Publication

The City of the Sun is presented as a dialogue between a Grandmaster 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 goods, women and children are held in common. Campanella's ideal commonwealth was to be governed by men enlightened by reason, with every man’s work designed to contribute to the good of the community. Private property, undue wealth, and poverty would be nonexistent, for no man would be permitted more than he needed.