By: Alexis Ballerstein

The Renaissance was a time of great cultural change during the end of the 13 th century in Europe. In this time period people began to feel a sense of individuality and emerge as new people with different views, thoughts, and styles. Many humanists arose during this time and began to study the “classics” of Greek and Roman culture. This spurred a drastic change in the artwork and literature of the era. Art now became more detailed and naturalistic while literature turned into writings like the stories of Shakespeare or discussed the controversial ideals of many Renaissance men. People also began to focus of the science in the world and the “here and now” aspects of our world rather than otherworldly beings like God, this caused people to begin to separate from the church. Overall, the renaissance was just a period of great change in society that caused people to think more for themselves and change the way society acted as a whole.

Sir Thomas More ( ) was a humanist who was later made a Saint by the Catholic Church. During his lifetime More was also the chancellor for Henry VIII, English lawyer, a social philosopher, and author. The most famous of his works was a book entitled Utopia, this novel outlined “the perfect” society that civilization should strive to accomplish. He married a young woman, Jane Colt, who bore him four children, after her early death he remarried a widow named Alice Middleton to be the mother of his four children. In 1535 he was imprisoned, tried, and executed after refusing to sanction Henry’s divorce of Queen Catherine.

Civic Humanism and Individualism- More tries to convince Raphael (a main character in the novel) to find a good job in the courts advising the kings but he refuses the offer saying that his views are too radical and that they would not be taken seriously. This demonstrates the way that men are forming their own views with individualism. Also through suggesting that Raphael use his education to find a good job in civil services it shows characteristics of civic humanism.

Secularism- When describing the islands inhabitants and their living arrangements More focuses on their worldly possessions. He carefully describes what every person owns, and also explains that everyone has the exact amount of things that everyone else has. He stresses equality with these worldly possessions while not really mentioning any (Christian) religious aspects of the culture. Scientific Naturalism- When Raphael eventually discovers the island of Utopia, he spends time studying the natives and their customs as well as the island itself. By doing this Raphael is studying the natural world and it’s inhabitants through close observation, which is the definition of scientific naturalism. Scientific Naturalism and Secularism- He also states that the religions on the island are “sun, moon, planet, or ancestor-worshipers, or monotheists.” This implies that the people worship the natural world rather than an otherworldly being.

Individualism- In More’s book, in order to create this “perfect” society, everyone is given the same options, same housing, same customs, same jobs, same clothes, and basically the same lives. They have no real options except if they want to live in a colony for awhile, what job (they choose one out of four) they wish to take after agriculture, and what religion they want to believe in. They have limited opportunities to become their own person and thus don’t experience the individuality that arose with the Renaissance.

More’s novel demonstrates the spirt of the renaissance by using the “isms” to create a “perfect” society. This work also uses the satire, irony, and wordplay one would fins in the works of classical Greek authors, through this demonstration of the classics. He also demonstrates a concentration on the application of classical ideas to contemporary society and particularly, politics in his creation of Utopia. Without the study of the classics and humanism during the Renaissance, More never would have been able to publish or create this novel.

This was the map illustrated in the original 1516 copy of Utopia. The island was depicted as being “…two hundred miles across in the middle part, where it is widest, and nowhere much narrower than this except towards the two ends, where it gradually tapers. These ends, curved round as if completing a circle five hundred miles in circumference, make the island crescent-shaped, like a new moon.”

This map was put in the 1518 edition of the novel and was drawn by Ambrosious Holbein. In the bottom left corner it depicts Raphael describing the island to More.

This is a map of the island, Utopia, as drawn in 1595 by Ortelius

This is a scene in the novel Utopia by Thomas More. In the scene, More converses with Raphael Hythlodaeus, John Clement, and Pieter Gilles before Raphael departs on his voyage to find Utopia.