Utopia ( book ) - wikipedia Utopia ( book ) For other written works, see Utopia ( disambiguation ). Utopia Illustration for the 1516 first edition of Utopia. Author Thomas More Original title Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia Translator Ralph Robinson Gilbert Burnet Illustrator Ambrosius Holbein Country Habsburg Netherlands Language Latin Genre political philosophy, satire Publisher More Publication date 1516 Published in English 1551 Media type Print Pages 359 OCLC 863744174 Dewey Decimal 335.02 LC Class HX810. 5. E54 Preceded by A Merry Jest Followed by Latin Poems Utopia ( Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia ) is a work of fiction and socio - political satire by Thomas More ( 1478 -- 1535 ) published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More 's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries. Contents 1 Title 2 Contents 2.1 Preliminary matter 2.2 Book 1 : Dialogue of Counsel 2.3 Book 2 : Discourse on Utopia 3 Interpretation 4 Reception 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Title The title De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia literally translates, `` Of a republic 's best state and of the new island Utopia ''. It is variously rendered as any of the following : De optimo rei publicæ deque nova insula Utopia Standard English Translations On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia Concerning the Highest State of the Republic and the New Island Utopia On the Best State of a Commonwealth and on the New Island of Utopia Concerning the Best Condition of the Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia On the Best Kind of a Republic and About the New Island of Utopia About the Best State of a Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia The original name was even longer : Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia. This translates, `` A truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic 's best state and of the new island Utopia ''. `` Utopia '' is derived from the Greek prefix `` ou - '' ( οὐ ), meaning `` not '', and topos ( τόπος ), `` place '', with the suffix - iā ( - ία ) that is typical of toponyms ; hence the name literally means `` nowhere '', emphasizing its fictionality. In early modern English, Utopia was spelled `` Utopie '', which is today rendered Utopy in some editions. A common misunderstanding has that `` Utopia '' is derived from eu - ( eὐ ), `` good '', and `` topos '', such that it would literally translate as `` good place ''. In English, Utopia is pronounced exactly as Eutopia ( the latter word, in Greek Εὐτοπία ( Eutopiā ), meaning `` good place, '' contains the prefix εὐ - ( eu - ), `` good '', with which the οὐ of Utopia has come to be confused in the English pronunciation ). This is something that More himself addresses in an addendum to his book Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely my name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie. Contents Preliminary matter The first edition contained a woodcut map of the island of Utopia, the Utopian alphabet, verses by Pieter Gillis, Gerard Geldenhouwer, and Cornelius Grapheus, and Thomas More 's epistle dedicating the work to Gillis. Book 1 : dialogue of counsel A woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein, illustrating a 1518 edition. In the lower left, Raphael describes the island Utopia. The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met on the continent : Peter Gilles, town clerk of Antwerp, and Hieronymus van Busleyden, counselor to Charles V. More chose these letters, which are communications between actual people, to further the plausibility of his fictional land. In the same spirit, these letters also include a specimen of the Utopian alphabet and its poetry. The letters also explain the lack of widespread travel to Utopia ; during the first mention of the land, someone had coughed during announcement of the exact longitude and latitude. The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp, and it also explores the subject of how best to counsel a prince, a popular topic at the time. The first discussions with Raphael allow him to discuss some of the modern ills affecting Europe such as the tendency of kings to start wars and the subsequent loss of money on fruitless endeavours. He also criticises the use of execution to punish theft, saying thieves might as well murder whom they rob, to remove witnesses, if the punishment is going to be the same. He lays most of the problems of theft on the practice of enclosure -- the enclosing of common land -- and the subsequent poverty and starvation of people who are denied access to land because of sheep farming. More tries to convince Raphael that he could find a good job in a royal court, advising monarchs, but Raphael says that his views are too radical and would n't be listened to. Raphael sees himself in the tradition of Plato : he knows that for good governance, kings must act philosophically. He, however, points out that : `` Plato doubtless did well foresee, unless kings themselves would apply their minds to the study of philosophy, that else they would never thoroughly allow the council of philosophers, being themselves before, even from their tender age, infected and corrupt with perverse and evil opinions. '' More seems to contemplate the duty of philosophers to work around and in real situations and, for the sake of political expediency, work within flawed systems to make them better, rather than hoping to start again from first principles. ``... for in courts they will not bear with a man 's holding his peace or conniving at what others do : a man must barefacedly approve of the worst counsels and consent to the blackest designs, so that he would pass for a spy, or, possibly, for a traitor, that did but coldly approve of such wicked