The New Atlantis and The City of the Sun: Two Classic Utopias - Softcover

Bacon, Francis; Campanella, Tomasso

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486430820 ISBN 13: 9780486430829

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2003

Synopsis

Two authors from The Age of Reason and Enlightenment, in keeping with the spirit of their times, envisioned their own philosophical and intellectual utopias. Tomasso Campanella, a Calabrian monk, published The City of the Sun in 1623, and Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis appeared in 1627. Campanella was a student of logic and physics who formulated the first scientifically based socialistic system — one that furnished a model for subsequent ideal communities. Bacon focused on politics and philosophy, emphasizing the duty of the state toward science. Despite the authors' differences in setting and treatment, each of these 17th-century classics mirrors the period's prevailing thought, reflecting the idealism of an age and its revolutionary trends in philosophy.

About this title

From the Publisher

The Philosophical Research Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of assisting thoughtful persons to live more graciously and constructively in a confused and troubled world. The Society is entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control. Dedicated to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems, the Society's program stresses the need for the integration of religion, philosophy, and the science of psychology into one system of instruction. The goal of this instruction is to enable the individual to develop a mature philosophy of life, to recognize his proper responsibilities and opportunities, and to understand and appreciate his place in the unfolding universal pattern.

From the Inside Flap

The New Atlantis by Lord Bacon is one of the most important of the Utopian writings because it envisions the advancements in all branches of learning in the Western Hemisphere. Strangely enough, Plato's description of the ancient Atlantean empire and Bacon's New Atlantis both end suddenly in the middle of a sentence. In 1660 a mysterious person known only as R.H. Esquire attempted to complete Bacon's unfinished book. There was never but one edition of New Atlantis Continued by R.H. Esquire.

This extremely rare literary curiosity belongs in all collections of Elizabethan literature and is invaluable to students of Bacon's writings and the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy.

The new edition is reset for the convenience of the modern reader, but there are no changes except the modernization of spelling and punctuation. The discussion of heraldry is of great interest to those collecting emblem books and cryptographic material in general. Certain errors in pagination may be intentional and pages in which these occur are reproduced in facsimile.

Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, notes that this book is "a great and hardy venture to finish after Lord Verulam's pencil." Sir Edwin During-Lawrence considers this book the most significant of Utopian publications. The volume also contains a poem by George Herbert honoring Lord Bacon. For this publication, Manly P. Hall has provided an introduction suggesting the scope of the work. This edition of New Atlantis Continued is limited to one thousand copies and is likely to be the only printing available to scholars for many years to come.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0486430820
• ISBN 13: 9780486430829
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96