Beschreibung:

MORE, Sir THOMAS. [Utopia.] Libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip. statu, deque nova insula Utopia. Louvain: Thierry Martens [1516]. 4to, 199 x 137mm. (7 13/16 x 5 3/8in.), early nineteenth-century polished russia gilt by Hering, spine and hinges rubbed, upper inner joint cracked, title with slight abrasions in gutter probably caused by the binder, old dust soiling on title-page and final page, very occasional and unobtrusive smudges elsewhere; modern maroon morocco gilt case. FIRST EDITION. 54 leaves (collation \kp4 a-l4 M6), Roman types and some gothic, marginal notes in gothic and Greek types, 36 lines (variable), full-page woodcut view of Utopia on verso of title, woodcut Utopian alphabet designed by Pieter Gilles on facing page, one 9-line and two 7-line ornamental woodcut initials, full-page woodcut printer's device at end (Davies 97). Gisbon More 1; Nijhoff and Kronenberg 1550; PMM 47; Shaaber M220. EXTREMELY RARE. The most important English contribution to the neo-Latin Renaissance literature heralded by Erasmus. More began his satire during a diplomatic mission to Antwerp in 1515 where he stayed with the humanist Pieter Gilles, Erasmus's close friend. The work was completed in England the following year and More sent it to Erasmus and Gilles with instructions to have it printed. An earlier, working title Nusquama was considered before Utopia (Greek for Nowhere-Land) was chosen. The humanist printer Thierry Martens was engaged, commendatory letters from the Flemish statesman Jerome Busleiden and others were sought, and the woodcut view of Utopia was commissioned from an "eminent artist" who remains unidentified. By 18 November 1516, Erasmus reported that printing was under way and Lord Mountjoy, his patron, received a presentation copy at Tournai on 4 January 1517. "Utopia...was written...as a tract for the times, to rub in the lesson of Erasmus; it inveighs against the new statesmanship of all-powerful autocracy and the new economics of large enclosures and the destruction of the old common-field agriculture, just as it pleads for religious tolerance and universal education. In this it is a work of reaction rather than progress....In Utopia More is concerned to show that the old, medieval institutes, if freed from abuse, are the best, not the new theoretic reforms, which he justly feared....Utopia is not, as often imagined, More's ideal state: it exemplifies only the virtues of wisdom, fortitude, temperance and justice. It reflects the moral poverty of the states which More knew, whose Christian rulers should possess also the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity."-- Printing and the Mind of Man. Provenance : Extensive neat ink underlinings in text, probably 16th century -- Extensive neat ink marginal notes (mostly single names or abbreviations), in an English 17th-century hand -- Richard Heber (1773-1833), note of price paid (£1.7s.6d) and Hering's binding charge (9s.) on front free endpage (his sale, part IX, Sotheby, 11 April etc. 1836, lot 2008) -- Unidentified ink annotation at foot of final page: "No. 8 Dec r . 2 78" -- "J.S. Hall & Amicorum", printed book label on upper pastedown -- Bertram, Fourth Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), red shelfmark on upper pastedown (sale, Sotheby, 6 December 1897 etc., lot 2653) -- Spencer Compton, 8th Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth Library, armorial bookplate (sale, The 10th Duke of Devonshire's Charitable Trust, Christie's London, 24 February 1982, lot 615).