Plato doubtless did well foresee, unless kings themselves would apply their minds to the study of philosophy, that else they would never thoroughly allow the council of philosophers, being themselves before, even from their tender age, infected and corrupt with perverse and evil opinions. Raphael sees himself in the tradition of Plato: he knows that for good governance, kings must act philosophically. More tries to convince Raphael that he could find a good job in a royal court to advise monarchs, but Raphael says that his views are too radical and would not be listened to. He lays most of the problems of theft on the practice of enclosure, the enclosing of common land, and the subsequent poverty and starvation of people who are denied access to land because of sheep farming. He also criticises the use of execution to punish theft by saying that thieves might as well murder whom they rob, to remove witnesses, if the punishment is going to be the same. The first discussions with Raphael allow him to discuss some of the modern ills affecting Europe such as the tendency of kings to start wars and the subsequent loss of money on fruitless endeavours. The first book tells of the traveller Raphael Hythlodaeus, to whom More is introduced in Antwerp, and it also explores the subject of how best to counsel a prince, a popular topic at the time. The letters also explain the lack of widespread travel to Utopia during the first mention of the land, someone had coughed during announcement of the exact longitude and latitude. In the same spirit, the letters also include a specimen of the Utopian alphabet and its poetry. More chose those letters, which are communications between actual people, to further the plausibility of his fictional land. The work begins with written correspondence between Thomas More and several people he had met in Europe: Peter Gilles, town clerk of Antwerp, and Hieronymus van Busleyden, counselor to Charles V.
In the lower left, Raphael describes the island Utopia. Book 1: Dialogue of Counsel Ī woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein, illustrating a 1518 edition. The first edition contained a woodcut map of the island of Utopia, the Utopian alphabet, verses by Pieter Gillis, Gerard Geldenhouwer, and Cornelius Grapheus, and Thomas More's epistle dedicating the work to Gillis. That is something that More himself addresses in an addendum to his book: Wherfore not Utopie, but rather rightely my name is Eutopie, a place of felicitie.
In English, Utopia is pronounced the same as Eutopia (the latter word, in Greek Εὐτοπία, meaning “good place,” contains the prefix εὐ-, "good", with which the οὔ of Utopia has come to be confused in the English pronunciation). In fact, More's very first name for the island was Nusquama, the Latin equivalent of "no-place", but he eventually opted for the Greek-influenced name. In early modern English, Utopia was spelled "Utopie", which is today rendered Utopy in some editions. Utopia is derived from the Greek prefix "ou-" ( οὔ), meaning "not", and topos ( τόπος), "place", with the suffix -iā ( -ίᾱ) that is typical of toponyms the name literally means "nowhere", emphasizing its fictionality. That translates, "A truly golden little book, no less beneficial than entertaining, of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia".
The first created original name was even longer: Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia. About the Best State of a Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia.On the Best Kind of a Republic and About the New Island of Utopia.Concerning the Best Condition of the Commonwealth and the New Island of Utopia.On the Best State of a Commonwealth and on the New Island of Utopia.Concerning the Highest State of the Republic and the New Island Utopia.On the Best State of a Republic and on the New Island of Utopia.It is variously rendered as any of the following: The title De optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia literally translates, "Of a republic's best state and of the new island Utopia".
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