The City of the Sun
5/5
()
About this ebook
Tommaso Campanella
Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) was an Italian philosopher, poet, astrologer, and Dominican friar. Born Giovanni Domenico Campanella in Calabria, he was the son of a cobbler. At fourteen, he entered the Dominican Order and took the name Tommaso after Thomas Aquinas. His early studies in theology and philosophy led him to the empiricism of Bernardino Telesio, a prominent Italian scientist of the sixteenth century. By 1590, Campanella was studying astrology in Naples, where he gained a reputation for heterodoxy and faced persecution during the Roman Inquisition. Arrested in Padua in 1594, he spent several years in confinement at a Roman convent before earning his freedom and returning to his native Calabria. In 1599, he was imprisoned and tortured for his role in a conspiracy against Spanish rule in the town of Stilo. Campanella eventually confessed and was incarcerated in Naples for twenty-seven years, during which time he composed such works as The Monarchy in Spain (1600), Political Aphorisms (1601), and The City of the Sun (1602). This last title, originally written in Italian and later translated into Latin by the author, is considered an important example of utopian fiction in which Campanella describes the traditions and organization of an egalitarian society. Released from prison in 1626, he fled to France in 1634 when one of his followers was implicated in a new Calabrian conspiracy. His final years were spent in Paris, where he earned the support of King Louis XIII and was protected by Cardinal Richelieu.
Read more from Tommaso Campanella
The Utopia Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella; Now for the First Time Translated into Rhymed English Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Utopia Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Philosophical Poems of Tommaso Campanella: A Bilingual Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIdeal Commonwealths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The City of the Sun
Related ebooks
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMr. Eternity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Herland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Golden Ass: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMetamorphoses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNicomachean Ethics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThus Spake Zarathustra Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from the Underground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Memoriam A. H. H. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Essential Works of Friedrich Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, Ecce Homo, Genealogy of Morals… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPurgatory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Netanya Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharmides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ethics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDivine Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Philologists Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Golden Ass Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Allegory of the Cave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond Good and Evil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn the Nature of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waste Land Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNOTES FROM UNDERGROUND & THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: Two Autobiographical Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConspiracy of Cataline and Jugurthine War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrime and Punishment Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTimaeus and Critias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Leonid Andreyev Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Witch, the Saint & the Shoemaker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ever Wonder Why?: And Other Controversial Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Chomsky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Souls of Black Folk: Original Classic Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The City of the Sun
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
The City of the Sun - Tommaso Campanella
The City of the Sun
By Tommaso Campanella
Positronic Publishing
Copyright © 2014 Positronic Publishing
Cover image © Can Stock Photo Inc. / zhevago
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-63384-110-9
A Poetical Dialogue between a Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitallers and a Genoese Sea-Captain, his guest.
G.M. Prithee, now, tell me what happened to you during that voyage?
Capt. I have already told you how I wandered over the whole earth. In the course of my journeying I came to Taprobane, and was compelled to go ashore at a place, where through fear of the inhabitants I remained in a wood. When I stepped out of this I found myself on a large plain immediately under the equator.
G.M. And what befell you here?
Capt. I came upon a large crowd of men and armed women, many of whom did not understand our language, and they conducted me forthwith to the City of the Sun.
G.M. Tell me after what plan this city is built and how it is governed.
Capt. The greater part of the city is built upon a high hill, which rises from an extensive plain, but several of its circles extend for some distance beyond the base of the hill, which is of such a size that the diameter of the city is upward of two miles, so that its circumference becomes about seven. On account of the humped shape of the mountain, however, the diameter of the city is really more than if it were built on a plain.
It is divided into seven rings or huge circles named from the seven planets, and the way from one to the other of these is by four streets and through four gates, that look toward the four points of the compass. Furthermore, it is so built that if the first circle were stormed, it would of necessity entail a double amount of energy to storm the second; still more to storm the third; and in each succeeding case the strength and energy would have to be doubled; so that he who wishes to capture that city must, as it were, storm it seven times. For my own part, however, I think that not even the first wall could be occupied, so thick are the earthworks and so well fortified is it with breastworks, towers, guns, and ditches.
When I had been taken through the northern gate (which is shut with an iron door so wrought that it can be raised and let down, and locked in easily and strongly, its projections running into the grooves of the thick posts by a marvellous device), I saw a level space seventy paces wide between the first and second walls. From hence can be seen large palaces, all joined to the wall of the second circuit in such a manner as to appear all one palace. Arches run on a level with the middle height of the palaces, and are continued round the whole ring. There are galleries for promenading upon these arches, which are supported from beneath by thick and well-shaped columns, enclosing arcades like peristyles, or cloisters of an abbey.
But the palaces have no entrances from below, except on the inner or concave partition, from which one enters directly to the lower parts of the building. The higher parts, however, are reached by flights of marble steps, which lead to galleries for promenading on the inside similar to those on the outside. From these one enters the higher rooms, which are very beautiful, and have windows on the concave and convex partitions. These rooms are divided from one another by richly decorated walls. The convex or outer wall of the ring is about eight spans thick; the concave, three; the intermediate walls are one, or perhaps one and a half. Leaving this circle one gets to the second plain, which is nearly three paces narrower than the first. Then the first wall of the second ring is seen adorned above and below with similar galleries for walking, and there is on the inside of it another interior wall enclosing palaces. It has also similar peristyles supported by columns in the lower part, but above are excellent pictures, round the ways into the upper houses. And so on afterward through similar spaces and double walls, enclosing palaces, and adorned with galleries for walking, extending along their outer side, and supported by columns, till the last circuit is reached, the way being still over a level plain.
But when the two gates, that is to say, those of the outmost and the inmost walls, have been passed, one mounts by means of steps so formed that an ascent is scarcely discernible, since it proceeds