(1517). MORE (Thomas). DE OPTIMO REIPUBLICAE STATU, DEQUE NO - Lot 3

(1517). MORE (Thomas). DE OPTIMO REIPUBLICAE STATU, DEQUE NOVA INSULA UTOPIA. (Paris), Jean du Pré II and Jacques le Messier) for Gilles de Gourmont (1517). Small in-8 (146 x 95 mm) with 126 leaves (A-C⁸ D⁴ E-Q⁸- R2), mahogany half basane, smooth spine decorated with cold filets (19th-century binding). "This book is no mere dream, it is a provocation, a mirror held up to humanity to ask itself: Wherever property is the only rule, public welfare is impossible." It's a bold statement that still resonates today! In the island of Utopia, everything is reversed, everything is magnificently just! Property is collective, gold is despised, work is a shared pride and the happiness of all takes precedence over the ambition of each. Utopians do not seek to dominate, nor do they engage in senseless warfare, for their only rule of life is virtue. ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED BOOKS OF MODERN THOUGHT. A very rare second edition, published one year after the original in Louvain; it was procured by Guillaume Budé and Thomas Lupset (Gourmont's proofreader) and commented on by Erasmus and Pierre Gilles. Thomas More (London 1478-1535), humanist, jurist, politician and chancellor, refused to swear in Henry VIII as supreme head of the Anglican Church and to recognize his divorce. He was imprisoned and beheaded, his head displayed for a year on London Bridge. A precursor of socialism, he was canonized in 1935. Minor vertical worm work removing a few letters on 34 leaves (USTC 144673, 6 copies.) (Moreau, I.C.P. n°1675) (Gibson, Sir Thomas More, a preliminary bibliography, Yale University, p 5-7, n° 2, 10 copies). Provenances: Handwritten signatures of "Hatton" and "Jean de Frainel, abbé de l'abbaye de Chaumousey" from 1520 to 1560.