Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639)
Author of The City of the Sun
About the Author
A radical and innovative thinker, Tommaso Campanella lived a stormy life that was characterized by charges of political intrigue, imprisonment, philosophical speculation, poetic inspiration, and the practice of magic. Today he is best known as a political philosopher, author of the famous utopia, show more The City of the Sun (c.1602). Like his contemporary Giordano Bruno, Campanella emerged from the intellectual milieu of the Dominican order in southern Italy with a philosophical orientation that authorities considered heretical and dangerous. Imprisoned at Naples in 1599 (the year before Bruno's execution) on charges of heresy and plotting against Spanish rule, he was not released until 1626. Following another period of imprisonment at Rome and an examination of his views by the Roman Inquisition, he fled Italy in 1634, taking refuge in Paris, where he lived his last years. Before his imprisonment the defense by Bernardino Telesio of a naturalistic, empirically grounded philosophy of nature against the dominant Aristotelianism of the university deeply influenced Campanella. From Telesio he adopted the notions of heat and cold as active principles operative on matter, space, and time as prior to, and independent of, bodies and the concept of spirit as a corporeal power responsible for sensation and distinct from the intellective mind infused into humans by God. These doctrines gave a strongly naturalistic character to Campanella's concept of nature and humankind, but they were combined with an interest in magic that had its origins in ancient Neoplatonism and Hermeticism. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Tommaso Campanella
Der utopische Staat : Morus: Utopia + Campanella: Sonnenstaat + Bacon: Neu-Atlantis (1983) — Author — 47 copies
The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella; Now for the First Time Translated into Rhymed English (2007) 10 copies, 1 review
Opere letterarie 3 copies
Utopias del renacimiento 3 copies
Il supplizio di Tommaso Campanella: narrazioni, documenti, verbali delle torture (1985) — Author — 2 copies
Articuli prophetales 2 copies
Philosophia sensibus demonstrata (Opere complete di Tommaso Campanella) (Latin Edition) (1992) 2 copies
L'ateismo trionfato, overo Riconoscimento filosofico della religione universale contra l'antichristianesmo macchiavelles (2004) 2 copies
1: Scritti letterari 1 copy
事物の感覚と魔術について 1 copy
La citta del sole e Poesie 1 copy
哲学詩集 1 copy
Antiveneti 1 copy
Descriptis Hispania 1 copy
Poems 1 copy
太陽の都市 1 copy
Metafisica. vol. 3 1 copy
Poesie filosofiche 1 copy
Opere 1 copy
Metafisica. vol. 1 1 copy
Metafisica. vol. 2 1 copy
Aforismos políticos 1 copy
La città del sole. Utopia 1 copy
Associated Works
LA CITTA' DEL SOLE & UTOPIA — some editions — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Campanella, Tommaso
- Legal name
- Campanella, Giovanni Domenico (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1568-09-05
- Date of death
- 1639-05-21
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- philosopher
theologian
poet
astrologer - Organizations
- Dominican Order
- Nationality
- Italy
- Birthplace
- Stignano, Reggio di Calabria, Calabria, Italy
- Places of residence
- Calabria, Italy
Paris, France
Rome, Papal States - Associated Place (for map)
- Italy
Members
Reviews
The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella; Now for the First Time Translated into Rhymed English by Michelangelo Buonarroti
[The sonnets of Michael angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella; now for the first time translated into rhymed English] by John Addington Symonds published 1878.
Why should we read theses sonnets now? As historical artefacts they are superb, as a window into two great minds they are incomparable and they are written from the heart. The characters of these two great men shine through and when the mud or the muddle clears then the results can be astonishing.
John Addington Symonds in his show more excellent introduction points out the similarities in the sonnets of these two men, who both lived and worked at the end of the Italian Renaissance; although their lives were very different and did not overlap. Michelangelo 1475-1564 lived during the high renaissance period and was the leading artist of his time. Tommasso Campanella lived at the fag end of the renaissance from 1568 -1639 and spent 25 years in prison in Naples. Addington says that Michelangelo expressed the aspirations of a solitary life dedicated to the service of art, while Campanella gave utterance to a spirit exiled and isolated, misunderstood by those with whom he lived. Both men did not like what they saw around them and neither were afraid to vent their spleen on the ungodly ways of their fellow men. Both found comfort and solace in their love of God. Michelangelo was more comfortable with the catholic religion, but pursued his own course in Platonising christianity. Campanella constructed his own ideas based on God being immanent in nature. Both stood above their era and in a sense aloof from it.
