''Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems''). In Germany there are the " Schildbürger", from the fictitious town of "Schilda"; in the Netherlands, the people of K ...
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Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various times through the centuries. The encyclopaedia is maintained by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 contributors. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition. Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia. Printed for 244 years, the ''Britannica'' was the longest running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, as three volumes. The encyclopaedia grew in size: the second edition was 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810) it had expanded to 20 volumes. Its rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent con ...
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Heinrich Wittenwiler
Heinrich Wittenwiler (c. 1370–1420) was a late medieval Alemannic poet. He is the author of a satirical poem entitled ''The Ring'' (ca. 1410). He may be identical to an advocate to the bishop of Konstanz, mentioned in 1395. He may be of the family of the former rulers of Wittenwil in the Thurgau, who became destitute and abandoned their castle in 1339. Throughout the early 15th century, most bearers of the name lived in the Toggenburg, probably including one of the scribes of the Cgm 558. ''The Ring'' is a poem of 9699 lines, preserved in a single manuscript, apparently an autograph of Wittenwiler's. Each line is marked with either red or green ink. In the prologue (verse 40f.) Wittenwiler explains that the red line marks "serious" material, while the green marks ''törpelleben'' (literally "village life", in the sense of " rusticity, peasantry, buffoonery"), but the actual division between "red" and "green" material is far from straightforward. The protagonists are Bertschi ...
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Ship Of Fools (satire)
''Ship of Fools'' (Modern German: , la, Stultifera Navis, original medieval German title: ) is a satirical allegory in German verse published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by the humanist and theologian Sebastian Brant. It is the most famous treatment of the ship of fools trope and circulated in numerous translations. Overview Ship of Fools was published in 1494 in Basel, Switzerland, by Sebastian Brant. The book consists of a prologue, 112 brief satires, and an epilogue, all illustrated with woodcuts. Brant takes up the ship of fools trope, popular at the time, lashing with unsparing vigour the weaknesses and vices of his time. He conceives Saint Grobian, whom he imagines to be the patron saint of vulgar and coarse people. The concept of foolishness was a frequently used trope in the pre-Reformation period to legitimise criticism, as also used by Erasmus in his ''Praise of Folly'' and Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was ...
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Sebastian Brant
Sebastian Brant (also Brandt) (1458 – 10 May 1521) was a German humanist and satirist. He is best known for his satire '' Das Narrenschiff'' (''The Ship of Fools''). Biography Brant was born in Strasbourg to an innkeeper but eventually entered the University of Basel in 1475, initially studying philosophy and then transferring to the school of law. From 1484 he began teaching at the university and completed his doctorate in law in 1489. In 1485 he had married Elisabeth Bürg, the daughter of a cutler in the town. Elisabeth bore him seven children. Keen for his eldest son Onophrius to become a humanist, he taught him Latin in the cradle and enrolled him in the university at the age of seven. Brant first attracted attention in humanistic circles by his Neo-Latin poetry but, realising that this gave him only a limited audience, he began translating his own work and the Latin poems of others into German, publishing them through the press of his friend Johann Bergmann, from whic ...
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The Praise Of Folly
''In Praise of Folly'', also translated as ''The Praise of Folly'' ( la, Stultitiae Laus or ), is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by previous works of the Italian humanist ''De Triumpho Stultitiae'', it is a satirical attack on superstitions, various traditions of European society and on the Latin Church. Erasmus revised and extended his work, which was originally written in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's house in Bucklersbury in the City of London. The title ''Moriae Encomium'' had a punning second meaning as ''In Praise of More'' (In Greek Moría translates into folly). ''In Praise of Folly'' is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. "Although Erasmus himself would have denied it vehemently, later reformers found that ''In Praise of Folly'' had helped prepare the w ...
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Erasmus Of Rotterdam
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' was a scholarly name meaning "from Rotterdam", though the Latin genitive would be . 28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) was a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance.Gleason, John B. "The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence", Renaissance Quarterly, The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1979), pp. 73–76www.jstor.org/ref> As a Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he was given the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists ...
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Thomas Murner
Thomas Murner, OFM (24 December 1475c. 1537) was an Alsatian satirist, poet and translator. He was born at Oberehnheim (Obernai) near Strasbourg. In 1490 he entered the Franciscan order, and in 1495 began travelling, studying and then teaching and preaching in Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Paris, Cracow and Strasbourg itself. The emperor Maximilian I crowned him in 1505 ''poeta laureatus''; in 1506, he was created ''doctor theologiae'', and in 1513 was appointed custodian of the Franciscan monastery in Strasbourg, an office which he was forced to vacate the following year for having published a scurrilous book. Later in life, in 1518, he began the study of jurisprudence at the University of Basel, and in 1519 took the degree of ''doctor juris''. In the summer of 1523, at the invitation of Henry VIII, he went to the Kingdom of England, where his writings had caught the attention of Thomas More. John Headley credits Murner for making More aware of the radical nature of Martin Luther's ...
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Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for " rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. Picaresque novels typically adopt a realistic style. There are often some elements of comedy and satire. While the term "picaresque novel" was only coined in 1810, the picaresque novel originated in Imperial Rome during the 1st-2nd century CE, in particular with works such as the Satyricon of Petronius and later, and more particularly with authors such as Apuleius in Roman Numidia. It would see a revival in Spain during the Spanish Golden Age in 1554. Early Spanish contributors included Mateo Alemán and Francisco de Quevedo, who were influenced in particular by Apuleius' 2nd century work. Other notable ancient influences of the modern picaresque genre include Roman playwrights such as Plautus and Terence. The Golden Ass of Apu ...
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Maqama
''Maqāmah'' (مقامة, pl. ''maqāmāt'', مقامات, literally "assemblies") are an (originally) Arabic prosimetric literary genre which alternates the Arabic rhymed prose known as '' Saj‘'' with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. There are only eleven illustrated versions of the ''Maqāmāt'' from the 13 and the 14th centuries that survive to this day.  Four of these currently reside in the British Library in London, while three are in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (including the al-Harīrī's ''Maqāmāt''). One copy is at the following libraries: the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.     Those ''Maqāmāt'' manuscripts were likely created and illustrated for the specialized book markets in cities such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus, rather than for any particular patron. The ...
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Sotie
A ''sotie'' (or ''sottie'') is a short satirical play common in 15th- and 16th-century in France. The word (compare modern ''sottise'') comes from the ''sots'', "fools", who appeared as characters in the play. In the plays, these fools would make observations and exchange thoughts on contemporary events and individuals. Shorter plays, sometimes referred to as ''parades'', need not have any plot at all, but relied simply on a detached dialogue. The genre has its origin in the Feast of Fools and other Carnival-related festivities. The purpose of these events was to present a world turned upside-down, in this case with the fools as fonts of wisdom. The fools were dressed in grey robes, and wore a hood with donkey ears. There is some scholarly debate over whether the ''sotie'' should be considered a separate genre from the farce or the morality play, but it does have certain unique characteristics. Whereas the characters in a farce would be distinguished individuals with proper names, ...
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