Grobian

Lore & Background

Sebastian Brant (1457–1521) first conceived Saint Grobian as the patron saint of coarse manners in his famous poem Das Narrenschiff (1494), which describes the worship paid to this new saint. The figure later appears in Friedrich Dedekind's 1554 work Grobianus et Grobiana: sive, de morum simplicitate, libri tres, published at Cologne, where Grobian is a counselor who teaches men 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 greasy fingers to grab the nicest portions of any dish and snatch food belonging to fellow diners. It also taught that holding back the desire to urinate, fart, and vomit is bad for one's health, so one must indulge freely in all three activities. This work inspired Thomas Dekker's The Guls Horne-Booke (1609) and the seventeenth-century Icelandic rímur Grobbians rímur.

Reader's Guide

Saint Grobian's significance lies in his role as a satirical figure critiquing coarse behavior, originating in Sebastian Brant's Das Narrenschiff (1494), a landmark allegorical poem. The figure's name and concept influenced later works across Europe, including Friedrich Dedekind's Latin poem and its English translation The Schoole of Slovenrie (1605), which humorously inverted moral instruction to advocate for gluttony, slovenliness, and bodily indulgence. This work in turn inspired Thomas Dekker's The Guls Horne-Booke (1609) and even reached Iceland in the form of Grobbians rímur. The word 'grobian' itself entered English as an obscure term for a crude or buffoonish person. Brant's allegory was translated into English by Alexander Barclay and Henry Watson, both in 1509, as Ship of Fools. The legacy of Saint Grobian endures as a cultural touchstone for satirical treatments of vulgarity and as a linguistic artifact, with the term still used occasionally to describe a coarse individual.

Did You Know?

• Friedrich Dedekind's 1554 work Grobianus et Grobiana presents Grobian as a counselor teaching how to avoid bad manners, gluttony, and drunkenness.
• The English translation of Dedekind's work, The Schoole of Slovenrie (1605), taught that holding back urination, farting, and vomiting is bad for one's health.