Michelangelo’s sonnets were not published in his lifetime. He wrote them for his friends and for himself, some were scribbled on drawings or contained in letters and many show signs of being reworked. They were collected together and some 59 years after his death Michelangelo the younger published his ancestors poems, however they were in a bowdlerised form. Michelangelo the younger did not want to court controversy with the church and also attempted to smooth out some of the knotty pieces of prosody that he found. He re-wrote portions, finished lines that were started and tried to make more sense of his ancestors thoughts. The results were a mess and it was not until Cesare Guasti’s edition in 1863 that the world could read the poetry more or less in a manner that Michelangelo had intended. Michelangelo’s sonnets express his personal feelings and certainly in the earlier ones his irascible character is much in evidence. In the later poems of which their is a majority here, one can get a sense of his love of Beauty passing beyond it’s personal and specific manifestations to the Universal and impersonal.
“Thus beauty burns not with consuming rage
For so much only of the heavenly light
Inflames our love as finds a fervent heart”
Love of Beauty, Love of Florence and his love of Christ are the three main themes of his poetry.
Campanella a Dominican friar saw nature as a source of Knowledge combined with the intuitive forces of human reason. His philosophical approach to religion came at a time when the Italian states were dogmatically priest-ridden and under the rule of petty tyrants. They had no ear for Campanella’s vociferous outpourings and he was accused of heresy; tortured, crippled and narrowly escaped being burnt alive. He spent 25 years imprisoned in Naples and spent his time writing and attracting around him a number of converts. His prison was at times more like a open house, but one he could not leave. One of his admirers; a German Tobia Adami undertook to publish much of Campanella’s philosophical writings and his poetry. Addington says that his sonnets might be arranged under four headings: philosophical, political, prophetic and personal and I would say that it is his love of God and his zeal that calls for men to change their ways that is the glue that binds them together.
“Born of God’s Wisdom and Philosophy,
Keen lover of true beauty and true good,
I call the vain self-traitorous multitude
Back to my mother’s milk; for it is she,
Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me."
As both sonneteers got more advanced in years then death became an important theme. Many of Michelangelo’s sonnets were written after his 60th year and Campanella must have been in fear of his life during his long sojourn in prison. Both poets looked forward to death with both hope and fear; the hope was that they would be rewarded in heaven; Michelangelo:
"This love, this faith, pure joys for us afford.
Lo, all the lovely things we find on earth,
Resemble for the soul that rightly sees,
That source of bliss divine that gave us birth:
Nor have we first fruits or remembrances
Of heaven elsewhere. Thus, loving loyally,
I rise to God and make death sweet by thee.'
And Campanella
"Make then thine inborn lustre beam and shine
With love of goodness; goodness cannot fail
From God alone let praise immense be thine.
My soul is tired of telling o’er the tale
With men: she calls on thine: she bids thee go
Into God’s school with tablets white as snow."
I found some of the sonnets from both of these ‘amateur’ poets obscure at times. The translation is only part of the problem as it is more inherent in the sonnets themselves. Michelangelo’s thought process are not always easy to follow and he was not a skilled writer of sonnets. A number of sonnets have no clear development of theme and often there are purple patches that do not follow through. Campanella is more logical in his thoughts and can be followed more easily, but he has a tendency to throw in a line or two that seems to jar with the rest of what has gone before, however there are some brilliant sonnets from both men and there are few without some interest.
Symonds translation has attempted to keep the original rhyming scheme and sometimes he has admitted that clear meaning has been sacrificed as a result. The sonnets follow the Petrarchan rhyming scheme with a few variations and so they look tidy and neat on the page and read well. Symonds has also taken the liberty of giving the sonnets a title (they had previously just been numbered) and his selections impose their own meaning onto the sonnet. I found this helpful and do not object to a noted scholar like Symonds giving me some guidance.
There is much to admire in theses sonnets as both men are not afraid to show their feelings. There is passion, there are calls to arms, there is some dejection about the world around them, but there is also hope for the future. If you wish to know how these two exceptional men thought and felt about their world then there is much to learn in these sonnets. Untidy, ragged at times and with a religious bent that might be foreign to our ears, they also sing from the heart and there are individual sonnets that hit their targets. A four star read. show less
Why should we read theses sonnets now? As historical artefacts they are superb, as a window into two great minds they are incomparable and they are written from the heart. The characters of these two great men shine through and when the mud or the muddle clears then the results can be astonishing.
