The English Utopias I Early Modern Fantasies The

The English Utopias I. Early Modern Fantasies The Birth of English Utopia: Thomas More

Dates 1475: first book in English 1509 -1547: rule of Henry VIII 1526: first printed English Bible (Worms, Germany) – by W. Tyndale 1533 -1540: separation from Rome 1547 -1553: rule of Edward VI 1553 -1558: Mary I (Bloody Mary) 1478: birth of Thomas More 1516: Utopia first published 1517: entering King’s service 1529: Lord Chancellor 1532: Confutation of Tyndale's Answer 1534: refusal to take the oath 1535: trial and execution

Editions The 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 1516 Louvain 1517 Paris 1518 Basel 1524 Basel, German translation (only Book II) 1548 Venice, Italian translation (Italy-criticism) 1551 Paris, French translation 1559 Lyon, French translation 1585 Paris, French translation of Book II only BM: Suppressing of poliphony; no place for a religion based on reason Balázs Mihály, „Thomas Morus és Jacobus Palaeologus, ” in Boros Gábor szerk. , Reneszánsz Filozófia (Budapest: NMFT, Tudástársadalom Alapítvány, 2009), 113 -134. (NMFT Közlemények 4. , Világosságkönyvek 4. )

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]