[In the following essay, Halporn discusses Brant's work as an editor of texts used by law students, which, the critic asserts, he did in part because he believed in making the law accessible to more people so that citizens could serve their own interests more effectively.]

Sebastian Brant is best known to the modern world as the author of the didactic and satirical work, the Narrenschiff. Although this may be his most enduring and original work, it is only a small part of Brant's published contribution to the intellectual life of the Holy Roman Empire in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Throughout his adult life Brant worked as an editor for the press, first in Basel where he was a student and professor of law, then in Strassburg where he served as a city official from 1501 until his death in 1521¹. The moralistic and didactic impulses that inform the Narrenschiff mark most of the Brant's publishing ventures.

Basel and Strassburg define the geographical boundaries of Brant's life. He left Strassburg, his birthplace, in 1475 to attend the University of Basel. He spent a quarter of a century in Basel as a student and professor of law before returning to Strassburg where he spent the last two decades of his life in the service of the city. At the time Brant came to Basel, the University was just beginning to experience educational change, as the new movement of humanism made its way from Italy into northern Europe through the writings and personal influence of northern Europeans who had received their higher education in Italy. Many in the first generation of northern humanists remained suspicious of the pagan classical authors and turned their improved philosophical skills to distinctly Christian purposes².

Brant was attracted to humanism even though he never travelled to Italy. He read the ancient Latin authors with enthusiasm and learned Greek; his literary allegiance, however, remained with the Romans. As a student at the University of Basel, Brant was drawn to literature, and, in the humanistic spirit of renewal, he worked diligently to master the classical meters and to incorporate classical elements into his Latin verse. He took up the profession of law partly, as he and others suggest, because of financial need³. Law seems, nevertheless, to have suited his temperament and cast of mind, and some critics have suggested that Brant's decision did not deprive literature of a great poet⁴. After completing his baccalaureate in law at the University of Basel in 1477, Brant continued his studies there and became a doctor of both canon and civil law in 1489. It was probably during this time that Brant began to supplement his income by working for the thriving publishing industry of Basel. Throughout the course of his career Brant was involved in the publication of numerous works, aside from the publication of his translations and original productions⁵. More than forty books contain prefaces, dedications, verses, or colophons written by Brant⁶. Very early in his career Brant recognized the importance of placing his name before the public and most of his contributions, from the briefest epigram to a learned introduction to a text, are signed⁷. Brant, in his maturity, was as keen for personal fame as any Renaissance writer; he did not, however, lend his name to the publication of any work that might have violated his elevated view of the function of letters and the printing press. He was one of the first writers of his generation to recognize the power of the press as a means of reaching beyond an academic audience of Latin readers to an audience able to read only German, and even to appeal with richly illustrated texts to those who were scarcely able to read German.

This meant writing in Latin for the learned world and in German for the less educated classes. Even within these two classes, Brant was aware that he needed to employ different levels of style and rhetoric to appeal to the various interests of his potential readers⁸. The juristic works that Brant edited for the press show his sensitivity to the needs of the audience he hoped to attract. The works directed to the law student make claims about the usefulness of these works for the student. He often expands on the unique features of the work and may draw the reader's attention to connections to other relevant publications by the same printer. In his edition of the Panormia of Ivo of Chartres and of the Decreta of the Council of Basel (works that did not figure in the law curriculum), we find Brant addressing his legal peers and speaking more as a scholar than as a teacher. In these prefaces in which the periodic style predominates, he displays his erudition through frequent citations from other legal authorities. In the two legal works in the vernacular for which Brant supplied prefaces we find him writing in the turgid German characteristic of the legal language of the period. The additional prefactory verses in German may be his honey on the cup for the less learned reader.

Brant edited a wide range of juristic works. They fall into four groups: primary texts of canon law; handbooks to assist students with understanding the standard Latin juristic texts; compilations of canon and civil law in German translations, for the use of citizens and officials of the empire who did not have formal training (i. e. in Latin) in the law; works of spiritual jurisprudence, to use Stintzing's term⁹. Several of the juristic works that Brant edited or contributed to fall into the category that Stintzing calls ‘popular’, by which he means that they were not theoretical and scholarly, but practical and pedagogical in style and purpose¹⁰. This genre of popular juristic literature was of considerable importance at the end of the fifteenth century in the German areas. It took up practical issues and was directed to the citizens who had little or no training at the universities. For such people the codifications of the ‘corpus iuris civilis’ and ‘corpus iuris canonici’ and the scholarly commentaries on these legal texts were too complex and too expensive for them to provide for themselves. What they needed were simplified guides to the practice of law. Such works were produced in Latin and in the vernacular to meet the need. These formula books, summaries, alphabetical collections, vocabularies and similar works were useful not only to the student and layman, but also to the learned jurists in their practical activities¹¹.

Brant himself wrote only one book on law, Expositiones sive declarationes … omnium titulo rum iuris …, first published by Michael Furter in 1490¹². It was a summary and interpretation of the ‘tituli’, or explanatory headings of the various divisions of the standard law texts. The book was based on his lectures, and provided a general survey of canon and civil law. It was reprinted numerous times adding considerably to his renown, but probably nothing to his income. As a legal scholar and university professor, however, Brant was in a position to recommend works for publication and to augment his income by editing them and providing the standard set pieces to introduce, dedicate, and conclude the publications. During the ten years following the publication of his Expositiones, he was constantly busy in publishing his own original work, his translations, and with editing and promoting the works of others.

The number of publications in which Brant was involved during the nineties, while at the same time fulfilling his duties as professor of law and poetry, was remarkable. Brant was an advisor, editor, and contributor to the publications of the foremost printers in Basel: Johann Froben, Johann Amerbach, Michael Furter, Nicolaus Kessler, and Bergmann von Olpe. The Renaissance taste for poetic dedications and epigrams in books kept Brant, a talented versifier, much in demand. These contributions to the works of others tell us about Brant's intellectual outlook, about his perception of the audience to whom these works were directed, and about the marketing and promotion of books and ideas.

German nationalism and local pride are everywhere evident in Brant's prefatory pieces. He also expresses a sense of intellectual competition with Italy underlaid by a tone of defensiveness against the contempt that the Italian humanists expressed for the barbarous North. “This mixture of pride with sensitiveness”, says William Gilbert in his study of Brant, “was typical of the German humanists in praising the accomplishments of their nation. They resented being called barbarians by the Latin peoples, particularly the Italians, but their very protests are a kind of acknowledgement that they felt the charge to be not wholly groundless”¹³. In addition, Brant reveals a strong desire to see an improvement in society brought about by a purification of the faith and the Church of Rome. Although these themes appear throughout Brant's work, in the juristic works that came out with his assistance and approval, they are sometimes subordinate to other matters. Brant understood publicity¹⁴ and took full advantage of the opportunities that the preliminary pages of new publications gave him to present his point of view about current political and religious issues that seemed essential to the salvation of the world in general, the Holy Roman Empire, and the German people in particular.

The legal works that Brant helped bring into print clearly reveal his views on the importance of law in society. By temperament a crusader and a teacher, he wanted to make the law accessible to students through written guides and aids of all sorts. But he went much further than that. He wanted to introduce the principles of Roman law to the ordinary citizen of the Empire, so that the citizen could serve his own interests and those of his government and emperor more effectively. Thus, after Brant had left the University of Basel for a position as legal advisor to the municipal government of Strassburg, he recognized the pressing need for legal handbooks in the vernacular designed for and directed expressly to the lay audience. A look at Brant's prefatory material in some detail will enable us to understand the attitudes and intentions that informed his work and life.

