The satirist
Sebastian Brant (1457–1521) conceived Saint Grobian as the patron saint of coarse manners in his famous poem
Das Narrenschiff (1494).
Das Narrenschiff (the ship of fools) describes the worship paid to this new saint. Grobian is found later in several works of the period.
Friedrich Dedekind (1524–1598) published
Grobianus et Grobiana: sive, de morum simplicitate, libri tres in 1558 at
Cologne. Here Grobian is a counselor who teaches men on how to avoid bad manners,
gluttony, and
drunkenness. Dedekind's work appeared in
England in 1605 as
The Schoole of Slovenrie: Or, Cato turned wrong side outward, published by one "R.F.". The "Schoole" was imagined as a place where one was instructed to use one's greasy
fingers to grab at the nicest portions of any dish and snatch food belonging to fellow diners. Holding back the desire to
urinate,
fart, and
vomit is taught to be bad for one's health; thus, one has to indulge freely in all three activities. The work also inspired
Thomas Dekker's
The Guls Horne-Booke (1609). The
German writer
Melchior Meyr is the author of a work entitled
Gespräche mit einem Grobian (1866). Sebastian Brant's
allegory was translated into English by
Alexander Barclay and
Henry Watson as
Ship of Fools, both in 1509. See also
ship of fools. ==References==