Similar books had preceded Master Owlglass, but not with the same success, although from them the frequent editors of the latter abstracted stories to add to the deeds of the wandering knave; from the legend of the “Priest Amis,” for instance, Murner took the story of the invisible picture, the reading ass, the wise university examination at Prague, and the history of the pardoner with the holy head of Saint Brandonus. Another work, the “Priest of Kalenberg,” preceded Owlglass, having appeared before the year 1494 at Vienna, being written by Villip Frankfurter; the only copy known is preserved in the Hamburg Town Library. The “Priest of Kalenberg” is mentioned by Sebastian Brandt in the “Ship of Fools;” and Murner, in his _Narrenbeschwerung_, tells a story concerning him. The book is alluded to by Fischart in the preface to his Eulenspiegel, as having been a great success. The latest edition of the “Priest of Kalenberg” appeared under the title of _Der geistliche Eulenspiegel, oder der Pfarrer vom Kalenberg, nebst Schwänken einiger anderen lustigen Gesellen_ (“The Clerical Eulenspiegel, or the Parson of Kalenberg, with the quips of some other merry fellows”). Leipzig, 1818.
Another book which supplied the editors of Eulenspiegel with materials for its extension was the Jests of Gonella, Court Fool to the Margrave Nicolaus of Este (†1441), and to his son Borso, the Duke of Ferrara (†1471); indeed, it is far from unlikely that Murner himself was acquainted with it, as it was published in 1506 at Bologna. So rare is this work, that in an appendix Dr. Lappenberg has reprinted it.
The “Jests of Poggio Bracciolini” (1381–1459), a man to whom we owe the recovery of Quintilian, eight orations of Cicero, twelve comedies of Plautus, and other classics, also furnished Murner with matter for the Eulenspiegel. In fact, Murner and his successors must have very diligently sought out all the literature of the class likely to serve their purpose in adding to the adventures of their own hero. Thus several stories are adapted from the “Cento Novelle Antiche” (printed at Bologna, 1525), from Morlini (Naples, 1520), from Bebel, and from François Villon.
There are a few books later than Eulenspiegel having a family resemblance to it; of these the _Schimpf und Ernst_ (“Abuse and Seriousness”) of John Pauli Pfedersheimer, published in 1522, is the most noted. The following is the title of the first edition: “Schimpf vn̄ | Ernst | heiset | das Buch mit namē | durchlaufft e d’ welthandlung mit | ernstlichen vnd kurtzweiligen exem- | plen, parabolen vnd hystorien | nützlich vnd gut zu besse- | rung der menschen.” This title is in an oblong tablet surrounded with woodcuts. Below is Herodias bringing the head of John the Baptist to her father; to the right is Adam and Eve; to the left, Bishop Martin; and at the top is St. George with the dragon. Sheets run from A-X iiii, 124 pages in folio, double columns. Colophon: “Getruckt zu Strassburg von Johannes | Grieninger, vnd volendet vff vnser lieben frawentag der geburt, | in dem iar nach der geburt Christi vnsers herren. Tausend | fünf hundert vnd zwei vnd zwantzig.” Then follows sheet Y, with six pages of contents. Copies in the Royal Libraries at Dresden, Berlin, and München. Forty-nine editions are specified by Lappenberg in “Ulenspiegel” (pp. 368–378), besides several translations. Pauli, in turn, has borrowed from Eulenspiegel, and that he understood the spirit of the book is plain from a reference he makes to it.