practices '' Book 2 : discourse on Utopia Map by Ortelius, ca. 1595. Utopia is placed in the New World and More links Raphael 's travels in with Amerigo Vespucci 's real life voyages of discovery. He suggests that Raphael is one of the 24 men Vespucci, in his Four Voyages of 1507, says he left for six months at Cabo Frio, Brazil. Raphael then travels further and finds the island of Utopia, where he spends five years observing the customs of the natives. According to More, the island of Utopia is ``... two hundred miles across in the middle part, where it is widest, and nowhere much narrower than this except towards the two ends, where it gradually tapers. These ends, curved round as if completing a circle five hundred miles in circumference, make the island crescent - shaped, like a new moon. '' The island was originally a peninsula but a 15 - mile wide channel was dug by the community 's founder King Utopos to separate it from the mainland. The island contains 54 cities. Each city is divided into four equal parts. The capital city, Amaurot, is located directly in the middle of the crescent island. Each city has not more 6000 households, each family consisting of between 10 and 16 adults. Thirty households are grouped together and elect a Syphograntus ( whom More says is now called a phylarchus ). Every ten Syphogranti have an elected Traniborus ( more recently called a protophylarchus ) ruling over them. The 200 Syphogranti of a city elect a Prince in a secret ballot. The Prince stays for life unless he is deposed or removed for suspicion of tyranny. People are re-distributed around the households and towns to keep numbers even. If the island suffers from overpopulation, colonies are set up on the mainland. Alternatively, the natives of the mainland are invited to be part of these Utopian colonies, but if they dislike them and no longer wish to stay they may return. In the case of under - population the colonists are re-called. There is no private property on Utopia, with goods being stored in warehouses and people requesting what they need. There are also no locks on the doors of the houses, and the houses are rotated between the citizens every ten years. Agriculture provides the most important occupation on the island. Every person is taught it and must live in the countryside, farming for two years at a time, with women doing the same work as men. Parallel to this, every citizen must learn at least one of the other essential trades : weaving ( mainly done by the women ), carpentry, metalsmithing and masonry. There is deliberate simplicity about these trades ; for instance, all people wear the same types of simple clothes and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. All able - bodied citizens must work ; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the working day can be minimised : the people only have to work six hours a day ( although many willingly work for longer ). More does allow scholars in his society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens, however, are encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time. Slavery is a feature of Utopian life and it is reported that every household has two slaves. The slaves are either from other countries or are the Utopian criminals. These criminals are weighed down with chains made out of gold. The gold is part of the community wealth of the country, and fettering criminals with it or using it for shameful things like chamber pots gives the citizens a healthy dislike of it. It also makes it difficult to steal as it is in plain view. The wealth, though, is of little importance and is only good for buying commodities from foreign nations or bribing these nations to fight each other. Slaves are periodically released for good behaviour. Jewels are worn by children, who finally give them up as they mature. Other significant innovations of Utopia include : a welfare state with free hospitals, euthanasia permissible by the state, priests being allowed to marry, divorce permitted, premarital sex punished by a lifetime of enforced celibacy and adultery being punished by enslavement. Meals are taken in community dining halls and the job of feeding the population is given to a different household in turn. Although all are fed the same, Raphael explains that the old and the administrators are given the best of the food. Travel on the island is only permitted with an internal passport and any people found without a passport are, on a first occasion, returned in disgrace, but after a second offence they are placed in slavery. In addition, there are no lawyers and the law is made deliberately simple, as all should understand it and not leave people in any doubt of what is right and wrong. There are several religions on the island : moon - worshipers, sun - worshipers, planet - worshipers, ancestor - worshipers and monotheists, but each is tolerant of the others. Only atheists are despised ( but allowed ) in Utopia, as they are seen as representing a danger to the state : since they do not believe in any punishment or reward after this life, they have no reason to share the communistic life of Utopia, and will break the laws for their own gain. They are not banished, but are encouraged to talk out their erroneous beliefs with the priests until they are convinced of their error. Raphael says that through his teachings Christianity was beginning to take hold in Utopia. The toleration of all other religious ideas is enshrined in a universal prayer all the Utopians recite. ``... but, if they are mistaken, and if there is either a better government, or a religion more acceptable to God, they implore His goodness to let them know it. '' Wives are subject to their husbands and husbands are subject to their wives although women are restricted to conducting household tasks for the most part. Only few