BRANT, SEBASTIAN (1457-1521), German humanist and satirist, was born at Strassburg about the year 1457. He studied at Basel, took the degree of doctor of laws in 1489, and for some time held a professorship of jurisprudence there. Returning to Strassburg, he was made syndic of the town, and died on the 10th of May 1521. He first attracted attention in humanistic circles by his Latin poetry, and edited many ecclesiastical and legal works; but he is now only known by his famous satire, Das Narrenschiff(1494), a work the popularity and influence of which were not limited to Germany. Under the form of an allegory—a ship laden with fools and steered by fools to the fools’ paradise of Narragenia—Brant here lashes with unsparing vigour the weaknesses and vices of his time. Although, like most of the German humanists, essentially conservative in his religious views, Brant’s eyes were open to the abuses in the church, and the Narrenschiff was a most effective preparation for the Protestant Reformalion. Alexander Barclay’s Ship of Fools (1509) is a free imitation of the German poem, and a Latin version by Jacobus Locher (1497) was hardly less popular than the German original. There is also a large quantity of other “fool literature.” Nigel, called Wireker (fl. 1190), a monk of Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, wrote a satirical Speculum stultorum, in which the ambitious and discontented monk figured as the ass Brunellus, who wanted a longer tail. Brunellus, who has been educated at Paris, decides to found an order of fools, which shall combine the good points of all the existing monastic orders. Cock Lovell’s Bote (printed by Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1510) is another imitation of the Narrenschiff. Cock Lovell is a fraudulent currier who gathers round him a rascally collection of tradesmen. They sail off in a riotous fashion up hill and down dale throughout England. Brant’s other works, of which the chief was a version of Freidank’s Bescheidenheit (1508), are of inferior interest and importance.
Brant’s Narrenschiff has been edited by F. Zarncke (1854); by K. Goedeke (1872); and by F. Bobertag (Kürschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. xvi., 1889). A modern German translation was published by K. Simrock in 1872. On the influence of Brant in England see especially C.H. Herford, The Literary Relations of England and Germany in the 16th Century (1886).
BRANTFORD, a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, on the Grand river, and on the Grand Trunk, and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo railways. The river is navigable to within 2½ m. of the town; for the remaining distance a canal has been constructed. Agricultural implements, plough, engine, bicycle and stove works, potteries and large railway shops constitute the important industrial establishments. It contains an institute for the education of the blind, maintained by the provincial government, and a women’s college. The city is named in honour of the Mohawk Indian chief, Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), who settled in the neighbourhood after the American War of Independence, in which he had led the Six Nations (Iroquois) on the British side. The amalgamated tribes of the Six Nations still make it their headquarters, and a monument to Brant has been erected in Victoria Square. Brantford is one of the most flourishing industrial towns of the province, and its population rose from 9616 in 1881 to 20,713 in 1907.
BRANTINGHAM, THOMAS DE (d. 1394), English lord treasurer and bishop of Exeter, came of a Durham family. An older relative, Ralph de Brantingham, had served Edward II. and Edward III., and Thomas was made a clerk in the treasury. Edward III. obtained preferment for him in the church, and from 1361 to 1368 he was employed in France in responsible positions. He was closely associated with William of Wykeham, and while the latter was in power as chancellor, Brantingham was lord treasurer (1369-1371, and 1377-1381), being made bishop of Exeter in 1370. He continued to play a prominent part in public affairs under Richard II., and in 1389 was again lord treasurer for a few months. He died in 1394 and was buried in Exeter cathedral.
BRANTÔME, PIERRE DE BOURDEILLE, Seigneur and Abbé de (c. 1540-1614), French historian and biographer, was born in Périgord about 1540. He was the third son of the baron de Bourdeille. His mother and his maternal grandmother were both attached to the court of Marguerite of Valois, and at her death in 1549 he went to Paris, and later (1555) to Poitiers, to finish his education. He was given several benefices, the most important of which was the abbey of Brantôme (see below), but he had no inclination for an ecclesiastical career. At an early age he entered the profession of arms. He showed himself a brave soldier, and was brought into contact with most of the great leaders who were seeking fame or fortune in the wars that distracted the continent. He travelled much in Italy; in Scotland, where he accompanied Mary Stuart (then the widow of Francis I.); in England, where he saw Queen Elizabeth (1561, 1579); in Morocco (1564); and in Spain and Portugal. He fought on the galleys of the order of Malta, and accompanied his great friend, the French commander Philippe Strozzi (grandson of Filippo Strozzi, the Italian general, and nephew of Piero), in his expedition against Terceira, in which Strozzi was killed (1582). During the wars of religion under Charles IX. he fought in the ranks of the Catholics, but he allowed himself to be won over temporarily by the ideas of the reformers, and though he publicly separated himself from Protestantism it had a marked effect on his mind. A fall from his horse compelled him to retire into private life about 1589, and he spent his last years in writing his Memoirs of the illustrious men and women whom he had known. He died on the 15th of July 1614.
Brantôme left distinct orders that his manuscript should be printed; a first edition appeared, however, late (1665-1666) and not very complete. Of the later editions the most valuable are: one in 15 volumes (1740); another by Louis Jean Nicolas Monmerqué (1780-1860) in 8 volumes (1821-1824), reproduced in Buchan’s Panthéon littéraire; that of the Bibliothèque elzévirienne, begun (1858) by P. Mérimée and L. Lacour, and finished, with vol. xiii., only in 1893; and Lalanne’s edition for the Société de l’Histoire de France (12 vols., 1864-1896). Brantôme can hardly be regarded as a historian proper, and his Memoirs cannot be accepted as a very trustworthy source of information. But he writes in a quaint conversational way, pouring forth his thoughts, observations or facts without order or system, and with the greatest frankness and naïveté. His works certainly gave an admirable picture of the general court-life of the time, with its unblushing and undisguised profligacy. There is not a homme illustre or a dame galante in all his gallery of portraits who is not stained with vice; and yet the whole is narrated with the most complete unconsciousness that there is anything objectionable in their conduct.