Prefaces, dedications, and afterwords, are conventional creations that serve to ease the entrance of a written work into the unknown world of readers. Although they belonged to a tradition established long before printing was invented, they took on in the age of print a number of new functions and reasons for existence. They herald, first of all, the work they preface and resemble publishers' blurbs in their purpose and content. Furthermore, the prefatory statement, whether in prose or verse, helps to give freshness and immediacy to the standard works of medieval thought that made up a significant proportion of the publications in the incunable period. Prefaces give these works a contemporary voice speaking to the contemporary reader about the virtues and value of the works of the past, or what H. J. C. Grierson calls a ‘personal note’¹⁵. The prefaces promote the work and the particular treatment of it that the edition in hand provides. Commercial purposes are almost indistinguishable from scholarly content in many prefaces, when the preface becomes for the printer-publisher a medium for advertising and a marketing device to explain and display the special features of a particular edition. Literary tastes of the age dictated a florid prose style and made the addition of prefatory verses or a versified colophon highly desirable. The dedicatory preface has an additional purpose. It intends to draw the attention of some famous, distinguished, and preferably wealthy individual to the work often in the hope of receiving patronage for the honor bestowed. Furthermore, the association of the book with its illustrious dedicatee would add luster to the publication in the minds of readers and buyers. Dedicatory epistles and poems took on, in the sixteenth century, a certain independence and became such a fixed feature of the book of the period that it can be described as an independent literary expression with its own form and rules¹⁶. In Schottenloher's view, the dedication in the sixteenth century book reflects humanism with its strong sense of self and individuality and a corresponding desire for recognition. The development of the printing-publishing industry created a need for editors and writers of the ancillary pieces that had become conventional additions to books. Sebastian Brant was well suited to take on these tasks for the printers of Basel.

Sometime during his early years in Basel, Brant made the acquaintance of the scholar, preacher, and later Carthusian monk, Johann Heynlin von Stein (de Lapide), who was an influential figure in the printing-publishing industry in Basel in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. He, together with Guillaume Fichet, had established the first press in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1470¹⁷. Heynlin had also encouraged Johann Amerbach, who had studied with him in Paris, to set up a press in Basel, and acted as an editorial advisor to Amerbach and the other printers in the city. When Heynlin came to Basel as preacher for St. Leonhard Church and the Cathedral in 1474 and later took a post as canon at the Cathedral in Basel (1484-1487), he became the center of a group of students, scholars, and scholarly publishers, who shared his views about Christian humanism. Brant, who looked to Heynlin for intellectual and spiritual direction, became a close friend of Heynlin. Seeing his young friend's talent for making verses and aware of his serious temperament and linguistic skills, Heynlin probably recommended Brant to the printers of the city as an editor, proofreader, and preface writer for their publications.

Although Brant edited a great variety of works for the Basel and Strassburg presses, his editions of juristic works must have been especially profitable additions to his publishers' lists. His credentials as a professor of law at the University of Basel made him a trustworthy and experienced editor and advisor to publishers of the legal texts that were a standard feature of publishers' lists during the fifteenth century. When he edited his first juristic text for Froben in 1493, Brant was in a good position to know what texts were in most demand by students of law and what features of the new publication should be emphasized in order to make such works most appealing to the buyer. In 1493 and 1494 he edited for Froben the four basic texts of canon law: Gratian's Decretum¹⁸, written around 1148, the Decretales ordained by Pope Gregory IX¹⁹, first published in 1234, the Liber sextus decretalium ordained by Pope Bonifacius VIII with the Constitutiones of Pope Clement V²⁰, first published in 1298 and 1317 respectively. These works constitute the ‘corpus juris canonici’. Froben brought them out in three volumes that made up a set, as the similar formats and Brant's statements in the epilogues of the second two volumes show.

Legal texts had been a staple item for many printers since the earliest days of printing, and these four works had been printed many times prior to Froben's publication. Gratian's Decretum had had some thirty prior editions, four of them issued by Basel presses²¹; the Decretales of Gregory IX had been through thirty-four editions, five in Basel²²; the Liber sextus of Bonifacius VIII had been printed forty-one times, five times in Basel²³. These figures indicate that the market for these standard legal texts was strong, and that the competition among editions was equally great. The editor's job was to make improvements in the publication that would make it superior to the competition, and to trumpet these improvements in the prefatory material. Although all of these editions were not available at the same time and competing with each other, there would necessarily have been considerable competition among in-print editions and some with secondhand copies as well. Brant's strong views on the importance of legal training and his clear grasp of the power of the printed word made him an ideal spokesman for all of the juristic publications that he helped bring into print.

In these texts directed to the university student, Brant adopts a consistent attitude toward the reader. He speaks both as the knowledgeable editor, and as a teacher to a reader young and inexperienced in the law. He appeals to the reader's desire for convenience and economy, and promises a book that will simplify a complex subject and make it understandable. Brant assumes that the potential buyer and reader is intelligent but inexperienced, eager to learn, but overwhelmed by the complexities of his subject. His prefaces also enable Brant to compliment himself and the publisher on the orderliness, completeness, arrangement, and accuracy of the edition they have produced. He wants the buyer to know that he has anticipated all the needs and answered all the questions that the buyer may have. Since the juristic texts he is dealing with are standard works, Brant does not have to sell the author or the work itself. And while he does make the obligatory gracious bows in that direction, Brant's real task in the preface is to sell his edition. A look at the prefatory and editorial comments in the following works shows how he went about it. His preface and afterword for Gratian's Decretum establish the pattern for the three volumes of canon law published by Froben in 1493-1494.

‘VERSES OF SEBASTIAN BRANT TO THE READER’²⁴

Consider the scholar to whom Grace gave her name. He has woven the present work from a varied strand. Behold what sort of creditable witnesses the Master has used in compiling this work. St. Paul is present and with him a phalanx of outstanding scholars from the past whom the followers of Christ or the Church produced. The learned writings of the Fathers and questions of holy law are here; whatever the whole world contains, it contains. But what am I to say to you about the excellence of this little book of ours produced by printing (‘ab artifici manu’), my friend? Reader, I would have you look at all the editions of the Decretum in the world, both those printed previously and those produced by hand. You will still not find any comparable to this one of ours which is free from flaw. One edition places the gloss too far from the text; another has errors in text and glosses; yet another has no rubrics; another lacks divisions (‘tituli’) and boldface. How badly another one abbreviates direct citations! This is the case with all of them; the book the discriminating reader asks for again is the one that is complete and unusually free of error.

This edition fits its gloss to the text. It is never necessary to turn a page [to find a reference]. The reader is spared that inconvenience. Look at the small letters in the margin, and from them you will easily and readily find the desired passage. You will find old and new law without difficulty together with the text: one or the other will speak out.

Who would believe that all this is so nicely contained in a little book? Yours is the glory, city of Basel.

‘AFTERWORD: SEBASTIAN BRANT TO THE READER’

You have (in my opinion) as we promised earlier, distinguished reader, a very thorough work that has been carefully and accurately reviewed throughout, which contributes to our renown and is even more important in its usefulness to you. It is in your direct interest, excellent reader, to purchase this work produced with so much quality. I say that the Decretum was completed with such care, such industry, and such effort that the eager reader and student cannot complain that it lacks anything or has been abridged. Our happy city of Basel will not without reason rejoice in this tribute. Basel, a city that is renowned and rich in splendid men of letters and every other talent, as well as in printing shops, achieves brilliance because of the industry of the art of printing. In addition, Germany (particularly the place where I was born [Strassburg]) is also outstanding in our time and will be no less vigorous in talent, learning, and wisdom than in arms and military affairs so long as the Fates want the Roman kingdom to live or good men to survive with decency. Eternal thanks to great God on high who brought this work to a happy conclusion in the great city of Basel in the reign of Frederick III and his son the most illustrious and invincible Maximilian, King and scepter bearer of the Romans, in the first year of the pontificate of Alexander VI through Johann Froben of Hammelburg, principal servant of the art of printing and faithful craftsman.

To understand Brant's ‘Verses to the Reader’, it is useful to know that they stand below a woodcut illustration of Gratian writing at a desk. His pun on Gratian's name in the first line is a characteristic of Brant's verse that will appear in other prefaces. A ‘phalanx’ of churchmen and other ecclesiastical jurists are in the room holding out their books to him, and the border contains the figures of Moses, Job, David, Isaiah, St. Jerome, St. Paul and the four Evangelists. Brant's verses refer to and explicate the picture. After he has pointed out the weight of authority that lies behind the text, Brant then takes up the features of the text itself that should appeal to the buyer. It is, he says, an unusually well-produced edition of Gratian in the matters of accuracy, convenient format, and aids for the reader. He declares the superiority of this edition to its competitors, whose failures and flaws he describes. This is the book that Brant believes the reader of law has been asking for. His edition gives the reader an accurate text, properly arranged and annotated on the page. Its typography enables the reader to locate references efficiently and simply. The printing of such a work was indeed complex and demanding. Froben printed the work in red and black. It contained the text in two columns in the center, flanked on either side by the glosses in smaller type, and keyed to the text by letters of the alphabet. Biblical and other sources are cited in the margins.