widowed women become priests. While all are trained in military arts, women confess their sins to their husbands once a month. Gambling, hunting, makeup and astrology are all discouraged in Utopia. The role allocated to women in Utopia might, however, have been seen as being more liberal from a contemporary point of view. Utopians do not like to engage in war. If they feel countries friendly to them have been wronged, they will send military aid, but they try to capture, rather than kill, enemies. They are upset if they achieve victory through bloodshed. The main purpose of war is to achieve that which, if they had achieved already, they would not have gone to war over. Privacy is not regarded as freedom in Utopia ; taverns, ale - houses and places for private gatherings are non-existent for the effect of keeping all men in full view, so that they are obliged to behave well. Interpretation One of the most troublesome questions about Utopia is Thomas More 's reason for writing it. Most scholars see it as a comment on or criticism of 16th century Catholicism, for the evils of More 's day are laid out in Book I and in many ways apparently solved in Book II. Indeed, Utopia has many of the characteristics of satire, and there are many jokes and satirical asides such as how honest people are in Europe, but these are usually contrasted with the simple, uncomplicated society of the Utopians. Yet, the puzzle is that some of the practices and institutions of the Utopians, such as the ease of divorce, euthanasia and both married priests and female priests, seem to be polar opposites of More 's beliefs and the teachings of the Catholic Church of which he was a devout member. Another often cited apparent contradiction is that of the religious tolerance of Utopia contrasted with his persecution of Protestants as Lord Chancellor. Similarly, the criticism of lawyers comes from a writer who, as Lord Chancellor, was arguably the most influential lawyer in England. It can be answered, however, that as a pagan society Utopians had the best ethics that could be reached through reason alone, or that More changed from his early life to his later when he was Lord Chancellor. One highly influential interpretation of Utopia is that of intellectual historian Quentin Skinner. He has argued that More was taking part in the Renaissance humanist debate over true nobility, and that he was writing to prove the perfect commonwealth could not occur with private property. Crucially, Skinner sees Raphael Hythlodaeus as embodying the Platonic view that philosophers should not get involved in politics, while the character of More embodies the more pragmatic Ciceronian view. Thus the society Raphael proposes is the ideal More would want. But without communism, which he saw no possibility of occurring, it was wiser to take a more pragmatic view. Quentin Skinner 's interpretation of Utopia is consistent with the speculation that Stephen Greenblatt made in The Swerve : How the World Became Modern. There, Greenblatt argued that More was under the Epicurean influence of Lucretius 's On the Nature of Things and the people that live in Utopia were an example of how pleasure has become their guiding principle of life. Although Greenblatt acknowledged that More 's insistence on the existence of an afterlife and punishment for people holding contrary views were inconsistent with the essentially materialist view of Epicureanism, Greenblatt contended that it was the minimum conditions for what the pious More would have considered as necessary to live a happy life. Another complication comes from the Greek meaning of the names of people and places in the work. Apart from Utopia, meaning `` Noplace, '' several other lands are mentioned : Achora meaning `` Nolandia '', Polyleritae meaning `` Muchnonsense '', Macarenses meaning `` Happiland, '' and the river Anydrus meaning `` Nowater ''. Raphael 's last name, Hythlodaeus means `` dispenser of nonsense '' surely implying that the whole of the Utopian text is ' nonsense '. Additionally the Latin rendering of More 's name, Morus, is similar to the word for a fool in Greek ( μωρός ). It is unclear whether More is simply being ironic, an in - joke for those who know Greek, seeing as the place he is talking about does not actually exist or whether there is actually a sense of distancing of Hythlodaeus ' and the More 's ( `` Morus '' ) views in the text from his own. The name Raphael, though, may have been chosen by More to remind his readers of the archangel Raphael who is mentioned in the Book of Tobit ( 3 : 17 ; 5 : 4, 16 ; 6 : 11, 14, 16, 18 ; also in chs. 7, 8, 9, 11, 12 ). In that book the angel guides Tobias and later cures his father of his blindness. While Hythlodaeus may suggest his words are not to be trusted, Raphael meaning ( in Hebrew ) `` God has healed '' suggests that Raphael may be opening the eyes of the reader to what is true. The suggestion that More may have agreed with the views of Raphael is given weight by the way he dressed ; with `` his cloak... hanging carelessly about him '' ; a style which Roger Ascham reports that More himself was wont to adopt. Furthermore, more recent criticism has questioned the reliability of both Gile 's annotations and the character of `` More '' in the text itself. Claims that the book only subverts Utopia and Hythlodaeus are possibly oversimplistic. Reception Utopia was begun while More was an envoy in the Low Countries in May 1515. More started by writing the introduction and the description of the society which would become the second half of the work and on his return to England he wrote the `` dialogue of counsel '', completing the work in 1516. In the same year, it was printed in Leuven under Erasmus 's editorship and after revisions by More it was printed in Basel in November 1518. It was not until 1551, sixteen years