This book tells the story of seven new letters from Sir Thomas More to Frans van Cranevelt that were discovered among a bundle of letters that were auctioned in London in 1989, part of the private archive of Cranevelt. The letters span the years 1519–1522.

Part One. Pico's life and letters. 1. The life of Giovanni Pico ; 2. Three epistles by Pico Della Mirandola -- Part Two. Spiritual compendium. 3. Giovanni Pico's commentary on the Paslm 'Keep me, good Lord' ; 4. Twelve rules of Giovanni Pico Earl of Mirandola, partly encouraging and partly directing a man in the spiritual struggle ; 5. The twelve weapons of spiritual battle, which every man should have at hand when the pleasure of a sinful temptation comes to (...) mind ; 6. The twelve properties or conditions of a lover ; 7. A prayer of Pico della Mirandola to God. (shrink)

This edition will include all of More's extant works. Each volume will be edited by a specialist in the field of Renaissance studies and will include a comprehensive introduction. Latin texts will be accompanied by a facing English translation.

Saint Thomas More’s _Utopia_ is one of the most important works of European humanism and serves as a key text in survey courses on Western intellectual history, the Renaissance, political theory, and many other subjects. Preeminent More scholar Clarence H. Miller does justice to the full range of More’s rhetoric in this masterful translation. In a new afterword to this edition, Jerry Harp contextualizes More’s life and _Utopia_ within the wider frames of European humanism and the Renaissance. “Clarence H. Miller’s (...) fine translation tracks the supple variations of More’s Latin with unmatched precision, and his Introduction and notes are masterly. Jerry Harp’s new Afterword adroitly places More’s wonderful little book into its broader contexts in intellectual history.”—George M. Logan, author of _The Meaning of More’s “Utopia”_ “Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_ is not merely one of the foundational texts of western culture, but also a book whose most fundamental concerns are as urgent now as they were in 1516 when it was written. Clarence H. Miller's wonderful translation of More's classic is now happily once again available to readers. This is the English edition that best captures the tone and texture of More's original Latin, and its notes and introduction, along with the lively afterward by Jerry Harp, graciously supply exactly the kinds of help a modern reader might desire.”—David Scott Kastan, Yale University. (shrink)

Wootton's translation brings out the liveliness of More's work and offers an accurate and reliable version of a masterpiece of social theory. His edition is further distinguished by the inclusion of a translation of Erasmus's 'The Sileni of Alcibiades,' a work very close in sentiment to Utopia, and one immensely influential in the sixteenth century. This attractive combination suits the edition especially well for use in Renaissance and Reformation courses as well as as for Western Civilization survey courses. Wootton’s Introduction (...) simultaneously provides a remarkably useful guide to anyone’s first reading of More’s mysterious work and advances an original argument on the origins and purposes of Utopia which no one interested in sixteenth-century social theory will want to miss. (shrink)

The translation of the lectures is closer than the flowing but inexact one by J. M. Kennedy. Throughout Dr. Grenke supplements his translation by including German words, such as Erziehung and Bildung, in brackets, and by suggesting alternate, more literal translations. Even apart from a few English infelicities, mistaken literalisms, and one slip that might escape detection because it is almost plausible, the result is sometimes awkward, as if one were listening to a German immigrant in whose English the contour (...) of a German idiom shows, as still in parts of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas, but students of Nietzsche with some German will be grateful for such a wet-suit fidelity to the German. (shrink)