Only a close comparison of this edition with other fifteenth century editions of Gratian could test the accuracy of Brant's claims. But the truth of his editorial statements is not at issue here. What is important is that Brant makes the most of the opportunity in the prefatory poem to state boldly the advantages of this edition over any other. His afterword does little more than state that all promises made in the preface have been fulfilled, and bestow praise on Basel and Strassburg and compliments on the publisher, the Emperor, and the Pope. The pride he expresses in the accomplishments of Basel is a continuous theme throughout his prefaces and epilogues in works printed in that city. The three legal texts that Brant edited for Froben were reprinted in 1500, a clear indication that they were in steady demand both locally and elsewhere by the students who were expected to master that material.

In 1500, when Froben, together with Amerbach, reprinted the Gratian²⁵, they used the same preliminary verses and afterword that Brant had written for the 1493 edition. The afterword was changed to indicate Amerbach's participation in the publication. They also called on Brant to write a dedicatory epistle to Francis Lutzenburg, Archbishop of Besançon, and additional verses for the title page:

O studious reader, who wants the decrees of the Fathers, you will find a book fully corrected issued by this great art [of printing] and in every part you will find many things properly arranged and many things pleasant and worthwhile to read. For much new material has been added, as well as additional marginalia, which you, the reader, will like. Farewell.

‘DEDICATION: FROM SEBASTIAN BRANT TO THE MOST REVEREND IN CHRIST, FRANCIS LUTZENBURG’

… Suddenly and unexpectedly our printers Johann Amerbach and Johann Froben of Hammelburg, citizens of Basel and good friends of mine, brought the work of the Decretum, compiled by Gratian, to me to edit and correct. I took on this rather difficult task according to my ability all the more gladly, so that I might dedicate this work to your holy and auspicious name and immortalize your honor all the more certainly. In this our repeated [viz., second] printing of the text you will find on close examination many matters briefly and nicely annotated, including matters from the whole fourth part which have never been included in any other editions even those very thoroughly emended. To consult many separate glosses is wearying, but in this work it is not necessary to turn a page to do so. This work of ours in particular does the job continuously. Accept, splendid leader, this work which has been dedicated to you. Please, also, first and foremost leader, keep me in your affection. May you enjoy a long life. Farewell.

The spontaneity of the occasion as Brant describes it seems more than a little fictitious, since Brant had edited and Froben had published the same work seven years earlier without the dedication to Francis Lutzenburg. Except for the additional preliminary matter and the addition of Amerbach's name in the afterword, the 1500 edition ‘corresponds quire for quire’ with the 1493 edition²⁶. It is impossible at this point to establish why the printers and editor decided to make this dedication; it must be assumed that in some way it was intended to pay or incur a debt of scholarly gratitude.

In his preface to the second juristic text, the Decretales ordained by Pope Gregory IX, Brant makes the book itself speak the lines that challenge all other editions on the market.

‘PREFATORY POEM TO THE READER’

Yield, all you printed volumes of the law. Your claim is not equal to mine. Give way so that I can go forth more freely. Yield completely. Let our youth give their attention and glance to this work and evaluate and judge my quality seriously: what I am, what I contain, how much useful information can be drawn from our little book; whether pontifical, or something that the supreme power of the Church established, or some decree made in the past. He will see that this information is constantly available and at his command. The Decretales makes these things very clear to you, since it contains rubrication for your benefit and sets out the case. It is divided and clearly separates the divisions of chapters. And you will be able to find many indexes to the arrangement when you approach this work, O youth who is interested in law. It is easy for you to carry its light weight. I repeat that to carry it in your sleeves is not a burdensome task. You can keep it with you in daily classes. You can get invaluable information from this book. Please read it through; I know that you will agree with me and will, therefore, be properly grateful. Do you seek to have its equal? You will be able to see the Decretum [of Gratian] which has also been produced by our shared brotherly toil. Long since did our city of Basel, the pride and glory of the Roman Empire, bid this work to go forth into the light. And now farewell, studious reader, and if perchance you like big things in small packages, you the buyer will have in this little thing a work you will not even purchase at great expense, believe me.

‘AFTERWORD: SEBASTIAN BRANT TO THE STUDIOUS READER’

It would not have been sufficient, O intelligent youth (although you received much useful information and many general principles from the printing of the small Decretum that we had printed a little earlier [1493]), if we had not energetically accomplished a new task and expended our learning and toil for your ease and convenience by the present publication of the pontifical decrees for your convenience and use. What else? Let the book speak for itself as it lies open to your inspection. If anyone dares to say that he has seen a more useful work, he should come forward. But I know that all good and studious men will bear me out. Let the evil men and those who are envious of this publication bark as much as they want, provided that they never cease to be dogs. Our business hurries to its conclusion even in the middle. Anyone who thinks that the already high prestige of the city of Basel will be even further increased by the printing of this present work will not be mistaken. Indeed, as you can see, it is easily superior in the quality of ink and paper, as well as in the sharpness and clearness of the type to all the previously printed editions. In addition, it far surpasses the books printed anywhere in the great effort, the diligent correction, and the careful editing that went into it. Johannes Froben of Hammelburg, experienced entrepreneur of the printing shop, completed this short task in the reign of Maximilian the most glorious king of the Romans; and in the reign of Alexander VI Pontifex Maximus … Thanks be to immortal God, therefore, who allowed the weary oarsmen to bring the battered ship to the long-awaited shore. Farewell, reader, and give us the love we deserve.

In September, 1494 Froben brought out the Liber Sextus decretalium and the Extravagantes Clementini in one volume, which completed the set of basic texts of canon law. As he had done for the other two publications, Brant supplied a preface and poem. That Brant sees this publication as the completion of a series is clear from statements he makes in the poem and in the letter to the reader:

We have owed you, dear reader, the whole body of canon law as promised. Here you have it, for I think that you have long since acquired the standard Decretum which we printed for you with a similar sort of type. I assume that you now also have the Decretales of Gregory IX, that small volume, both yours and ours. Herewith, the fine and famous work of the Sextus; the work of Clement also accompanies it. Here you see something else. Joannes Andreae has added for you many things in the glosses which no one has done for you before now. You see printed symbols and characters. Judge the rest yourself. Finally, you can buy the whole work for a small price.

Froben and Brant included in their edition of Liber Sextus a treatise by the Italian canonist Joannes Andreae called Arbor consanguinitatis … (‘Tree of kinship’). Brant provided seven distichs to introduce this work to the reader. They appeared in both the 1494 and the 1500 editions published by Froben, and were reprinted in a number of editions issued by other publishing houses²⁷.

‘A RECOMMENDATION FOR THE TREE’

This tree teaches the degrees of kingship and the laws concerning it, and how to be able to avoid the forbidden couch. Study it eagerly, clever student, for it will yield much that is useful if it is well understood. For those things the law permits or denies to relatives or what they should reject, is here briefly given along with information on every connection. Indeed, you might believe that you were not previously knowledgeable in the law (even though you have read great digests). If you do not know the branches of our tree, you will not be able to say who is who and how they are related. Which, you, O reader (provided only that you use your intelligence), will easily accomplish. Indeed the master of the lesson is at hand. Come, please, O happy companion, make use of your talent so that you may grow as a tree grows.

Brant's letter to the reader which concludes the Liber Sextus repeats the view that this work completes the set of publications begun with the Decretum of Gratian in 1493.

We could long since have satisfied your desires, sweet reader, I believe, by the publication of decrees and various decretals, if it had not occurred to us earlier that it would not be sufficient to help you just once. That thought counseled delay, so that one benefit might follow on another. As Horace says, “day presses on day.” Moreover since nothing is firm and secure, unless it is internally consistent and complete, we did not want to release abridged decrees of the Fathers and Popes, but to join each individual part to the ancient body of canon law. You know my views. I repeat, the compilation of the Sextus should be added to our previous publication. Up to now it has been lacking, and it could be placed among the rest. Therefore it has been completed and appears for your benefit. Please take note. Good reader, consider if you can compare another to our edition of the Sextus or can think that there is one as rich in ancient glosses (I will not mention the other features which you can plainly see). Observe that many additions of Joannes Andreae have been usefully and appropriately included …, many that had been clearly arranged by him previously have been illustrated and some even increased. Finally, others only partly completed by him also are included. We have restored the organization and readings of Joannes Andreae which some consider plagiarized and have attributed to Dominic (very absurd indeed). Let our very learned Joannes Andreae rejoice that he has resumed his rightful place, a man whom I regard so highly among scholars, that, whoever writes anything after him, unless, like Ruth, they look very carefully and winnow diligently, they shall gather nothing but his grain. And the grain weevil destroys a great heap of grain. To put it even more exactly, all posterity will be found to have plowed with his heifer. I know that we have accomplished a work beneficial to you and that you will love us a long time.

