More Publishes Utopia

1516

The English humanist Thomas More, writing in elegant Latin, described an imaginary island commonwealth where property was held in common, priests married, and gold served as chamber pots. Printed in Louvain, Utopia gave its readers a word for ideal impossibility and a sly critique of Tudor England. The book's deliberate ambiguity has made it one of the most debated texts in the history of political thought.