John Addington Symonds in his show more excellent introduction points out the similarities in the sonnets of these two men, who both lived and worked at the end of the Italian Renaissance; although their lives were very different and did not overlap. Michelangelo 1475-1564 lived during the high renaissance period and was the leading artist of his time. Tommasso Campanella lived at the fag end of the renaissance from 1568 -1639 and spent 25 years in prison in Naples. Addington says that Michelangelo expressed the aspirations of a solitary life dedicated to the service of art, while Campanella gave utterance to a spirit exiled and isolated, misunderstood by those with whom he lived. Both men did not like what they saw around them and neither were afraid to vent their spleen on the ungodly ways of their fellow men. Both found comfort and solace in their love of God. Michelangelo was more comfortable with the catholic religion, but pursued his own course in Platonising christianity. Campanella constructed his own ideas based on God being immanent in nature. Both stood above their era and in a sense aloof from it.
Michelangelo’s sonnets were not published in his lifetime. He wrote them for his friends and for himself, some were scribbled on drawings or contained in letters and many show signs of being reworked. They were collected together and some 59 years after his death Michelangelo the younger published his ancestors poems, however they were in a bowdlerised form. Michelangelo the younger did not want to court controversy with the church and also attempted to smooth out some of the knotty pieces of prosody that he found. He re-wrote portions, finished lines that were started and tried to make more sense of his ancestors thoughts. The results were a mess and it was not until Cesare Guasti’s edition in 1863 that the world could read the poetry more or less in a manner that Michelangelo had intended. Michelangelo’s sonnets express his personal feelings and certainly in the earlier ones his irascible character is much in evidence. In the later poems of which their is a majority here, one can get a sense of his love of Beauty passing beyond it’s personal and specific manifestations to the Universal and impersonal.
“Thus beauty burns not with consuming rage
For so much only of the heavenly light
Inflames our love as finds a fervent heart”
Love of Beauty, Love of Florence and his love of Christ are the three main themes of his poetry.
Campanella a Dominican friar saw nature as a source of Knowledge combined with the intuitive forces of human reason. His philosophical approach to religion came at a time when the Italian states were dogmatically priest-ridden and under the rule of petty tyrants. They had no ear for Campanella’s vociferous outpourings and he was accused of heresy; tortured, crippled and narrowly escaped being burnt alive. He spent 25 years imprisoned in Naples and spent his time writing and attracting around him a number of converts. His prison was at times more like a open house, but one he could not leave. One of his admirers; a German Tobia Adami undertook to publish much of Campanella’s philosophical writings and his poetry. Addington says that his sonnets might be arranged under four headings: philosophical, political, prophetic and personal and I would say that it is his love of God and his zeal that calls for men to change their ways that is the glue that binds them together.
“Born of God’s Wisdom and Philosophy,
Keen lover of true beauty and true good,
I call the vain self-traitorous multitude
Back to my mother’s milk; for it is she,
Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me."
As both sonneteers got more advanced in years then death became an important theme. Many of Michelangelo’s sonnets were written after his 60th year and Campanella must have been in fear of his life during his long sojourn in prison. Both poets looked forward to death with both hope and fear; the hope was that they would be rewarded in heaven; Michelangelo:
"This love, this faith, pure joys for us afford.
Lo, all the lovely things we find on earth,
Resemble for the soul that rightly sees,
That source of bliss divine that gave us birth:
Nor have we first fruits or remembrances
Of heaven elsewhere. Thus, loving loyally,
I rise to God and make death sweet by thee.'
And Campanella
"Make then thine inborn lustre beam and shine
With love of goodness; goodness cannot fail
From God alone let praise immense be thine.
My soul is tired of telling o’er the tale
With men: she calls on thine: she bids thee go
Into God’s school with tablets white as snow."
I found some of the sonnets from both of these ‘amateur’ poets obscure at times. The translation is only part of the problem as it is more inherent in the sonnets themselves. Michelangelo’s thought process are not always easy to follow and he was not a skilled writer of sonnets. A number of sonnets have no clear development of theme and often there are purple patches that do not follow through. Campanella is more logical in his thoughts and can be followed more easily, but he has a tendency to throw in a line or two that seems to jar with the rest of what has gone before, however there are some brilliant sonnets from both men and there are few without some interest.