Brant makes a great deal of the additions to this work from the writings of the Italian canonist Joannes Andreae but, a glance at the many editions of the Liber Sextus and the Extravagantes Clementini listed in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke shows that the glosses of Andreae were a standard feature of such editions, and many included his treatise Arbor consanguinitatis …. Only a comparison of editions, which is beyond the scope of this study, would show if Brant was more critical in his handling of this material than other editors were.

When Froben, joined by Amerbach, reprinted the Liber Sextus in 1500 Brant added another poem to draw the reader's attention to the Extravagantes Clementini.

If you want to read through the work of Clement after all the volumes of canon law, O youth, read this especially valuable work which the City of Basel has recently printed in fresh type for you. You will find that the work is complete and has been annotated completely in every section. There is nothing lacking for you to criticize. But if you happen to want to see those materials not included in those works (extravagantes) you will be able to find them all here. Read them all. For I know and I do not hesitate to say openly and properly that there has never been a book like this one printed. If you don't want to believe these words, good reader, at least let this labor and this work give you confidence in it. I have read it through thoroughly. If perhaps anything seems less than perfect because of me, please forgive me. Farewell.

Between 1490 and 1500, when he left Basel and ceased his work for publishers there, Brant also was involved in four other juristic publications. Two of them were handbooks directed to the needs of the student of law; the other two were related to canon law, but were not basic texts for university courses in canon law. In prefaces to the handbooks for law students, Brant plays the role of the learned master advising and guiding the young student; in the other two works of canon law he speaks as a jurist to his colleagues.

Brant probably suggested to Nicolaus Kessler the publication of the Margarita decretalium²⁸, a legal handbook that appeared from that house in 1494. He makes the point in his prefatory poem addressed to the printer that this is the first edition of the work. The Margarita serves as an alphabetical index to the Decretales of Gregory IX. It offers a key-word-in-context arrangement to enable the user to focus quickly on a relevant passage in the Decretales and to locate it through the standard method of citation by rubric, chapter, and title²⁹. These are the features that Brant emphasizes in his prefatory verses.

‘SEBASTIAN BRANT TO NICOLAUS KESSLER, GREETINGS.’

You see many treatises of the law which printers have energetically produced by their art. But this work of ours has never before appeared, and the book has been known to few people up to now. This useful and particularly worthwhile small volume contains within its small covers information from the extensive writings of the Decretales that is very practical and worthy of note and memory. You will also find what material the work of Gregory IX contains and where it is located by chapters, titles and rubrics. Each term stands in its proper order; the page directs you to the title and chapter of the decretal. How often, O fortunate reader, you will say, “may the author who first handed down this work to scholars enjoy success”. And to you in particular, Nicolaus Kessler, great glory will redound because you print good books. Basel rejoices in you, an esteemed citizen and councilor. Under your leadership let us hope for still more writings. Farewell.

In 1500 Brant was again instrumental in seeing into print a handbook, this one written by the Italian jurist, Giovanni Battista Caccialupi (Johannes Baptista Caccialupis, or de Gazalupis) in 1467, called Tractatus de modo studendi in utroque jure (‘How to study both canon and civil law’)³⁰. Although it had already been published three times, Brant was apparently unaware of those editions, for in his preliminary verses he makes much of the fact that Arnold zum Lufft, also a law professor at Basel, had had a copy made during a stay in Siena. Brant decided to add this short treatise³¹ to the new edition of his school text, Expositiones sive declarationes, which was first published in 1490, with a dedication to his colleague who had provided him a copy.

‘TO THE MOST OUTSTANDING MAN, ARNOLD ZUM LUFFT, DOCTOR OF BOTH LAWS …’

I have read through the treatise you made available to me, the one written by the scion of the worthy house of the wolf, Giovanni Battista Caccialupi. This work of an extremely learned man gives good value. Indeed it offers the student a method of studying both laws. It provides ten golden rules on how they can learn the law. Furthermore, it includes more noteworthy information; it records interesting observations; it lists the outstanding figures and pillars of the law, whom men of their own era were fortunate to see. Indeed, the student will find here a band of scholars from whom they can furnish their own minds. This little book clarifies many matters. We have brought out this book, which is certainly worthy of being widely read, because I have decided to publish the titles of the law which I wrote sometime ago. Furthermore, I have decided to add this basic guide to the law. I give it first place, as is appropriate for such a great work. Now you will see in print the work which you had copied out at great expense while you were living in the beautiful city of Siena, and you will be the first to give this gift and do this service for our young people. Therefore, scholars both young and old will be eternally grateful to you. First among them, my son Onophrius with all due regard offers his respects and thanks and will sing your eternal praises.

These verses, with their play on Caccialupi's name, and their emphasis on the practical value of the book for the novice resemble those that preface the other works directed to the student market, and serve as a good contrast for the shift in style and tone that appears in Brant's prefaces to the works that follow.

In 1499, two other juristic works appeared under Brant's editorship, both editiones principes. Both relate to canon law, but neither is basic to the university law curriculum. It may be for this reason that in the prefaces of both works we see in Brant not so much the teacher addressing his students but the legal scholar and professor addressing his colleagues and peers.

Brant's edition of the Decreta of the Council of Basel³² that had taken place in the first half of the fifteenth century and had been an important stimulus to the development of the scholarly and intellectual life of the city, appeared in 1499 from the press of Jacob Wolff de Pforzheim. He dedicated the work to Cardinal Johannes Antonius, with a full display of flattery and obsequiousness that is characteristic of most such dedications of the time, but unusual among Brant's juristic prefaces. His verses addressed to Basel suggest that he wanted to publish the Decreta of the Council to recall and preserve that period of splendor in the history of the city when it had captured the attention of western Christendom and had drawn scholars, churchmen, and princes of the Church and Empire to its deliberations.

‘SEBASTIAN BRANT TO THE CITY OF BASEL’

If you want to see the decrees of your council, look over this present work, O Mother, city of Basel. Then too it is pleasing to put forth the grants and transactions of the Fathers and the individual acts of your Synod. Indeed, over the course of many years these have become obscure. Now by divine will and guidance they are ready to go forth. With happy and glad appearance they will go directly to the gentle and highly learned Cardinal. Through this work you will enjoy great heavenly glory, O famed home and country, and your splendor will shine even beyond this place. By virtue of this synod and because of your intellectual achievements you excel all cities of the Rhine and men of warlike race. And now farewell. May the stars shine favorably upon you throughout the ages and may all the heavenly powers be well disposed to your teachings.

The dedicatory letter offers slight information about the circumstances of publication. Brant may have prepared it for the press because of his desire (never fulfilled) to write a brief history of the Council of Basel³³. It takes up the convening of the council in 1431, the issues that it addressed, and the hostility and dissension that arose and grew over the eighteen years of its existence until it was finally dissolved in 1448. So far as Brant was concerned, the most important issue that the Council decided was the matter of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. In the fifteenth century, as the doctrine of the immaculate conception attracted growing numbers of adherents, it also aroused intense controversy. Brant, who supported the doctrine of the immaculate conception, took the opportunity afforded by this preface to comment on the matter. His statement that the Council “exploded the error” gives the impression that the Council's acceptance of the immaculate conception had settled the matter once and for all. In fact, the controversy between the ‘maculists’ and the ‘antimaculists’ was not settled in Brant's lifetime. Brant also gives a brief account of the difficulties that beset the council as it addressed its three charges: the reunification of the eastern and western churches, the reform of the Church in its head and members, and the eradication of heresy.

