Utopia.: Written in Latin: Translated into English.

London: for Richard Chiswell,, 1684. Utopia for the North Atlantic Enlightenment First edition of Gilbert Burnet's translation, the second translation into English following Raphe Robinson's in 1556. "Burnet's edition quickly became the definitive version of the text" (Withington, p. 307). Utopia, first published in Latin in 1516, sets out an ideal political society, a representative democracy governed by philosophically minded magistrates. It was "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" (PMM). Robinson's Tudor translation was republished in 1596, 1624, and 1639. It was a loose translation - Burnet's rendition was far more exact, and met with much success. "It was a significant moment in the history of Utopia... two versions were published in 1684, followed by a third in 1685; and after 1700 it became the base text for editions of Utopia published in Dublin (1737, 1747), Glasgow (1743, 1762), Edinburgh (1743), and Oxford (1751, 1753) as well as London (1785). Likewise, Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of The Declaration of Independence, owned not only a Latin edition of Utopia (Cologne, 1555) but also Robert Foulis's 1743 edition of Burnet's translation. Put simply, Burnet translated Utopia for the North Atlantic Enlightenment" (Withington, p. 307). Octavo (171 x 108 mm ). Nineteenth-century vellum, spine with black calf label and dated in gilt at foot, covers panelled in gilt, marbled endpapers. Nineteenth-century bookplate of "Lewis Way" under Way family arms and motto, possibly the owner of Stansted Park in West Sussex (1772-1840). Bound without initial and final blanks. Front joint neatly restored. A few trivial specks of wear at extremities, vellum faintly soiled, contents a little browned, light worming in outer margin not affecting text, repaired tear to N7 into text without loss. A very good copy. Gibson 30; Pforzheimer 742; Printing and the Mind of Man 47 (for 1516 edition); Sabin 50546. Phil Withington, "Utopia and Gilbert Burnet in 1684", in Cathy Shrank & Phil Withington, eds., Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia, 2023