Beschreibung:

MORE, Sir Thomas (1478-1535). A fruteful and pleasaunt worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called Utopia; written in Latine by Syr Thomas More knyght, and translated into Englyshe by Raphe Robynson . London: Abraham Vele, 1551. Small 8 o (141 x 93 mm). Black letter, woodcut initials and ornaments. (Two tiny holes on S2 touching a few letters, a few inner margin repairs, some very minor marginal soiling, a few marginal dampstains.) Binding : contemporary English dark brown calf, the covers blind-panelled with fillets and roll border, corners with gilt ornaments, gilt Tudor rose surmounted by crown at center on each side, two conjugate leaves from an early English catechism as front flyleaves (front hinge repaired, gilt largely rubbed away from corner and central ornaments, some wear, lacking ties); morocco folding case. See Nixon 14 for similar Tudor rose and crown tools used on a binding for Edward VI by the King Edward and Queen Mary Bindery; also see G.D. Hobson Bindings in Cambridge Libraries , p. 76; R.R. Holmes Specimens of Bookbinding from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle , pl. 8. Provenance : John Lightboune (16th-century signature on final leaf verso) -- Edward Pilkington (late 16th- or early 17th-century signature on title-page) -- Walter Aston (signature and early purchase note below colophon) -- William Laing (inscription "Guil:Laynge scriptoris" signature on G5) -- Arthur Pepwell (ex dono inscription from Laynge and signature on title verso) -- Radulph Rand of Guilford (inscription "Radulphi Rand Guilfordiensis 96 Mar. 25." on upper margin of title) -- Sir William Wheler (bookplate) -- Estelle Doheny (morocco bookplate; purchased from Maggs Bros., London, 11 November 1943) -- donated to SMS 1944. A LARGE FINE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF MORE'S UTOPIA , and the first edition printed in England. More's most famous literary work, a description of an ideal commonwealth, was written in Latin in 1515-16 and first published in Louvain (1516). It was influenced by Plato's Republic , St. Augustine's De civitate Dei , Vespucci's accounts of the New World, and Erasmus's Institutio principis Christiani . Utopia "was written, like Gulliver's Travels , as 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). The earliest English version, translated by Raphe Robinson, was also the first edition printed in England (other latin editions had appeared in Paris [1517] and Basel [1518]). EXTREMELY RARE: The Berland copy (sold Christie's New York, 8 October 2001) and the Prescott copy (sold Christie's New York, 6 February 1981, lot 259) being the only copies offered in the last twenty years. STC 8094. See PMM 47 (Louvain edition). A VERY FINE WIDE-MARGINED COPY.