The
Political Oeconomy of a 17th-Century Utopia
Edward
H. Thompson
Department of Economics and Management
The University
Dundee
Discussion Papers in Economics No. 54
November, 1993
The original version of this paper was presented at
the 5th International Conference of the Centre for 17th-Century Studies,
University of Durham, in July 1993. It benefited greatly from discussion at the
conference, and subsequently with Professor Chatterji of Dundee University.
To meet the requirements of a simple web page the original footnotes have been converted into endnotes.
When the discipline we know today as 'economics' was
being constructed in the mid-18th century, the founding fathers rejected most of
the content of the traditional 'political economy': originating in the
pre-market economies of classical antiquity and feudal Europe, this amalgam of
political, social, legal and ethical concepts was largely irrelevant to the
analysis of the emerging market system.
As
a very broad generalisation, historians of economic thought have usually either
ignored anything much before mercantilism, taking the view that it is simply not
economics,[1] or they have combed the earlier work for anticipations of later
economic insights. In the latter case Aristotle's discussion of money, Aquinas'
analysis of the rate of interest, or Bodin's account of inflation, for example,
may be extracted from the non-economic matrix in which they are embedded, but
they are of interest mainly to the extent that they prefigure elements in the
later history of economics.
The
economic problem of scarcity and choice, however, is independent of the economic
system. All societies have to deal with the problem, whether or not they make
use of price-forming markets to arrive at a solution. If the solutions of the
earlier 'political oeconomy'
were ethical or political in character, they were nevertheless solutions to the
economic problem, and it is the contention of this paper that such solutions may
be in principle of intrinsic interest to the modem economist, and not just to
the extent that they serve to illuminate the prehistory of
market concepts.
This
paper attempts to explore the ways in which the economic problem might be solved
in a pre-capitalist, pre-market economy in which the methodology is by
conventional canons pre-economic or indeed non-economic. In effect, this paper
is about the boundaries within which 'economics' is defined.[2] The case
selected for examination is the Christianopolis (1619) of Johann Valentin
Andreae. This is a description of an ideal society, which has the advantage of
abstracting from the real world of mixed economic systems while yet being
exceptionally detailed and closely worked out. Andreae’s analysis is amplified
by reference to other works such as his comedy Turbo (1616), the dialogue
Theophilus (1620, published 1649) and his pamphlets on a Christian
Society.[3] This amplification is necessary because Christianopolis is a
multidimensional text, easy to misinterpret: like More's Utopia it is at
one and the same time an entertainment and a critique of contemporary society;
it is a model for the transformation of society at large, and it also provides a
blueprint for establishing a small commune of scholar-craftsmen who would
withdraw from the world; it may be both a Lutheran alternative to the Jesuit
colleges of the counter-reformation, and a Christocentric alternative to the
Rosicrucian myth; it is certainly to be understood as a model of the ideal
Christian personality.
The
tradition to which Andreae belongs predated the market-dominated economy and
looked instead for its solutions in the structure of interpersonal
relationships. Since its roots are in the classical oike it may be
convenient to think of this as the 'Oeconomy', though the analysis of course
extended beyond the household to the community at large. The 'Oeconomics' of
Andreae and his contemporaries is a combination of theology, politics and
sociology, and seems to overlap
to considerable degree with what students of Management today know as
'organisational culture'. It seems to provide a way of answering some quite
persistent problems of a collectivist system: how, for example, to ensure that
in a fraternal community with free-will [4] each works according to his ability
when all receive according to their need, how to co-ordinate activity without
issuing orders, or how to get the unpleasant work of the community done without
the use of servants or slaves.[54
It may be convenient to consider Andreae's analysis
under four broad headings:
In the ideal community envisaged by Andreae the
political relationship between government and governed is a recapitulation of
that found in the household between parent and child, and again between husband
and wife; in the administration it reappears in the relationship between the
leaders of the community and their deputies; and at other levels it is to be
found between, say, soul or spirit and body. All of these parallel, and are
validated by, the relationship in which Andreae had greatest confidence - that
between God and man.
A
useful illustration of this is provided by Andreae's discussion of
'Understanding', the wife of the Judge in Christianopolis. Andreae remarks that
he has never seen a less credulous woman, nor heard more profound and
well-considered words than those she utters; the things which she believes and
states are found to be completely certain, and she does nothing without reason. "Her husband is not at all ashamed to discuss difficult
matters with her, and he listens willingly to what she has to say; but he
reserves judgment for himself If she is over-inquisitive about matters which are
above her, he restrains her, warns her of heaven, and bids her apply her gifts
more to her spinning-wheel. Thus they live peacefully and pleasantly under his
rule ...