Symonds translation has attempted to keep the original rhyming scheme and sometimes he has admitted that clear meaning has been sacrificed as a result. The sonnets follow the Petrarchan rhyming scheme with a few variations and so they look tidy and neat on the page and read well. Symonds has also taken the liberty of giving the sonnets a title (they had previously just been numbered) and his selections impose their own meaning onto the sonnet. I found this helpful and do not object to a noted scholar like Symonds giving me some guidance.
There is much to admire in theses sonnets as both men are not afraid to show their feelings. There is passion, there are calls to arms, there is some dejection about the world around them, but there is also hope for the future. If you wish to know how these two exceptional men thought and felt about their world then there is much to learn in these sonnets. Untidy, ragged at times and with a religious bent that might be foreign to our ears, they also sing from the heart and there are individual sonnets that hit their targets. A four star read. show less
Utopian Socialism circa 1600 would be Dystopia today
Review of the Loomingu Raamatukogu Kuldsari nr. 3 (May, 2020) reissue of Loomingu Raamatukogu 2005 nr. 15 "Päikeselinn" translated from the Italian original "La città del sole" (The City of the Sun) (1602/2003 Editori Laterza)
Campanella’s The City of the Sun is structured as an interview by a member of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller and a sea captain who relates his observations from his visit to the fictitious titular Utopian city which is described as existing in Taprobane (the Greek 4th Century BC name for the island of Sri Lanka).
From reading the biographical synopsis about Tommaso Campanella or a more extensive one such as at Wikipedia, one is primed to be hopeful that some sort of future seeing vision will be on display in The City of the Sun. Someone who was imprisoned by the Inquisition for decades of their life and who still defiantly persisted in writings such as "A Defense of Galileo" (1616), would surely be an early advocate for human equality and the opposition to dogma and institutions.
Instead, The City of the Sun is a extended projection of Campanella’s own monastic / church views, which include the common property ownership of all women and children, the execution of homosexuals, an element of human sacrifice (a penitence torture ritual that did not necessarily lead to death), human slavery (it is mentioned briefly as the selling of prisoners of war), a eugenical approach to procreation, etc. So, it reads like more of a dystopia to modern readers instead of the supposed utopian vision that was intended.
It was still an interesting historical view to read. The Estonian translation is based on a 2003 Italian edition so it may not be equivalent to other existing translations such as those based on Campanella’s own later Latin versions. I took a quick look at the free version on Project Gutenberg for instance, and the ending is completely different. Loomingu Raamatukogu’s high editorial standards with footnotes and an extensive Afterword were excellent as always.
Trivia and Links
The "LR Golden Series" presents readers with a selection of works published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) throughout the ages. These are favorites from over the past six decades which confirm that the classics never get old! Six books will be published annually, one every two months. - translated from the publisher's website.
The Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) is a modestly priced Estonian literary journal which initially published weekly (from 1957 to 1994) and which now publishes 40 issues a year as of 1995. It is a great source for discovery as its relatively cheap prices (currently 3 to 5€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonian authors themselves. These include poetry, theatre, essays, short stories, novellas and novels (the lengthier works are usually parcelled out over several issues).
For a complete listing of all works issued to date by Loomingu Raamatukogu including those in the Golden Series (at the bottom) see Estonian Wikipedia at: https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomingu_Raamatukogus_ilmunud_teoste_loend_aastak%... show less
Review of the Loomingu Raamatukogu Kuldsari nr. 3 (May, 2020) reissue of Loomingu Raamatukogu 2005 nr. 15 "Päikeselinn" translated from the Italian original "La città del sole" (The City of the Sun) (1602/2003 Editori Laterza)
The philosopher, theologian and poet Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) was undoubtedly one of the most prominent utopians of the Renaissance. The clergyman was accused of heresy and of incitement to rebellion againstshow more
the authorities and was repeatedly punished with both imprisonment and torture. In prison, he pretended to be insane, and thanks to a convincing performance, he escaped execution. The manuscript of the "City of the Sun" was written while in captivity in 1602. It was smuggled out of prison, page by page, under great secrecy.
In his best-known work, Campanella lays out an ideal state whose citizens live in a kind of commune: private property is not known there, all of the work is done together and everyone can hold a profession "in which they have the most talent and inclination". Of course, there has also been criticism of the author's then contemporary view of life and the ways of thinking that prevailed at the time. Campanella hoped that an ideal state like the City of the Sun could be brought to life in practice, and with the help of various efforts, he repeatedly attempted to do so. Although his attempts were doomed to failure, many of his ideas were later developed, setting an example for French revolutionaries as well as the 19th-century positivists and socialists.
