Sebastian Brant (1458, Strasbourg — 10 May 1521, in the same city) was a German satirist of the fifteenth century, author of The Ship of Fools — writer, jurist, "doctor of both laws." He studied law and classical literature at Basel, obtained the right to teach in 1484, and in 1489 the degree of doctor of both laws. The Emperor Maximilian granted him the title of Count Palatine and the rank of counsellor. In 1513 Brant prevailed in a dispute with the Franciscan monk Wigand Wirt over the dogma of the immaculate conception. His fame rests far less on his numerous Latin verses than on the great satirical poem The Ship of Fools (Narrenschiff; its original fifteenth-century title was Dass Narrenschyff ad Narragoniam), published at Basel in 1494, in which he scourges, wickedly and accurately, the vices and follies of his contemporaries. The book long enjoyed enormous popularity among the people, thanks to the good sense, directness and wit that pervade it, and to its knowledge of life and of men. It was reprinted and reworked many times, and was translated not only into Latin (by Jakob Locher, Basel, 1497) but into most of the languages of Europe.