‘TO CARDINAL JOHANNES ANTONIUS’

… when some time ago it occurred to some of our book dealers to ask that the decrees of the holy Synod of Basel, which up to now have been hidden in darkness, be brought out in a printed edition, and when they approached me with their very sincere requests and asked me to dedicate their effort, the finished work, to someone from among my preceptors and my superiors, men desirous of and worthy of such a great tribute, by a letter of dedication to one particular person, immediately your constant and redoubtable greatness, Father, came to my mind … I am eternally grateful to immortal God and to you, my most esteemed father, for offering to me an opportunity in which I may, by some task, offer something worthy of your most reverend grace. For a long time I have been wishing for an opportunity to gratify your most holy goodness. Moreover, it has been usual among many men of arid and tepid piety to be quarrelsome about the question of whether the synod once held at Basel in the year of our Lord 1431 was legitimately constituted in the Holy Spirit. Some call it a little council or little convention using the words of Pope Pelagius XVII. Among this group I know that certain brothers still persist in the error of an earlier evil. We usually call them maculists—not literally—because they are not ashamed to cast some common stain of conception on the pure and unblemished Virgin who was almost divine. You are my most eloquent witness that the Synod of Basel exploded that error. Nor has it escaped my notice that many others favored that opinion in support of Pope Eugenius IV with the result that they were not afraid to call this a little convention.

But since I did not want to affirm anything rashly, I have learned that the general holy Synod at Basel … was properly, legitimately and with due process begun and convened. This I have learned from the writings of the best sacred writers. Indeed when Basel had been selected by Pope Martin V (as is clear in the letter of His Holiness) as a suitable place for holding the council, his successor Eugenius IV confirmed the Basel Council by apostolic letter and he authorized those coming to the Council, namely: Giuliano Cesarini, the presiding officer, … those princes attending from Spain, France, Germany, and Hungary along with Sigismund, the most august Emperor of the Romans, and for the many fathers (362 to be exact) from the various nations of the world, whose vow and purpose it was to restore peace and harmony. The reason for which Pope Eugenius transferred the Basel Council to Ferrara and then Florence does not require our explanation nor is it in our power. Although many may think it, in my opinion no sensible person would deny that the Basel Council was legitimately convened from the beginning. But let it be as critics will have it: let it not be called “council;” let it be called “convention,” “little council,” “congregation,” or “synagoga.” It makes no difference so long as it dispelled the heresy which threw the Christian community into confusion for a time; let that which removes the evil be called by any name as long as peace follows. The fact is also clear that the Basel Council had indeed a most auspicious beginning. Granted, it had poor conclusion because of the dissension that followed. As in the proverb, bad luck follows a good beginning … Enough of these matters. May your constant honesty and holiness, merciful father, to whom I commend and dedicate myself, be strong in Christ.

The pride that Brant expresses in the city of Basel and its intellectual achievements is a theme that appears in a number of his preliminary pieces. The Council held there had brought international attention to the city, not all of it as favorable as Brant suggests. The remarks of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini about the low level of learning that he found there were certainly an indictment³⁴, but things had indeed changed in the intervening half century. The Council itself had stimulated interest in learning. Johannes de Ragusa, who knew Greek and represented the Basel Council on embassies to Constantinople in 1435 and 1437-38, had made gifts of Greek manuscripts to the Dominican monastery. Aeneas Sylvius, during his tenure as pope, granted the charter of the University of Basel in 1460. In the last decade of the fifteenth century the Charterhouse of Basel could count among its congregation a large number of men trained at the University and scholars of distinction. Brant counts the members of the publishing community among the treasures of the city. Brant understood the value of publicity and the power of the printing press to reach and persuade a wide audience. By continual reference to the intellectual achievements of Basel, Brant hoped to change the attitudes of the learned world towards the culture of the North. He wanted to instill in the German people a sense of pride in the accomplishments of their nation and to win recognition and respect even from Italy. We might regard much of Brant's prefatory work as hack writing. Even if we grant the resistance of the genre to brilliance of thought or refinement of form, his verses retain the stiffness of school verses. Yet we cannot fail to recognize the sincerity of his patriotic feelings beneath the stale phrases and conventional exaggerations. He had a mission, as we are fond of saying, and it was to claim for the German people their rightful place in the republic of letters.

In editing the Panormia of Ivo, Bishop of Chartres, for Michael Furter in 1499³⁵, Brant was making available one of the important early compilations of canon law used by Gratian for his Decretum. For all practical purposes the work of Gratian superceded the collection of Ivo of Chartres, which may explain the comparatively late date for the first printed edition of the work. For the editio princeps Brant wrote a four page introduction dedicating the work to Johannes Götz of the Augustinian order.

Like his preface to the Decreta of the Council of Basel, Brant's introduction to the text of Ivo of Chartres is more scholarly than the prefaces he wrote for the handbooks and texts of canon law³⁶. In this particular work he spends little time in praise of the dedicatee, or in addressing the hypothetical reader's questions, but begins immediately with a discussion of the origins and basis of law, buttressed by citations from early authorities. Unlike the prefatory material to Gratian, in which he emphasizes the superiority of his edition, Brant in the preface to Ivo deploys and displays his command of canon law. The preface in this work does not encourage the uninitiated reader to believe this is a book for him; by its style alone Brant has made it clear that he is addressing primarily the learned and professional canonist. Reading the first page of the preface is a little like reading the footnotes of a scholarly article without the text. Brant is well into the second page of the preface before he launches into his general views about the importance of law to his own corrupt and degenerate age, the sort of jeremiad which Brant did so effectively and which, apparently, had great appeal in this somber and melancholy age. Brant quotes from Cicero's Dream of Scipio on the divine sanction of human institutions organized on the principles of law. He then explains his high opinion of the work of Ivo of Chartres and his decision to have it published for wider distribution. He follows this with an account of Ivo's predecessors, successors, and his place in the development of canon law. Because of the length and the nature of the exposition, which, as I mentioned above in large sections is little more than citation of authorities, I offer excerpts of the preface which show us Brant's views on law and how he adapted his style to his audience.

‘TO JOHANNES GöTZ, AUGUSTINIAN, AND PRIEST OF THE GREAT CHURCH OF BASEL’

In our times because the nature of mankind has been corrupted by the stain of sin, we see everyday, alas, much guile, fraud, treachery and dishonesty everywhere, especially in this our Germany (a fact which I particularly lament, and I know that you also for a long time have grieved greatly over it). We see that all things, both human and divine, are thrown into confusion, torn up, laid waste and destroyed; we see that it makes little difference whether it happens rightly or wrongly and in the same way the bond of close community and of society is broken. One can only think not only ignorance of justice and the law but also counting it of little value blinds our compatriots and obscures the whole world. Indeed, perpetual peace and society would be considered holy among men if we would cultivate justice herself first for God, then for ourselves, finally for others in a right and proper order. And let us observe when we violate, corrupt, and disturb it, we must be judged none other than the enemies of the human race and the transgressors of the divine good. For as Cicero so clearly put it, “Nothing of all that is done on earth is more pleasing to that god who rules the whole universe than the assemblies and gatherings of men associated in justice” [Dream of Scipio xiii]. But to what purpose then these things, O brilliant master, except that I know that you are one man who is steadfast in the support of law and justice. May your extraordinary civility, your quick intelligence, and your high integrity and learning be a powerful influence. Some time ago I found certain books of the decretals of the venerable Ivo who was Bishop of Chartres a little before this century. I decided to edit them for printing in order to make them known to many. I thought of you as the person I first wanted to see and greet this work. Your very cordial and welcome interest in me and your friendship for me urged me to do this … But let us now return to our Ivo. I would not have you think that these decretals collected by Ivo are not to be found elsewhere. Indeed, for the most part they can be found today inserted in the compilation of the Decretum of Gratian. Thus one may get an idea of this work as it is presented and annotated there. In addition Innocent in his book of histories records the fact that a certain Ivo by name, Bishop of Chartres, among other laudable intellectual achievements compiled the apostolic decrees by abridging them and by arranging in divisions those that Isidore had previously compiled in one large volume, but which had no other organizing principle than the chronology of the Roman pontiffs … Indeed those canons that Ivo abbreviated could not be copied without great expense. He also separated chapters and inserted many opinions of the Holy Fathers. He called this his Panormia of books containing material of all justice or law, for ‘pan’ means ‘all’ and law is called ‘nomos’ in Greek … Furthermore our Ivo divides his work into eight parts which you will find annotated, each with an individual title. I will not take this up here to avoid covering something that has already been done. Because this work of Ivo was not small, Hugo Cathalanus is said to have compiled from this very abbreviation a short postilla called the Summa decretorum Ivonis and that may be the little book now under discussion³⁷. There was yet another compilation of decrees which is called the Breviario canonum Fulgentii. Another adaptation into twenty books was made by Burchard, Bishop of Worms … They call this compilation the Burcardum after its scholastic author, a work which earlier teachers of the canon used to use. Then Father Gratian compiled his Decretum from all previous ones, adding other canons and deliberations of the Roman pontificate as well as the authorities of the Holy Fathers which today have the force of law. And because the Holy Fathers differed more concerning spiritual than temporal matters, he therefore included passages from the Codex of Digests and from the laws of jurisconsults and emperors. In this way we have arrived at this present work of the canon …

From this preface we see Brant as a jurist addressing other jurists. He was able to deal with and manipulate the vast learning of his profession, but, unlike most members of his profession, Brant chose to enlarge the audience to whom he could speak. He was a natural missionary. His greatest interest was to teach and to reach beyond the academic world of professional jurists who were sometimes indifferent and sometimes contemptuous of efforts to make the law understandable and accessible to the general public³⁸.

