utopia, an ideal whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence utopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic. Literary utopias ’s Ambrosius Holbein: UtopiaMap of the island of Utopia, woodcut by Ambrosius Holbein, 1518; from the 1518 edition of Sir Thomas More's Utopia.(more)The word first occurred in ’s Utopia, published in Latin as Libellus…de optimo reipublicae statu, deque nova insula Utopia (1516; “Concerning the highest state of the republic and the new island Utopia”); it was compounded by More from the words for “not” (ou) and “place” (topos) and thus meant “nowhere.” During his embassy to Flanders in 1515, More wrote Book II of Utopia, describing a pagan and in which the institutions and policies were entirely governed by . The order and dignity of such a state was intended to provide a notable contrast with the unreasonable polity of Christian Europe, divided by self-interest and greed for power and riches, which More then described in Book I, written in in 1516. The description of Utopia is put in the mouth of a mysterious traveler, Raphael Hythloday, in support of his argument that is the only cure against in private and public life. More, in the dialogue, speaks in favour of mitigation of evil rather than cure, being fallible. The reader is thus left guessing as to which parts of the brilliant jeu d’esprit are seriously intended and which are mere paradox. Speculative and practical utopias Written utopias may be speculative, practical, or satirical. Utopias are far older than their name. ’s Republic was the model of many, from More to . A utopian island occurs in the Hiera anagraphe (“Sacred Inscription”) of (flourished c. 300 bce), and (46–after 119 ce), in his life of , describes a utopian . The of inspired many utopian myths, but explorations in the 15th century permitted more realistic settings, and More himself associated Utopia with . Other utopias that were similar to More’s in themes were the I mondi (1552) of Antonio Francesco Doni and La città felice (1553) of Francesco Patrizi. An early practical utopia was the comprehensive La città del sole (c. 1602; “The City of the Sun”) of . ’s New Atlantis (1627) was practical in its scientific program but speculative concerning and . Christian utopian commonwealths were described in Antangil (1616) by “I.D.M.,” Christianopolis (1619) by Johann Valentin Andreae, and Novae Solymae libri sex (1648) by Samuel Gott. produced many literary utopias, both religious and secular, notably The Law of Freedom… (1652), in which advocated the principles of the . The Common-Wealth of Oceana (1656) by argued for the distribution of land as the condition of popular independence., Utopia means, literally, "no place," since it was formed from the Greek ou, meaning "no, not," and topos, "place." Since More's time, utopia has come to mean "a place of ideal perfection.", utopia, an ideal commonwealth whose inhabitants exist under seemingly perfect conditions. Hence utopian and utopianism are words used to denote visionary reform that tends to be impossibly idealistic..