MORE (Thomas) - Lot 101

Lot 101
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100 - 150 EUR
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MORE (Thomas) - Lot 101
MORE (Thomas) The Idea of a Happy Republic, or the Utopia of Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Containing a plan for a republic whose laws, practices, and customs are aimed solely at bringing happiness to the societies that follow them. Translated into French by Mr. Gueudeville, and enriched with intaglio engravings. Paris, l’Honoré, 1730. In-8; illustrated with 16 separate engravings (including a frontispiece) and a vignette on the title page. Minor pitting. Contemporary marbled fawn calfskin, smooth decorated spine, split bands, rounded edges and corners, top cap torn off, bottom cap trimmed, scuffs and normal wear, gilt wheel on edges, red edges. In this work, written in the form of a dialogue with a narrator—the explorer Raphael Hythloday—Thomas MORE advocates tolerance and discipline in the service of freedom, through the portrayal of an imaginary world that closely resembles the author’s ideal. More describes the island of Utopia, a shining counterpoint to the England of his time. Like that of Plato’s Republic, the Utopian economy is based on collective ownership of the means of production and the absence of commercial trade. This society, composed of some fifty cities managed in a similar manner, lives without money, and collective exchange takes the place of private accumulation, which in England is the cause of the people’s misfortunes.
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