Librarian+for+Campanella's+City

//City of the Sun// is a sixteenth-century utopian work written by Thomas Campanella. The work, presented through dialogue between the Grandmaster of the Knights and a sea captain, explores a mysterious society where all possessions are held in common: wealth, property, and women. Several essays have been written in an attempt to explain the //City of the Sun//. Leon Zeldis’ “Campanella’s ‘City of the Sun’” notes the comparisons between the utopia and the Freemasons, while Chloë Houston’s “No Place and New Worlds: The Early Modern Utopia and the Concept of the Global Community” analyzes the motivations for Campanella's writing his masterpiece.

Leon Zeldis compares the customs of the utopia described by Campanella and the Freemasons. Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th and early 17th century. Zeldis begins by offering a light background on Campanella and the events leading up to the publication of his work. Zeldis compares the city structure to the structure of a Masonic lodge. He argues that the compass-like design of the city walls mimics that of a lodge. He continues by claiming that the alter placement of the city’s temple is more similar to a Masonic lodge than to a European church. The temple’s two globes, one terrestrial and one celestial, are typically emulated in Masonic lodges. Zeldis also compares the three princes, Power, Wisdom, and Love, in //City of the Sun// to the three Masonic ‘lights’: Strength, Wisdom, and Beauty. The three figures are nearly identical in both cases, and Campanella’s reasoning for the princes is nearly identical to the Masonic reasoning for the three lights. Another interesting point explained by Zeldis is that the governor of The City of the Sun is referred to as Sol, or the sun. The leaders of the Freemasons often participate in rituals that copy the path of the sun. The morals and cultural aspects of the two societies also largely impersonate each other. Both societies place a strong emphasis on humility-- pride is considered a mortal crime. The solarians, similar to the Masons, recognize and celebrate the solstices (Campanella 1-5). Campanella’s //City// //of the Sun// was influence by the Freemasons, who began to gain power at the same time that his work was written.

In her essay “No Place and New Worlds: The Early Modern Utopia and the Concept of the Global Community,” Chloë Houston analyzes the probable causes for Campanella to write //City of the Sun.// She groups his work together with Francis Bacon’s //New Atlantis// to show that while they are certainly entertaining, the ultimate purpose behind these works is to promote change within their own society. Campanella intends for his work to serve as inspiration for others within his society, so that they might take action fix the flaws that City of the Sun emphasizes by contrast (Houston 16-17). Houston continues by stating that the society of //City of the Sun//, although idealistic in nature, is still grounded in realism: //Both Campanella and Bacon use the utopian form to explore the consequences of social change, but neither does so within the context of an open, inviting society; instead their utopias carefully control the extent to which external influences are allowed to infiltrate. Both of these utopias may be revolutionary, [. . .] but they imagine their idealism in the context of an imperfect world ( Houston 17). Houston explains that Campanella manages to expertly weave both militaristic and idealistic aspects of society into one society, The City of the Sun// (Houston 17).

Many secondary sources exist that take the ideas mentioned in //City of the Sun// and explain them in further detail, as Houston did. Zeldis, however, chose to compare City of the Sun to the Freemasons.

Works Cited Houston, Chloë. “No Place and New Worlds: The Early Modern Utopia and the Concept of the Global Community”. Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal, nr. 1. Spring 2006. pp. 13-21 .

Zeldis, Leon. "Campanella's 'City of the Sun'". Pictou County Masons. October 14, 2008 .

Posted by Dwight