Work · Renaissance & Humanism
The City of the Sun
A dialogue written in prison describing an ideal city ruled by a priest-philosopher, without private property or family, where learning is painted on the walls; published in Latin in 1623.
Introduction
Campanella wrote “The City of the Sun” in Italian in 1602 in a Neapolitan prison, shortly after his sentence; a Latin version, “Civitas Solis”, was published in Frankfurt in 1623 by his German friend Tobias Adami. In the dialogue a Genoese sea captain tells a Knight Hospitaller about a city on an island beneath the equator, laid out in seven concentric walls painted with the whole of knowledge, so that children learn as they walk. It is ruled by a priest called Sol or Metaphysician, with three co-rulers for Power, Wisdom and Love. Goods, dwellings and even procreation are regulated in common; all work is honoured, and the working day is short. Following Plato’s “Republic” and More’s “Utopia”, the book became one of the classic utopias; its regulation of private life has also been read as a model of total control.
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Connections
Builds on
- Republicc. 375 BCE · Plato
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