From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

19. Saint Thomas More. Thomae Mori, Angliae ornamenti eximij, lucubrationes.
Basel: Nicolaus Episcopius, 1563.
Printed in 1563 by Froben’s grandson, Nicolaus Episcopius (1501–1564), this Basel edition was the
first to print More’s collected Latin works. it proved to be the catalyst for the production of other
Latin editions, with four editions being published in Louvain between 1565 and 1566. The edition
on display is notable for a new map of the fictional land which, although similar to that depicted in
the November 1518 edition, subtly changes the size of the island and the marginal details.
On loan from the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, Victoria University in the University of Toronto
20. Saint Thomas More. The Commonwealth of Utopia. London: B. Alsop & T.
Fawcet, 1639.
Many of the Latin and vernacular editions include letters to Pieter Gillis and Erasmus, the Utopian
alphabet, woodcut maps of the island, and poems. Though not the most famous of the English
editions of Utopia, this edition of 1639 is notable for its exclusion of paratext. it consists of the
translation of the 1551 edition of Utopia by Ralph Robinson (b. 1521), and a dedicatory epistle to
Cresacre More (1572–1649), More’s great-grandson, by the printer Bernard Alsop. This edition is
also noteworthy as the first edition to refer to Utopia as a commonwealth, in contrast to previous
English editions which has described it as ‘the best state of a publicke weale.’
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