De monarchia hispanica. Editio novissima, aucta & emendata ut praefatio ad lectorem indicat.

£350 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Second Elzevier edition of Dominican monk Tommaso Campanella’s second utopian work, written during his long, 27-year imprisonment for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Spanish rule in Naples. Written around 1600, it was not published until 1620, in Germany. The first Latin translation, by Elzevier, appeared in 1640; in English in 1654; and only in the nineteenth century was it printed in Italian. Willems asserts that this is a more correct reprint of the first Elzevier edition of the preceding year. A strong supporter of Galileo and profoundly anti-Aristotelian (for which he encountered the opprobrium of the Inquisition) Campanella (1568-1639) has been described as one of ‘the most bizarre of early modern political theorists’ (Pagden, 37) for his vision of universal, theocratic political power. In De Monarchia Hispanica, he advocates a universal Christian monarchy, led by the papacy and the king of Spain. Comparisons with Machiavelli, however, misrepresent Campanella’s aims; while a significant proportion of this work advises the Spanish on power consolidation, his vision is not of subjugation under Spanish rule but rather, a community happy and spiritually united. ‘Much of the De Monarchia Hispanica is, in fact, an attempt to persuade the Spanish monarchs to turn their kingdoms into a wholly different kind of society. […] Spain would only be able to fulfil the role that God had clearly intended for her, if her kings complied with the dictates of prudence’ (Pagden, 51).

• Printing: later

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