This reprint of "Päikeselinn" appears in a newly edited translation and is supplemented with footnotes and an Afterword. - a translation of the Estonian language synopsis.
Campanella’s The City of the Sun is structured as an interview by a member of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller and a sea captain who relates his observations from his visit to the fictitious titular Utopian city which is described as existing in Taprobane (the Greek 4th Century BC name for the island of Sri Lanka).
From reading the biographical synopsis about Tommaso Campanella or a more extensive one such as at Wikipedia, one is primed to be hopeful that some sort of future seeing vision will be on display in The City of the Sun. Someone who was imprisoned by the Inquisition for decades of their life and who still defiantly persisted in writings such as "A Defense of Galileo" (1616), would surely be an early advocate for human equality and the opposition to dogma and institutions.
Instead, The City of the Sun is a extended projection of Campanella’s own monastic / church views, which include the common property ownership of all women and children, the execution of homosexuals, an element of human sacrifice (a penitence torture ritual that did not necessarily lead to death), human slavery (it is mentioned briefly as the selling of prisoners of war), a eugenical approach to procreation, etc. So, it reads like more of a dystopia to modern readers instead of the supposed utopian vision that was intended.
It was still an interesting historical view to read. The Estonian translation is based on a 2003 Italian edition so it may not be equivalent to other existing translations such as those based on Campanella’s own later Latin versions. I took a quick look at the free version on Project Gutenberg for instance, and the ending is completely different. Loomingu Raamatukogu’s high editorial standards with footnotes and an extensive Afterword were excellent as always.
Trivia and Links
The "LR Golden Series" presents readers with a selection of works published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) throughout the ages. These are favorites from over the past six decades which confirm that the classics never get old! Six books will be published annually, one every two months. - translated from the publisher's website.
The Loomingu Raamatukogu (The Creation Library) is a modestly priced Estonian literary journal which initially published weekly (from 1957 to 1994) and which now publishes 40 issues a year as of 1995. It is a great source for discovery as its relatively cheap prices (currently 3 to 5€ per issue) allow for access to a multitude of international writers in Estonian translation and of shorter works by Estonian authors themselves. These include poetry, theatre, essays, short stories, novellas and novels (the lengthier works are usually parcelled out over several issues).
For a complete listing of all works issued to date by Loomingu Raamatukogu including those in the Golden Series (at the bottom) see Estonian Wikipedia at: https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loomingu_Raamatukogus_ilmunud_teoste_loend_aastak%... show less
This book is a curious time capsule. A look at what somebody at the turn of the 17th century might think of as the perfect society, although I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to say how common these views really were. Skimming Campanella's wikipedia page tells me he was imprisoned by the Catholic church, but he did have some co-conspirators, so I guess fringe but still around?
Campanella's communist, theocratic, sexist, eugenicist, "utopian" society of philosopher-warrior-artists strikes show more a modern reader as naive and infantile at best, deeply disgusting at worst, but the depth to which he describes every aspect of this society offers some interest. Unfortunately the material is drier than it needs to be. There are no characters to latch onto, no narrative, nothing about how the narrator felt upon discovering this society, just a long description of how every aspect of it is organized as if a teacher were giving a lecture.
The grand-master he's having a conversation with is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the conversation except a "do please go on, tell me how they do X," every time the story shifts to a new topic. The book would be better without him, because having him there but doing nothing makes the missed opportunity for real argument and conflict (and thus some actual narrative tension) all the more apparent. It's far too obvious that Campanella is simply preaching his personal philosophy to the reader and the grand-master character could've been an excuse to play devil's advocate with a conflicting viewpoint.
For a fun drinking game, take a shot anytime the narrator says, "and so on." If anyone survives the resultant alcohol poisoning and stomach pumping I'd love to hear about it. show less
Campanella's communist, theocratic, sexist, eugenicist, "utopian" society of philosopher-warrior-artists strikes show more a modern reader as naive and infantile at best, deeply disgusting at worst, but the depth to which he describes every aspect of this society offers some interest. Unfortunately the material is drier than it needs to be. There are no characters to latch onto, no narrative, nothing about how the narrator felt upon discovering this society, just a long description of how every aspect of it is organized as if a teacher were giving a lecture.
