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Utopia: written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum. To this edition is added, a short account of Sir Thomas More’s life and his trial

Utopia: written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum. To this edition is added, a short account of Sir Thomas More’s life and his trial

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Utopia: written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum. To this edition is added, a short account of Sir Thomas More’s life and his trial

by More,Sir Thomas

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About This Item

Small octavo, contemporary pale calf, double rule to covers, red morocco label lettered gilt, crest gilt on spine, five raised bands, pp.xxviii, 140, two leaves misbound, engraved armorial bookplate of the Earls of Drogheda, a fine copy.

See Printing & the Mind of Man, 47 [first edition Louvain 1516]. Not in Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books, Cambridge University Library.

FIRST DUBLIN PRINTING OF SIR THOMAS MORE'S UTOPIA.

Thomas More's Utopia is a work of satire, indirectly criticizing Europe's political corruption and religious hypocrisy. In Utopia the Utopians have eliminated wealth, the nobility, private property, and currency. Labour and goods are distributed equally. Property is held in common. Everyone works the same hours and even though the rulers are exempt from public labour, they work to set a good example for the others. Work hours are equally distributed and there are no monasteries, convents, alehouses, or academies wherein an individual might withdraw from the rest of society. All Utopians are socially productive.

It was to have a lasting impact on subsequent political thought and literature. It has inspired a diverse group of political thinkers from Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarians to Karl Marx and communism.

Utopiawas first published in Louvain in 1516 in latin; it was translated into English by Raphe Robinson and first published in English in 1551. A more commonly known English translation of the text is that of Gilbert Burnet, produced in 1684 and reprinted here in this first Dublin printing. Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, said of Robinson's translation: 'It was once translated into English not long after it was written; and I was once apt to think it might have been done by Sir Thomas More himself: For as it is in the English of his Age, and not unlike his Style; so the Translator has taken a Liberty that seems too great for any but the Author himself, who is Master of his own Book, and so may leave out or alter his Original as he pleases; Which is more than a Translator ought to do, I am sure it is more than I have presumed to do.'

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Details

Bookseller
Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books GB (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #
biblio37
Title
Utopia: written in Latin by Sir Thomas More, Chancellor of England. Translated into English by Gilbert Burnet, late Bishop of Sarum. To this edition is added, a short account of Sir Thomas More’s life and his trial
Author
More,Sir Thomas
Book Condition
Used - Good
Quantity Available
1
Publisher
R.Reilly, for G.Risk, G.Ewing, and W.Smith
Place of Publication
Dublin
Date Published
1737

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About the Seller

Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2014
Norwich, Norfolk

About Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books

Obituary: Book dealer Hamish Riley-Smith (1941-2020), as published in The Antique Trade Gazette
Rare book specialist Hamish Riley-Smith, who died on August 10, did not originally intend to become a dealer.
He went to Trinity College Dublin, where he read economics and met our mother Brigitta (Gita) von Wagner. He planned to work in the family brewing business, John Smith's, and spent seven years learning the craft at Whitbread's. But after all the family interest in John Smith's was sold in 1972, he looked for a new career.
In 1974 he started Hamish Riley-Smith Rare Books. He had no formal training in the book business, other than an acute awareness of business and a degree in economics. He started, in his own words, as a runner, taking one book to another dealer and making a small margin.
Hamish quickly realised this was not for him and started to focus on Arabic and economic books and the social sciences. Through knowledge and research he built up a strong and friendly working relationship with the Japanese, travelling to Japan often. He also traded in Arabia, the US and Europe.
Sacks of catalogues
We can remember how sacks of catalogues would leave the house and go off to museums and institutions across the world, and answers would come back via telex. This was a world before the internet, mobile phones and faxes and computers were only just coming in.
Among his proudest sales were the 14th century Qur'an manuscript of Mameluk Sultan Al Malik Al Nasir Muhammad (pictured here); The Papers of Sir Roy Harrod; The library of Sir John Hicks; The Betjeman Library; typescript/manuscript of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractus Logico Philosophicus; The Felibriges Library of Musée Theodore Aubanel, Avignon; as well as collections of Isaac Newton; John Locke; Thomas Hobbes; Shakespeare; William Petty; Robert Owen and Adam Smith.
He was resolute in his independence and had many friends and colleagues in the book business, but he never did a book fair ("I am not a book fairy") and refused to join any trade associations.
He will be remembered by the family as a loving husband, father and grandfather, and a great source of fun and interest; for Hamish, above all, family came first. His business will continue to be run by his wife Gita and two sons, Damian, director of Paragraph Publishing, and Crispian, director of Crispian Riley-Smith Fine Arts Ltd.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Calf
Calf or calf hide is a common form of leather binding. Calf binding is naturally a light brown but there are ways to treat the...
Raised Band(s)
Raised bands refer to the ridges that protrude slightly from the spine on leather bound books. The bands are created in the...
Morocco
Morocco is a style of leather book binding that is usually made with goatskin, as it is durable and easy to dye. (see also...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Leaves
Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
Gilt
The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Bookplate
Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
Octavo
Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...

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