355. LA CITTX DEL SOLE; DIALOGO POETIOO. THE CITY OF THE SUN; A POETICAL DIALOGUE.
University of California Press; Berkeley, 1981. Trans, from Italian with notes by Daniel J. Donno.
(First published as Civitas Solis, in Realis Philosophiae Epilogisticae Partes Quatuor, 1623)
The present translation is the first full translation into English, the earlier versions of Thomas W. Halliday and William J. Gilstrap both being abridged. While both Halliday and Gilstrap used the Latin edition cited, Donno has translated the original Italian manuscript, which was written in 1602, but was not published until 1904. Italian and English are printed on facing pages.
* An ideal state in which communism and pragmatism are pushed to extreme degrees; a heavy emphasis on the role of science anticipates Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis.
# The work, which is short, consists of a dialogue between a Genoese sea captain and a grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, in which the Genoese describes his experiences,
* Shipwrecked on the coast of Taprobane (probably Ceylon, less likely, Sumatra), he makes his way through the jungle to the remarkable City of the Sun. Set on a hill, about two miles across, it is built in concentric circles, with the Temple in the center. Established by fugitives from India perhaps six or seven hundred years earlier, it has been planned and operated on a rational basis. The land is ruled by an elected life-time executive or king called the Ho, Under him are three great ministers, Power, Wisdom, and Love, each of whom heads an organization and controls aspects of the state. Power is concerned with war; Wisdom, with science and education; and Love, with food, clothing, and sexual matters.
* Wisdom maintains a very active scientific program with a museum. The educational system includes omnipresent pictorial representations of aspects of science, among which the young circulate and study. Geometry, for example, is demonstrated on a wall, with more figures and propositions than Euclid and Archimedes knew. In applied science the Solarians are about on the same level as the Europeans, with good cannon, astronomical instruments, knowledge of the Copernican theory, but they also possess workable flying machines. They believe that the world is a living organism, on which we live like insects.
* The state policy on sexuality combines aspects of freedom and social control. Free love is common, but the Ministry of Love controls childbirth, mating selected parents according to eugenic rules that include astrological qualifications.
* After weaning, children are removed from their mothers and reared in creches until they are old enough to begin their studies, at which time they join in the communal barracks and eating places.
* During the educational period the young are sorted out into occupations and careers suitable to their abilities, females suffering no discrimination in this area.
* On attaining maturity all citizens join the labor force, usually working about four hours a day. At this point the Ministry of Love provides free housing, raiment, and food. Individual enterprise, on a small scale, is not prohibited.
* Theoretically all men and women are equal, but rank of a sort is acquired by age, technical proficiency, or accomplishment in war or the arts. Such rank, however, is only honorary and is of no great importance.
* There is no internal trade and no monetary system, since all things are free; but as in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the state treasury is used for foreign affairs. The Solarians are a warlike people, and Campanella spends much space describing military matters.
# In religion the Solarians are proto-Christians of a sort; they have worked out an understanding of the Trinity, and believe in heaven and hells. They are not aware, however, of Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church; but they have gone about as far toward theological truth as is p o s s i b l e without revelation.
* Their religion also includes ceremonies that smack of paganism. One such ceremony is tantamount to a voluntary spiritualized human sacrifice: On devoting himself to God, an individual is elevated in a cage to the roof of the Temple of the Sun, where he lives for a time. After being lowered down again, he usually becomes a priest. (Campanella may have had the Desert Fathers of the Near East in mind with this.) Astrology permeates most aspects of the culture.
* The City of the Sun is not science-fiction, of course, but it has been influential historically, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when it was available in part in Henry Morley's Ideal Commonwealths.
Description:
355. LA CITTX DEL SOLE; DIALOGO POETIOO. THE CITY OF THE SUN; A POETICAL DIALOGUE.
University of California Press; Berkeley, 1981. Trans, from Italian with notes by Daniel J. Donno.
(First published as Civitas Solis, in Realis Philosophiae Epilogisticae Partes Quatuor, 1623)
The present translation is the first full translation into English, the earlier versions of Thomas W. Halliday and William J. Gilstrap both being abridged. While both Halliday and Gilstrap used the Latin edition cited, Donno has translated the original Italian manuscript, which was written in 1602, but was not published until 1904. Italian and English are printed on facing pages.
* An ideal state in which communism and pragmatism are pushed to extreme degrees; a heavy emphasis on the role of science anticipates Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis.
# The work, which is short, consists of a dialogue between a Genoese sea captain and a grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, in which the Genoese describes his experiences,
* Shipwrecked on the coast of Taprobane (probably Ceylon, less likely, Sumatra), he makes his way through the jungle to the remarkable City of the Sun. Set on a hill, about two miles across, it is built in concentric circles, with the Temple in the center. Established by fugitives from India perhaps six or seven hundred years earlier, it has been planned and operated on a rational basis. The land is ruled by an elected life-time executive or king called the Ho, Under him are three great ministers, Power, Wisdom, and Love, each of whom heads an organization and controls aspects of the state. Power is concerned with war; Wisdom, with science and education; and Love, with food, clothing, and sexual matters.
* Wisdom maintains a very active scientific program with a museum. The educational system includes omnipresent pictorial representations of aspects of science, among which the young circulate and study. Geometry, for example, is demonstrated on a wall, with more figures and propositions than Euclid and Archimedes knew. In applied science the Solarians are about on the same level as the Europeans, with good cannon, astronomical instruments, knowledge of the Copernican theory, but they also possess workable flying machines. They believe that the world is a living organism, on which we live like insects.
* The state policy on sexuality combines aspects of freedom and social control. Free love is common, but the Ministry of Love controls childbirth, mating selected parents according to eugenic rules that include astrological qualifications.
* After weaning, children are removed from their mothers and reared in creches until they are old enough to begin their studies, at which time they join in the communal barracks and eating places.
* During the educational period the young are sorted out into occupations and careers suitable to their abilities, females suffering no discrimination in this area.
* On attaining maturity all citizens join the labor force, usually working about four hours a day. At this point the Ministry of Love provides free housing, raiment, and food. Individual enterprise, on a small scale, is not prohibited.
* Theoretically all men and women are equal, but rank of a sort is acquired by age, technical proficiency, or accomplishment in war or the arts. Such rank, however, is only honorary and is of no great importance.
* There is no internal trade and no monetary system, since all things are free; but as in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the state treasury is used for foreign affairs. The Solarians are a warlike people, and Campanella spends much space describing military matters.
# In religion the Solarians are proto-Christians of a sort; they have worked out an understanding of the Trinity, and believe in heaven and hells. They are not aware, however, of Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church; but they have gone about as far toward theological truth as is p o s s i b l e without revelation.
* Their religion also includes ceremonies that smack of paganism. One such ceremony is tantamount to a voluntary spiritualized human sacrifice: On devoting himself to God, an individual is elevated in a cage to the roof of the Temple of the Sun, where he lives for a time. After being lowered down again, he usually becomes a priest. (Campanella may have had the Desert Fathers of the Near East in mind with this.) Astrology permeates most aspects of the culture.
* The City of the Sun is not science-fiction, of course, but it has been influential historically, especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when it was available in part in Henry Morley's Ideal Commonwealths.