First Dibdin octavo edition. One of the most important works of English political philosophy and social commentary which coined the term 'utopia'.

The first Dibdin edition of Thomas More's Utopia in octavo format, with his biography of the writer and bibliography of More's published works. The text follows the first English translation made by Ralph Robinson (1520-1577) for the private use of his friend, George Tadlow, who was a City haberdasher. A loose rendering, Robinson initially resisted calls for publication before the work was printed in 1551. Nevertheless, his translation is now regarded 'among the treasures of our literature' (Arber) as an imaginative piece of sixteenth-century prose.

The tale begins when More encounters the fictional character Raphael Hythloday, a traveller who has just returned from voyages with Amerigo Vespucci. Hythloday tells More of a distant island called Utopia, where all property is held in common and gold and silver are used not as currency but as the material for making shackles and chamber pots. However, all is not as it seems, and the paradoxes in the names of Hythloday ('the nonsense speaker') and Utopia ('nowhere') reveal a more complex story.

Dibdin 8vo edition; 2 vols; 8vo (19 x 12.5 cm); engraved frontispiece, woodcut vignettes, dated ownership inscription in pen to both title, later endpapers, text-block toned, occasional light spotting, vol. II title torn with slight loss to lower corner; contemporary tree-calf, rebacked with later morocco lettering-pieces to spine, croners repaired, extemities slightly rubbed, very good; VIII, vclxxx, 141, [1]; [2], 320pp.