The grand-master he's having a conversation with is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the conversation except a "do please go on, tell me how they do X," every time the story shifts to a new topic. The book would be better without him, because having him there but doing nothing makes the missed opportunity for real argument and conflict (and thus some actual narrative tension) all the more apparent. It's far too obvious that Campanella is simply preaching his personal philosophy to the reader and the grand-master character could've been an excuse to play devil's advocate with a conflicting viewpoint.
For a fun drinking game, take a shot anytime the narrator says, "and so on." If anyone survives the resultant alcohol poisoning and stomach pumping I'd love to hear about it. show less
[The City of the Sun, Tommaso Campanella]
Published in 1623 over one hundred years later than Thomas More's Utopia this tract gets right down to the business of outlining the social, cultural and political conditions that would be inherent in Campanella's Sun City. It is described as a poetical dialogue between a grandmaster of the knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea Captain and is basically a method for allowing Campanella to produce a blue print for his Utopia. There is no story line it show more is just reportage by the Sea Captain who has visited the land of The City of the Sun. It follows some similar lines to More's Utopia and was plundered unmercifully by John Cleves Symmes in his [Symzonia: A voyage of discovery]
The City of the Sun like many Utopias seems to be a communist state, there is no private ownership and the system aims to provide for everyone according to his/her needs. There is no cult of individualism as everyone subsumes their individuality for the good of the state. There is a system of birth control that ensures healthy, intelligent, astrologically favoured offspring. The people are ruled and judged by those considered the most able to do so and there is no slave labour.
Education is considered of prime importance and the concentric walls that surround the city are painted with murals so that the young can be educated, All knowledge gained is depicted on the walls with explanations and diagrams where necessary, there are also examples of metals, textiles, plants and herbs etc : all that would be required to provide a complete education. Everybody is trained in the martial arts, women as well as men and they are all so proficient that the never lose a war. They have infiltrated the rest of the known world in order to gain knowledge.
This is an extreme Utopia and one where human nature is hardly considered at all and so the surprising thing is Campanella believed it could work. He was a Dominican and known for his prodigious learning, he was also drawn towards astrology and magic. He put himself at the head of a popular uprising and was imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition. He spent 27 years in prison chained hand and foot for the most part and on his release he went to Paris where he made the same proposals for his City of the Sun to Richelieu. He of course never got to put his proposals into practice, but the document that has come down to us today provides us with an entertaining read. I read the version that is free at Project Gutenberg, which is presented in modernised English. Difficult to rate, but because of its readability and historicity; I would rate it at 3.5 stars show less
Published in 1623 over one hundred years later than Thomas More's Utopia this tract gets right down to the business of outlining the social, cultural and political conditions that would be inherent in Campanella's Sun City. It is described as a poetical dialogue between a grandmaster of the knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea Captain and is basically a method for allowing Campanella to produce a blue print for his Utopia. There is no story line it show more is just reportage by the Sea Captain who has visited the land of The City of the Sun. It follows some similar lines to More's Utopia and was plundered unmercifully by John Cleves Symmes in his [Symzonia: A voyage of discovery]
The City of the Sun like many Utopias seems to be a communist state, there is no private ownership and the system aims to provide for everyone according to his/her needs. There is no cult of individualism as everyone subsumes their individuality for the good of the state. There is a system of birth control that ensures healthy, intelligent, astrologically favoured offspring. The people are ruled and judged by those considered the most able to do so and there is no slave labour.
Education is considered of prime importance and the concentric walls that surround the city are painted with murals so that the young can be educated, All knowledge gained is depicted on the walls with explanations and diagrams where necessary, there are also examples of metals, textiles, plants and herbs etc : all that would be required to provide a complete education. Everybody is trained in the martial arts, women as well as men and they are all so proficient that the never lose a war. They have infiltrated the rest of the known world in order to gain knowledge.
This is an extreme Utopia and one where human nature is hardly considered at all and so the surprising thing is Campanella believed it could work. He was a Dominican and known for his prodigious learning, he was also drawn towards astrology and magic. He put himself at the head of a popular uprising and was imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition. He spent 27 years in prison chained hand and foot for the most part and on his release he went to Paris where he made the same proposals for his City of the Sun to Richelieu. He of course never got to put his proposals into practice, but the document that has come down to us today provides us with an entertaining read. I read the version that is free at Project Gutenberg, which is presented in modernised English. Difficult to rate, but because of its readability and historicity; I would rate it at 3.5 stars show less
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