The English Utopias I.Early Modern Fantasies

The Birth of English Utopia: Thomas More

Dates1475: first book in English1509-1547: rule of Henry VIII1526: first printed English

Bible (Worms, Germany) – by W. Tyndale

1533-1540: separation from Rome

1547-1553: rule of Edward VI1553-1558: Mary I (Bloody

Mary)

1478: birth of Thomas More1516: Utopia first published1517: entering King’s service1529: Lord Chancellor1532: Confutation of

Tyndale's Answer1534: refusal to take the

oath1535: trial and execution

EditionsThe first five editions of More’s Utopia came out in Louvain, Paris, Basel and Florence from 1516 to 1519; there was no printing of the Latin original in England until 1663 and Scotland until 1750; of More’s Latin writings, only his Epistola ad Brixium in 1520 and his Responsio ad Lutherum in 1523 (twice) issued from an English press.

Lotte Hellinga and J. B. Trapp eds. The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Vol. III. 1400-1557 (Cambridge: CUP, 1999), 290.

Editions/Translations

Balázs Mihály, „Thomas Morus és Jacobus Palaeologus,” in Boros Gábor szerk., Reneszánsz Filozófia (Budapest: NMFT, Tudástársadalom Alapítvány, 2009), 113-134. (NMFT Közlemények 4., Világosság-könyvek 4.)

1516 Louvain1517 Paris1518 Basel

1524 Basel, German translation (only Book II)

1548 Venice, Italian translation (Italy-criticism)

1551 Paris, French translation1559 Lyon, French translation1585 Paris, French translation of Book II only

BM: Suppressing of poliphony;

no place for a religion based on reason

Title Page – Louvain edition

Utopian Alphabet

Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)

Hierarchy

governor [princeps]chief magistrate, elected by the phylarchs

tranibor(1/15 phylarchs)

Phylarch/syphogrants(200 - 1/30 household)

household[familia]