after More 's execution, that it was first published in England as an English translation by Ralph Robinson. Gilbert Burnet 's translation of 1684 is probably the most commonly cited version. The work seems to have been popular, if misunderstood : the introduction of More 's Epigrams of 1518 mentions a man who did not regard More as a good writer. The eponymous title Utopia has since eclipsed More 's original story and the term is now commonly used to describe an idyllic, imaginary society. Although he may not have directly founded the contemporary notion of what has since become known as Utopian and dystopian fiction, More certainly popularised the idea of imagined parallel realities, and some of the early works which owe a debt to Utopia must include The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella, Description of the Republic of Christianopolis by Johannes Valentinus Andreae, New Atlantis by Francis Bacon and Candide by Voltaire. The politics of Utopia have been seen as influential to the ideas of Anabaptism and communism. While utopian socialism was used to describe the first concepts of socialism, later Marxist theorists tended to see the ideas as too simplistic and not grounded on realistic principles. The religious message in the work and its uncertain, possibly satiric, tone has also alienated some theorists from the work. An applied example of More 's Utopia can be seen in Vasco de Quiroga 's implemented society in Michoacán, Mexico, which was directly inspired by More 's work. During the opening scene in the film A Man for all Seasons, Utopia is referenced in a conversation. The alleged amorality of England 's priests is compared to that of the more highly principled behaviour of the fictional priests in More 's Utopia, when a character observes wryly that `` every second person born in England is fathered by a priest. '' References Jump up ^ J.C. Davis ( 28 July 1983 ). Utopia and the Ideal Society : A Study of English Utopian Writing 1516 -- 1700. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 27551 - 4. Jump up ^ `` utopia : definition of utopia in Oxford dictionary ( American English ) ( US ) ''. Jump up ^ `` Online Etymology Dictionary ''. Jump up ^ http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog.htm. Jump up ^ More 's Utopia : The English Translation thereof by Raphe Robynson. second edition, 1556, in `` Eutopism ''. `` Felicitie '' means `` happiness '' ( see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=felicity ) Jump up ^ Paniotova, Taissia Sergeevna ( 2016 ). `` The Real and The Fantastic in Utopia by Thomas More ''. Valla. 2 ( 4 - 5 ) : 48 -- 54. ISSN 2412 - 9674. Jump up ^ More, Thomas ( 2002 ). George M. Logan and Robert M. Adams ( eds. ), ed. Utopia. Raymond Geuss and Quentin Skinner ( series eds. ) ( Revised ed. ). New York : Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 - 521 - 81925 - 3. CS1 maint : Extra text : editors list ( link ) ^ Jump up to : Manuel and Manuel. Utopian Thought in the Western World. Jump up ^ Pagden. The Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe. pp. 123 -- 157. ^ Jump up to : Greenblatt, Stephen. `` Chapter 10 : Swerves ''. The Swerve : How the World Became Modern. Further reading More, Thomas ( 1516 / 1967 ), `` Utopia '', trans. John P. Dolan, in James J. Greene and John P. Dolan, edd., The Essential Thomas More, New York : New American Library. Sullivan, E.D.S. ( editor ) ( 1983 ) The Utopian Vision : Seven Essays on the Quincentennial of Sir Thomas More San Diego State University Press, San Diego, California, ISBN 0 - 916304 - 51 - 5 External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Utopia ( book ). Wikisource has original text related to this article : Utopia Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article : Utopia The Open Utopia A complete edition ( including all of the letters and commendations, as well as the marginal notes, that were included in the first four printings of 1516 -- 18 ) translated in 2012. Licensed as Creative Commons BY - SA and published in multiple electronic formats ( HTML, PDF, TXT, ODF, EPUB, and as a Social Book ). English translation of Utopia by Gilbert Burnet at Project Gutenberg Utopia public domain audiobook at LibriVox Thomas More and his Utopia by Karl Kautsky Andre Schuchardt : Freiheit und Knechtschaft. Die dystopische Utopia des Thomas Morus. Eine Kritik am besten Staat `` Utopia ''. The American Cyclopædia. 1879. Utopia -- Images photocopied the 1518 edition of Utopia, from the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library Utopia 2016, a commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the book centered in London. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Utopia_(book)&oldid=851651040 '' Categories : 1516 books Books by Thomas More Books in political philosophy 16th - century Latin books Utopian fiction Utopian novels 1516 in England 1516 in the Habsburg Netherlands Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Extra text : editors list EngvarB from September 2013 Use dmy dates from September 2013 Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2009 Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from The American Cyclopaedia Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from The American Cyclopaedia with a Wikisource reference Talk More Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource বাংলা Bosanski Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Frysk 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Latina Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська 中文 28 more Edit links This page was last edited on 23 July 2018, at 18 : 10 ( UTC ). 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Question: what was described in the renaissance publication utopia
Answer: a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs