Thomasso Campenella - The City of the Sun

Thomasso Campenella was a big thinker in the seventeenth-century. He had grandiose plans for the reformation of society. Campenella like his contemporarys Johanne Andreae and Francis Bacon articulated his aspirations through the emerging medium of utopian dreaming. Like Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Christianopolis the city of sun is an attempt to reconcile the emerging new knowledge that was being generated. It hoped to show how science could function in a society. For this reason City of the Sun gives a fascinating insight into the mind-set of seventeenth century thinkers, and the hopes and fears they saw the future held.

The book is delivered through a dialogue between a sea-captain who has visited the CIty of the Sun, and the grandmaster who wishes to learn more about this city. The sea-captain takes the grandmaster on a detailed description of the city, taking him through the series of circles that educate the city through the paintings on the wall. followed by an a description of the customs, procedures and rituals of the municipality. The book is a fascinating insight into seventeenth-century idealised values, as this was what it attempted to achieve. It is notable for the influence it had upon Andreae's Christianopolis and Bacon's New Atlantis, which would be two crucial texts. Whilst not the most engaging utopian work, it is worth reading to understand how it interacted and compared to comparable utopias.