Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization opens with the poetic imagery of Ship of Fools. But what is the ship of fools? Apparently it all started with this book. I saw it in an exhibition of books sharing the theme of traveling at the library of Monash University. This is the latin edition of Ship of Fools by German humanist Sebastian Brant, published in 1497. The illustrations are by Albretch Durer (!).