In 1501 Brant left his position at the University of Basel to become the legal advisor to the municipality of Strassburg, his native city. Within a short time after his return to Strassburg, Brant began to work with the printers of that city as he had in Basel. There is, however, a marked change in the kinds of editions he was involved in from that point on. Whereas the legal texts he edited in Basel were for the most part directed to the academic market, the legal texts he helped ready for publication in Strassburg were written in German and directed to a general, non-academic market. The first of two such publications was a compilation and translation of civil and canon law made by Ulrich Tengler intended primarily for officials and citizens who had no formal training in the law, but who had to deal with legal matters in the course of doing business and fulfilling their civic responsibilities. Tengler called it Layenspiegel (Legal handbook for the layman)³⁹. Through a mutual friend, the poet Jakob Locher, the compiler was put in touch with Brant in Strassburg who agreed to write the prefatory pieces, one in prose, one in verse. It was a coup both for Tengler and for the publisher of the Layenspiegel to have persuaded Brant to write the prefatory pieces for this work and thus to attach his name prominently to the work. He was by this time a well-known and distinguished jurist, a councilor to the Emperor, and famous throughout Europe for his Narrenschiff. Brant's endorsement of the work could be counted on to increase the commercial success of the work.

Brant seems to have had somewhat different audiences in mind when he wrote the two prefaces. The prose preface in German legalese is clearly directed at an audience familiar with this sort of material. The clauses, very loosely subordinated, go on line after line. He adopts a high tone, heavy with cumbersome metaphor, that is calculated to flatter the potential buyer, as well as to inform him about the usefulness of this work in handling the routine transactions of his public life. These prefaces to legal works in the German language show Brant addressing a number of his life-long concerns: the need to reach a public beyond the learned world; the desire to shape and guide the people of the Empire through education in the ways of the law and righteousness; the desire to attract the reader to useful knowledge through the charms of verse.

Since the prefaces are long and repetitious, I will offer selected passages⁴⁰.

‘PREFACE TO THE LAYENSPIEGEL’

Although many men of high learning and fame up to now have published single works of their knowledge and thoughts and concerns for the common good of all nations and languages, even more have been disseminated in our present time than in the past by means of the noble art of printing. Just as others who, in Spanish voyages from the Pillars of Hercules, circumnavigated in the whole continent of Africa, sailed through the Arabian, Persian and Indian oceans and gulfs and discovered new islands and lands, considered their effort, labor, and toil arduous and worthy of the reward of great fame and honor, so also the highly esteemed and kind nobleman, my friend Ulrich Tengler, administrator at Hoechst, has recently undertaken a most extensive work, to wit: he has drawn from written papal and imperial laws useful examples of many procedures and practices of both ecclesiastical and secular, high and low courts, of courts and chancelleries of princes, of town and country, for the instruction of laymen inexperienced in the law; he set these subjects in the German language, a task that is very difficult to do and supplemented it with the valuable writings of scholars for greater usefulness. Furthermore, the newly-created work is called the Layenspiegel; in it he (as he previously had learned from the words Jerome and Cyprian) sought more the understanding of the learner than the glory and praise for his erudition by using a variety of elegant and brilliant words. He was not ignorant of the saying: honest simplicity is a friend of truth … Therefore, the work of Tengler is properly comparable to the labor of Hercules in that he does not restrict himself to the description of one particular work nor to the experience of particular islands, countries, gulfs, or seas; rather (as the laudable Emperor Justinian says) he ventured through the middle of the deep and bottomless sea of the Law. Having taken upon himself a labor of great and lofty import, not easy to recount, and committing himself body and soul to the task, he has compiled in this work, (divided into three books), the fundamentals, office, form, protocol and procedures appertaining to all German princes, lords, town and country administrators, officials, princely manorial and district judges, aldermen, mayors, councilmen, bailiffs, assessors, lawyers, mediators, councillors, notaries, council and court clerks, functionaries, beadles, messengers, plaintiffs, respondents, witnesses, guardians, rulers, citizens and communities. He has made a compilation from civil and criminal law and court cases (and therein has disregarded and omitted those things that seemed to him neither necessary to learn nor particularly useful as examples or otherwise valuable); he has brought them together like a bouquet of flowers so that those who are experienced in the written law or practices of the court would have something by which they would be reminded of information, and also those who are neither learned nor experienced would have something by which they would be instructed. My small effort has been joined to the work of Tengler and I have reviewed the divisions, the headings of the main chapters and titles. I was not able till now to show sufficient admiration, praise, and compliments when I went through it … This scholar and his work, after the howling hound of Cerberus and the slanderous anger of Aglaurus are quiet, will have for themselves sufficient record and eternal witness of their usefulness and true industry not just among those now living, but they will also have an unquestionable place in the future. Therefore, I speak further as follows:

‘VERSES TO THE LAYENSPIEGEL’

The question is whether one should praise a book that is good and deserving of praise. I find that various persons among the Jews, Christians, and heathen, philosophers, Brahmans, and theologians who, like hypocrites, indeed scorn worldly honor, have always worked very hard to compose and write their books and never want them to remain without a title. They have valued titles and names and have placed them foremost in their books wherein they have, nonetheless, taught us to avoid glory, praise, vanity, honor. Thus speaks the wise man: You should pay attention and seek after a good name. The wise man should not renounce that honor, for his name will live forever. Ezechiel, Jeremiah, Daniel and Isaiah and many other prophets have provided names and titles at the beginning of their teachings, prophecies and visions. The Evangelists did the same; Paul did not hide himself. St. Jerome praises those who disseminate their works and let their memorial after death stand written in their books. All that man leaves behind after death brings him little comfort since it takes on a stranger's name. But he who speculates through his writings, leaves behind him writings or teachings and they belong to his name and to no one else. Since man may not live long, he should still also see to it that he, through the record of the word, show that he has indeed lived, for thereby a person may gain recognition and be immortalized by honor. Therefore, this book of which Ulrich Tengler need not be ashamed, has its name, Layenspiegel. In it we see many clear models and other things deserving of praise. That is not for me to do, for I am too clumsy. I will commend it to a learned man so that he may give you praise, dear Tengler, in Latin prose and verse. Since now I am a German layman and in a German Chancellery, it seems to me that it is not proper or seemly for me to mix up Latin and German. For that reason I have expressed my thoughts in German rather than Latin.

Take notice you judges of all lands when you want to become wise, look for the right source and do not just cling to your own thoughts. Do you think that the laws have grown on trees or come from dreams? Do you think that we should not also pay attention to what our elders gave thought to? The law, by which the people have possessed honor and land and all wealth, is from God and the ancients by whom everything was set down and preserved, so that mankind by order, form, and moderation has remained on the right path … There is an aim, a standard, a pattern and form for how one behaves in every case. He who goes nearer or farther from it does not himself stand by the law. If you have a written law before you, you would stand by it rightly, unless there are mitigating circumstances. Then you can act justly according to your common sense, yet in such a way that your independent opinion does not too crudely oppose the common law. But we tend to want to keep our own views and intentions by relying on our own head and brain, and we do not want to have to recall how we got into the mess. What you do not know, you should ask about. Let yourself be told by a scholar or one more experienced in the law and rely on his thoughts. In this sea many have drowned, and the ones who thought they would find the bottom could not even sound the depths. Any judge who imposes a judgment on someone contrary to the law because of ignorance, makes himself liable for damage, costs and injury. He who turns to the law and still finds himself unprepared because he knows nothing, should have patience, for he loads himself with liability and guilt; just like a doctor who cuts too short, too long, too deep, too wide, he is responsible for what he did, even though he did not understand. So let everyone be warned to proceed according to the law, and not trust his own head believing that he alone has all knowledge so that he misleads the state, people, land, and himself as well. That Dr. Brant wishes for each.

Brant offers a curious argument at the beginning of the verse ostensibly to ward off the charge of the vanity in writing and publishing books. He repeats the commonplace of writers of all time that immortality lies in bibliography. The poem is a little simpler to follow than the prose preface, which suggests that the prose was directed towards the professional chancellory official, and the poem toward a more general audience. Brant's prefatory pieces were followed by a Latin preface by Locher, Brant's former student, who had been instrumental in bringing Tengler and Brant together in the publication of the Layenspiegel. The addition of Latin prefaces to a work specifically designed for the non-Latin reader indicates that the publisher (probably on the advice of Brant and Tengler) thought that the work could also serve as a handy compilation for the professionally trained jurist.

The success of the Layenspiegel undoubtedly moved Brant in 1516 to resurrect another legal compilation in German, which had been made in the first half of the fifteenth century. To underline the connection, Brant titled the compilation, previously known under different titles, Der richterlich Clagspiegel (The Legal Case Book)⁴¹. This volume was published seven years after the first edition of the Layenspiegel by Mathis Hupfuff who brought out the 1509 Strassburg edition of the Layenspiegel. Brant intended it to serve as a supplement to the Layenspiegel and as he hoped, the two came to be seen as companion volumes. Both works continued to pay their way for the publishers who reprinted them throughout the sixteenth century. In his prefatory pieces to the Clagspiegel Brant made his intention of connecting the two works entirely plain. His prose introduction to this work is very brief and conveys the following message: everyone is subject to the law as it stands written; everyone is responsible for knowing the law. Therefore, this book presents some law cases and useful lessons from general legal writings of imperial law and basic texts. He follows this brief introduction with forty lines of rhymed verse that describe the purpose and usefulness of this book⁴².

‘TO JOHANNES BOCK AND PETER MUSSLER AND THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF STRASSBURG’

The highly regarded Layenspiegel that my friend Tengler has created with beautiful pictures and writing for persons who have to be at court and offices to transact and manage all business and court cases, describes pleasantly and skillfully what everyone should know. To add to it at this time, I have found this neat and useful little work. In it every claim, suit, and dispute under imperial law is so finely and well presented, that it is indeed a ready instrument for disputes, containing as it does information and citations where one may directly investigate an issue since the source from which all opinions derive is written down. That is the subject that this book thoroughly covers. I have looked through it diligently to correct it as best I could, so that it may all the better supplement and elucidate the above-mentioned Spiegel as well as to give it form and polish so that the user can find in this work what is lacking in the other. For example, the reader can find complete and clear information relating to court practice and how each can substantiate his case in this work. This work, kind sirs, I have desired to bring out anew to please, serve, and honor you, for I regard you so highly that it can please you both when law and knowledge and truth come to light. Thereby may God long keep you in health and happiness always, and after our time grant to you and to me as well eternal joy.

Both of these publications show that Brant, now occupied not with students but with the citizens and magistrates of Strassburg, recognized and met their need for legal works written in a language and style accessible to the general reader.

In 1520, the year before his death, Brant made his last contribution of verses to a juristic work, the Summa Angelica, by Angelus de Clavasio⁴³, published in Strassburg by Knoblouch. The Summa is a compendium written in the second half of the fifteenth century as a guide for priests hearing confession and prescribing penance. When Knoblouch published it in 1520, the work already had a history of some thirty prior editions. Brant edited it and provided seven distichs for the title page of Knoblouch's edition. The verses fall into forms and patterns seen in the earlier prefatory verses. The play with Angelus' name, the description of the contents of the work, its usefulness, the direct address to the reader assuring him that he will find much to his benefit in the work—these are familiar to the reader of the prefaces of his earliest juristic works, starting with Gratian's Decretum. These were the conventions of preface writing as Brant saw them. They must have flowed effortlessly from his pen by this time in his life.

He is indeed angelic, the learned doctor, whose gracious spirit has devoted itself to writing this work. Whence it happens that this little book bears the worthy name and title, the Summa Angelica, because here the laws serve the holy canons. The laws of the marketplace yield completely to the laws of heaven. With this book the confessor, the iurist, the theologian himself is provided with information on what is right as well as virtuous; how these give souls that are discontent release from anxiety; how the minds of men become healthy, calm and good, and what is proper and permitted to human kind. What is right and what is not right, intelligent reader, you have. If you should ask who is the author, it is that Angelus Clavasius who makes this angelic announcement and gives us this work.

Before considering Brant's juristic editions in the light of all of his work, I want to say a word about Brant as an editor. Stintzing remarks that Brant's editions show surprising signs of carelessness, considering his exacting and pedantic nature⁴⁴. Certainly at this point in the history of text editing no critical principles had been formulated to guide the scholarly editor. The Italian humanists were just beginning to recognize the scope of the problems to be faced in establishing a text from conflicting manuscript witnesses. There is no evidence that Brant had any grasp of the complexities of text editing. When he uses the terms elimo, castigo, and corrigo I suspect that he is talking about proofreading and little more. If we consider that fact that between 1490 and 1500 Brant edited and supplied ancillary pieces for thirty publications, published Narrenschiff, two editions of his Varia Carmina, translations, and many broadsides as well, it is clear that Brant had to work at a rate of speed that is inconsistent with anything but the most cursory editing techniques.

Brant's contributions to the publication of legal works in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century show that he was fully aware of the importance of printing as a servant of education, whether formal or self-taught. As in his other work, his legal publications show Brant's understanding of print as a weapon in the political, intellectual, and religious struggles that engaged him throughout his life. Brant brought to his work as an editor and as a promoter of books the same dedication and missionary zeal that he exhibited as a teacher, writer, and civil servant. He was not an original thinker⁴⁵. His importance lies in his ability to assess his audience and to make his views comprehensible to readers of diverse interests and levels of education. Brant appeared at a moment in history when his aspirations coincided perfectly with the requirements of the new technology of printing. He wanted to reach the widest audience possible, at a time when the growth of the printing industry required it to look for a new readership in order to expand the market for its products.

Notes

1. For information on Brant's life I have made use throughout of the following two biographies of Brant: Charles Schmidt: Histoire Littéraire de l'Alsace à la fin du XV^e et au commencement du XVI^e siècle. Vol. 1. 2. 1879. Reprint. Nieuwkoop 1966, 1, pp. 189-333.—Edwin H. Zeydel: Sebastian Brant. New York 1967 (Twayne's World Authors Series. 13).

2. Myron P. Gilmore: The World of Humanism 1453-1517. New York 1952, pp. 204-228.

3. Brant in letter to J. Reuchlin 4 January 1484 talks of his future plans: Accingam me operi pro impetranda licentia, Dii secundent coepta. Ego a Musis in verbosas leges incido. “I will gird myself for the task of getting the license; may the gods favor what I have begun. I have passed from the Muses into wordy law.” J. Reuchlin: Clarorum virorum epistolae … Tübingen, Thos. Anshelm, 1514. sig. e^6.Schmidt: op. cit., p. 202 cites statements made by Bergmann von Olpe and others to the effect that Brant took up law for financial reasons.

4. Schmidt: op. cit., pp. 241f., 254, finds Brant's poetry pedantic, uninspired, and artificial. He says that Brant made a great number of verses in both German and Latin, but lacked genuine poetic sensibility, elevation of thought, richness of imagination and vigor. Friedrich Zarncke: Sebastian Brants Narrenschiff. 1854. Repr. Hildesheim 1961, p. xxviii states that Brant had significant poetic gifts that were affected by the pedantic spirit of his time and circle. William Gilbert: The Culture of Basel in the Fifteenth Century: a Study of Christian Humanism. Cornell University dissertation 1941, p. 270 says that Brant's “urgent desire to display his classical erudition and to call attention ostentatiously to his use of classical metres, effectively completed the task of routing the muse”.

5. Zarncke thinks that Brant may have begun writing verses for the press sometime in the late 1470s, although his first signed prefatory poem appeared in 1489. Zarncke can see Brant's style in many of the hexameters that were used as colophons as early as the seventies; see his introduction (op. cit.), p. xxvi.—Zeydel: op. cit., p. 64 also holds that view.

6. Schmidt: op. cit., 2: 340-373, lists in his bibliography of Brant the works for which Brant provided editing, prefaces, or poems. Works discussed in this article will be identified by Schmidt's item number.

7. Schmidt: op. cit., p. 244, goes so far as to suggest that Brant published nothing that did not bear his name.—Zarncke: op. cit., p. xxvi, suggests that Brant had a hand in at least one third of the publications brought out in Basel between 1490 and 1500. This statement must assume that Brant furnished verses and prefaces to a number of works anonymously.

8. Edwin H. Zeydel: Sebastian Brant and his Public. In: Germanic Studies in Honor of Edward Henry Sehrt. Ed. Frithjof Andersen Raven et al. Coral Gables (Florida) 1968 (Miami Linguistics Ser. no. 1), pp. 251-264, analyzes the various styles that Brant used in appealing to audiences of different levels of sophistication, education, and interests.

9. Roderich v. Stintzing: Geschichte der populären Literatur des römisch-kanonischen Rechts in Deutschland. 1867. Repr. Aalen 1959, p. 492.

10. Stintzing: op. cit., p. xxxviii.

11. Hans Rudolf Hagemann: Rechtswissenschaft und Basler Buchdruck an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit. In: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Germ. Abt. 77. 1960, p. 251.

12. H 3725; GW 5070; BMC iii, p. 781; Goff B-1078.

13. William Gilbert: Sebastian Brant: Conservative Humanist. In: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 46/2. 1955, pp. 145-167.

14. Karl Schottenloher: Flugblatt und Zeitung. Berlin 1922, pp. 56-58.

15. Herbert J. C. Grierson and Sandys Wason: The Personal Note of First and Last Words from Prefaces, Introductions, Dedications, Epilogues. London 1946.—Tore Janson: Latin Prose Prefaces. Stockholm 1964 (Studia Latina Stockholmiensia. 13), discusses the conventions of prefaces and dedications used by Latin and Greek writers. Many of these conventions survive in the prefaces of medieval and Renaissance writers.

16. Karl Schottenloher: Die Widmungsvorrede im Buch des 16. Jahrhunderts. Münster 1953, pp. 1f.

17. Anatole Claudin: The First Paris Press: an Account of the Books Printed for G. Fichet and J. Heynlin in the Sorbonne 1470-1472. London 1898, p. 2.

18. H 7912; BMC iii, p. 792; Goff G-384; Schmidt 131.

19. H 8031; BMC iii, p. 790; Goff G-497; Schmidt 133.

20. GW 4890; BMC iii, p. 791; Goff B-1008; Schmidt 151, incorrectly dates this as 1499.

21. H 7881-7911.

22. H 7996-8030.

23. GW 4848-4889.

24. This and all subsequent translations are mine, with the exception of the quotation from Cicero's Dream of Scipio which is that of C. W. Keyes in the Loeb Classical Library edition (Cambridge, Mass. 1928), p. 265.

25. H 7918; BMC iii, p. 792; Goff G-391; Schmidt 133.

26. BMC iii, pp. 792-793.

27. Schmidt, 151 indicates that the treatise Arborum trium consanguinitatis, affinitatis cognationisque spiritualis lectura by Nicasius de Voerda was to have appeared in Frobens's edition of Liber sextus introduced by Brant's verses. The information on the editions of this work in Schmidt's list is somewhat confused. He dates the first edition to 1499 despite the date in the colophon and does not mention the inclusion of the treatise of Joannes Andreae, for which Brant's verses are clearly a suitable introduction. It seems likely that the printer Quentell in Cologne saw their appropriateness for the work of Nicasius de Voerda and borrowed them for the four editions of that treatise that he brought out between 1502 and 1508. For a discussion of the contents of the treatise of J. Andreae together with its relationship to similar works, see Stintzing: op. cit., pp. 149-185.

28. H 10755; BMC iii, p. 773; Goff M-263; Schmidt 136. Kessler printed, in addition to the above f° edition, a 4° edition in which the same verses appear. Neither edition is dated; Goff suggests 1496, Schmidt, 1494.

29. For a description of the contents of the Margarita and a discussion of its place among such alphabetical collections, see Stintzing: op. cit., pp. 128f.

30. H 4209; BMC iii, p. 786; GW 5071; Goff B-1079; Schmidt 156.

31. For a discussion of the contents of this work and its place among similar study guides, see Stintzing: op. cit., pp. 36-38.—Hagemann, op. cit., p. 258 sees in the publication of this work a signal of the shift in juristic studies in Basel from the scholastic and medieval tradition to the humanistic approach.

32. H 5605; GW 7284; BMC iii, p. 777; Goff C-799; Schmidt 153.

33. Zarncke: op. cit., p. xxvii. Brant mentions in the preface that he had read earlier writers in order to settle the question of the legitimacy of the council.

34. “They were indifferent to learning and to the study of classical literature to such an extent that they have not heard the name of Cicero or of any other orator at all. Nor are the works of the poets sought after. They devote their efforts exclusively to grammar and dialectic.” Scientias non affectant neque peritiam gentilium litterarum ut nec Ciceronem nec alium quemvis oratorum nominari audiverint. Neque poetarum exoptantur opera. Grammaticae tantum dant operam dialecticaeque, quoted from Zarncke: op. cit., p. x.—In: Concilium Basiliense. Studien und Quellen zur Geschichte des Concils von Basel. Ed. J. Haller et al. Vol. 1-8. Basel 1896-1936. Vol. 5, p. 372.

35. H 9328; BMC iii, p. 785; Goff I-223; Schmidt 154.

36. Stintzing: op. cit., p. 459 (and Hagemann: op. cit., p. 252, following him) says that it was not historical interest but the intent of making available a practical handbook for his contemporaries that motivated Brant to edit this work for publication. Schmidt: op. cit., 1: 245 indicates that Brant published Ivo to provide an abridged manual. Zarncke, op. cit., p. xxvii, states that Brant edited Ivo and a number of other works because they were related to his lectures. The style of the preface leads me to think that Brant had other law professors like himself in mind as the probable buyers and readers of Ivo of Chartres. In any case, he certainly presented the work in a manner markedly different from the way he prefaced his editions of the ‘corpus iuris canonici’ and the handbooks for students.

37. Stintzing: op. cit., p. 459 says that it is doubtful that Brant had the work of Ivo in its original form. It is more likely that he had the selection made by Hugo Cathalanus mentioned here.

38. Ulrich Zasius, one of Brant's contemporaries, writing to Bonifacius Amerbach in 1523 expressed his contempt for the practical applications of legal learning when he said: “Legal knowledge does not create doctors to be enrolled in the service of tribunals, to be sullied by the marks of the bar, or to become involved in the mundane activities of courts and council chambers; their proper place is to teach the laws, to resolve ambiguous questions, and to guide republics. These are the matters that are relevant to the impartial doctor.” Legalis sapientia doctores non facit, ut servicio aulae inscribantur, stigmatis aulicis inurantur aut sordibus fororum seu consistoriorum volutentur, sed ut de iure respondeant, dubia dirimant, iuris praecepta doceant, res publicas moderentur. Haec ad iustum doctorem pertinent.—Alfred Hartmann (ed.): Die Amerbachkorrespondenz. Basel 1943, Vol. 2, p. 430.

39. For an account of the sources, contents, editions and significance of this work see Stintzing: op. cit., pp. 411-436.

40. I have used the 1510 Strassburg edition of Mathis Hupfuff. Zarncke: op. cit., pp. 169-171, reprints these from the Strassburg 1514 edition, which differs slightly from the 1510 edition. I want to thank Prof. Patricia Giangrosso of Northeast Louisiana University, Mr. Robert Halporn, and Dr. Martin Steinmann, Keeper of Manuscripts of the University Library at Basel, for their help with these translations.

41. Zarncke: op. cit., pp. 171f., reprints the prefatory material to the Strassburg 1533 edition of Der richterlich Clagspiegel, which differs somewhat from the Strassburg 1516 edition that I have used.

42. For a discussion of the sources, history, editions, and contents of this work along with its relationship to Layenspiegel, see Stintzing: op. cit., pp. 337-405.

43. Stintzing places the Summa Angelica in a sub-category of canon law that he calls ‘spiritual jurisprudence’ which deals with practical matters of confession and penance. He discusses the place of this very popular compendium in the context of similar works, op. cit., pp. 536-539.

44. Stintzing: op. cit., p. 454. Stintzing notes that Brant was no different from other editors and the readers did not expect a higher standard of accuracy.

45. Gilbert: op. cit. (note 4, above), p. 245 calls his importance ‘quantitative, not qualitative’, on the grounds that Brant had very few ideas and he advocated them frequently and insistently.