The City of the Sun (Latin: Civitas Solis) is a philosophical work by the Dominican friar Thomas Campanella, written in Italian in 1602, shortly after Campanella’s imprisonment for heresy and sedition. A Latin version was written in 1613-1614 and published in Frankfurt in 1623.
Synopsis
The book is presented as a dialogue between “a Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller and a Genoese sea captain.” Inspired by Plato’s Republic and the description of Atlantis in Timaeus, it describes a theocratic society where property, women, and children are held in common. It also resembles the City of Adocentyn in the Picatrix, an Arabic grimoire of astrological magic. In the final part of the work, Campanella prophesies in the veiled language of astrology, that the Spanish kings, in alliance with the Pope, are destined to be the instruments of a Divine Plan: the final victory of the True Faith and its spread among the peoples, a vision of a unified and peaceful World governed by a theocratic monarchy.
Content
The work, which in many ways recalls Plato’s Republic, is presented in the form of a dialogue between two characters: the Hospitaller, a knight of the Order of Malta, and the Genoese, Columbus’ helmsman. The latter tells of having discovered, during one of his travels around the world, a city with perfect laws and customs, on the island of Taprobana.
In this ideal community, the spiritual and temporal power is held by a Prince-Priest, a Theocracy, and is also called the Sun (or Metaphysician) who actually holds the city. There are some basic skills that the governor is required to demonstrate to have: mainly erudition, theoretical and practical knowledge, creativity and wisdom. The governor must also be older than 35 years so that his experience is sufficient to be able to lead the state in the best way, a problem, that of very young and very manipulable sovereign heirs to the throne that in the past was the cause of great distress for the kingdoms. The Prince Priest is assisted by three other Princes: Sin, i.e. wisdom that deals with the sciences, Pon that deals with peace and war, finally Mor, i.e. Love that takes care of procreation, education of the inhabitants and work.
The city is circular in shape, situated on a hill and protected by seven walls that take the name of the seven planets, practically impregnable, since conquering the center would mean conquering it seven times. You can access the city only through four gates located in coincidence with the four cardinal points, and in the highest part of the hill there is a very large plain where is located the Temple, also circular in shape. Consisting of large columns above which rises a dome inside which is the celestial sphere, drawn in great detail even with the names of each constellation and three verses for each star represented. The altar “is round and cross-spread” and above it are positioned two globes representing the celestial sphere the first and the earth the second. The globe of the earth is surrounded by seven lamps that represent the seven planets.
The seven walls divide the city into six circles, each of which represents a different sphere of knowledge, and on the walls are represented all the nuances of human knowledge.
In the first circle there is a detailed geographical map where are represented all the rites, the different traditions and languages of all peoples and always in this circle we also find all the geometric and mathematical knowledge. In the second one are listed the main notions of chemistry, geology and the geographical description of places. In the third one there are the information regarding the flora belonging to the marine world and to the vegetable world, with the description of all the herbs and their curative properties. In the fourth circle are described all the species of birds, reptiles and insects. In the fifth are all land animals, such as mammals. In the sixth circle, finally, are listed the human arts dealing with mechanics and are also indicated inventors, arts, weapons culture and sciences.
Author’s quotes and significant parts of the book
“The world is a living image of GOD.”
“If You return to earth, come armed Lord, because enemies are preparing other crosses, not Turks, not Jews, but those of Your own kingdom”
“Man lives in a double world: according to the mind he is contained by no physical space and by no walls, but at the same time he is in heaven and on earth, in Italy, in France, in America, wherever the mind’s thrust penetrates and extends by understanding, seeking, mastering. But indeed according to the body he exists not, except in only so much space as is least required, held fast in prison and in chains to the extent that he is not able to be in or to go to the place attained by his intellect and will, nor to occupy more space than defined by the shape of his body; while with the mind he occupies a thousand worlds.”
“Stultorum cavea mundus est”. (Latin)
“The world is the cage of fools.”
“The world is the book where the eternal Wisdom wrote its own concepts”
“According to the Sun Cities, there are two physical elements that make up the lower creatures: One is the male element: the Sun; the other is the female element: the world. Air is the impure part of the sky. Fire came from the Sun. The sea is the sweat of the earth, or a liquid formed by the burning and melting of the objects in its bosom. Water also unites air and earth, like blood that unites body and soul. The world is a huge animal: man lives in it, just like the wolves that live in the belly of us humans.”
“The new philosophy proceeds from the world, to the book of GOD.”
“To learn what I know I have burned more midnight oil than you have drunk wine.”
“The People are a capricious and stupid beast that doesn’t know its own strength and bears burdens and blows with patience;… it knows not what fear it inspires, or that its masters have prepared a magic potion to stupefy it. What a fantastic situation! The People beating and tying itself up with its own hands; fighting and dying for a few pennies from the King,… totally unaware that everything between heaven and earth really belongs to it and stoning to death anyone who would remind it of its rights.”
“They consider Christians happy, who are content to attribute the great change to that sin committed by our father Adam, and they envy them. According to them, it is not their sins that are inherited from fathers to their children, but the punishment for their sins. However, fathers who do not obey the rules of reproduction and do not attach importance to the education of their children should be punished for the sins of the real children.”
“In reality, the sun does not force us to get up from our bed at sunrise, it only invites us to get up, just as the darkness of night calls us to sleep. Thus, natural events have only an instantaneous, indirect effect on our freedom: so that although the soul is sometimes enthralled by the impulses of love, sometimes of hatred, sometimes of anger, and of various passions, man is still not incapable of being a slave to these passions or defying them. . If all perversions, famines, and wars often bring human societies into trouble, it is because people act contrary to reason, instead of following the path of reason, which will restrain their sexual instincts.”
I learn more from the anatomy of an ant or a blade of grass… than from all the books which have been written since the beginning of time. This is so, since I have begun… to read the book of God… the model according to which I correct the human books which have been copied badly and arbitrarily and without attention to the things that are written in the original book of the Universe.
The City of the Sun (eBook PDF)
References
- Ernst, Germana, “Tommaso Campanella“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
- (EN) La città del sole / La città del sole (altra versione), su Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
- (EN) Edizioni e traduzioni di La città del sole, su Progetto Gutenberg.