Von der wunderbarlichen Innsel Utopia
Thomas Morus · Claudius Cantiuncula
In 1524, eight years after More’s Latin original, the Basel printer Johann Bebel brought out the first Utopia in any modern language: the Second Book, the description of the island, translated into the German of Basel by the jurist Claudius Cantiuncula and dedicated to the mayor and council of the city, then caught up in the first quarrels of the Reformation. Hythlodaye’s island of common goods, six-hour working days, golden chamber pots and freedom of belief speaks here in the German of Luther’s time. Newly transcribed from the copy of the University Library of Freiburg, with the woodcut map, the Utopian alphabet and the printer’s mark; with a complete version in today’s German and the Latin text of Basel 1518, all three linked paragraph by paragraph, so that one tap shows what More wrote and where Cantiuncula shortens, expands or misunderstands; with registers of persons, places, Utopian names and old words. Edited by Bernhard Trebuch. Reading sample: the dedication and the first two chapters, in the German of 1524 and of today.
The complete book is available to members of Fra Bernardos Brevier, to read in the app and as an ePub for your e-reader.