"(ch.34)
Evidently
this is intended to be understood at a number of levels. It conveys a warning
about the limitations to the use of human reason, and its application to the
concept of justice, and it is at the same time a statement about the
relationship between husband and wife; in the second respect its antecedents
clearly go back to the pseudo-Aristotelian (Economica (chap.vii). And it
provides Andreae with an occasion to criticise the decadence of contemporary
manners.[6]
The
typical arrangement in this part of Andreae is in terms of triads or groups of
three: the island on which Christianopolis is sited is triangular, and there are
three social classes in the community, paralleling both the Trinity and the
body-mind-soul aspects of man - Andreae refers to the possibility that
Christianopolis may be realised in his own person. Thus the leaders of the
community are a triumvirate: the religious leader Abi-albon, the Judge Abiezer,
and the scholar Abida. As their names suggest, they are 'fathers' within the
community, and they echo the Trinity: Abi-Albon wishes to be regarded as the
"servant of God and the (spiritual) father" of Andreae (ch.30)
Abiezer is the "paterfamilias of the community and is filled with
pleasure when he is called the minister of Christ"; and Abida wishes to
be called "a pupil of the Holy Ghost."
This
triumvirate also relates to Campanella's three great evils: Tyranny, Sophistry
and Hypocrisy.[7] If the objective of Andreae is, following Campanella, to
attack these evils, he also follows Campanella in seeing them as rooted in
ignorance. Education is therefore central to the programme of Andreae, and there
is a two-way relationship between the art or practice of government and that of
teaching: "Their teachers are ... very specially chosen from the
people who have a high standing in the community, and indeed have very often
occupied the highest official positions. For surely no one will take proper care
of the young who can not also take care of the community, and he who has shown
his ability to manage the young has thereby won approval to govern the
community."(ch.51) This link between government and education is
symbolised in the architecture of Christianopolis by the citadel near the
centre of the community which houses both the government and the college of
education. Taking up a cosmic analogy, it is described as the primum mobile that
lies between the temple and the working quarters of the community.
There
is also an underlying unity that holds Christianopolis together. Both the Christianae
societatis imago and the later Verae unionis specimen start with a
statement that union is divine, and discord or dissention comes from Satan.
Social unity brings with it the need for collective work, and here Andreae
suggests that: "although certain experts are appointed for all the
activities, yet when men are required for some task no one in the community
balks at giving obedience or his labour. For what we are in our households, they
are the same in their community, which they not unreasonably think of as a
single household. "(ch.22} The point is one which Andreae makes
elsewhere, for example in: "the commune is as it were all one single
workshop, albeit with all sorts of different craftsmen."(ch.16) Hence
there can be no private property, no exchange, and no need of money within
Christianopolis; housing is owned collectively, as is capital equipment, each
craftsman being issued with whatever tools he requires from a central store; and
of course there can be no markets, nor any use of the market mechanism to
resolve economic problems.
It
seems clear that Andreae distrusted what we should now regard as economic
behaviour: in the comedy Turbo it is the Antichrist who urges his
followers to pursue their own self-interest, to concern themselves with the
movements of the stock-exchange, to buy cheap and sell dear; and it is
Antichrist who suggests that 'business acumen' be adopted as a mask or euphemism
for 'robbery'.
Interestingly,
however, his position is modified if we look outside the ideal community.
Christianopolis mints coins for external use, and Andreae approves of commerce
in the surplus produce of the community when "the true value of trade
becomes clear, which has regard not to monetary gain but to the variety of
things. "(ch.10) - in modern language, the object of trade is to
maximise utility rather than money profit. There is a distributional aspect to
this, since through trade the gifts which were given to all mankind are "are
put into a common stock ... made available to each individual"(10),
but when Andreae develops the point elsewhere (e.g. in Verae unionis specimen)
it is clear that his concern is with the interdependence and unity of
mankind.
The behaviour of the leaders of Christianopolis is
determined by a rule which is effectively: Do as you would be done by. In the
pamphlet Verae unionis specimen (1628) Andreae argued that the community
he proposed to establish needed no essential guiding principle beyond the New
Testament rule 'what you wish for yourself; that do for your brother'. This
was equally present in his Christianopolis a decade before. For example,
the Judge "does nothing to anyone that he would not wish to have done to
himself; and what he wishes for himself he obtains for everyone. "(ch.33)
Similarly Andreae observes of the leadership that "they are all fatherly
in spirit, rather than authoritarian ... Whatever they order others to
perform, that they themselves also do; they lead less by voice than by their
example. Nothing is easier than following this example, nothing more freely
given than this obedience"(ch.21) [8] In its application to education,
which is a model for government, this results in the view that teachers should
prefer to stimulate their pupils as free agents with pleasantness, kindness and
generous treatment rather than with threats, blows and various kinds of harsh
treatment.
The rule for subordinates is one of willing - one might
say, proactive - obedience. The general rule can be found in the political
creed of the community: “We strive to show love to our elders, and to
support them; to show respect to those above us, care for our equals, moderation
towards those entrusted to our charge, labour to the community and a good
example to future generations, and in reciprocal service to fulfill the duties
of Christian charity."(ch.29) So the Theologian does not look down on
his subordinate the Deacon, but the latter looks up to him; he does not load his
assistant with tasks and press down on him, but the latter eases the burden of
his superior; the Theologian does not give orders, but the Deacon is obedient to
him.
And
again the conclusion is understood to be part of a general principle: “Although
they do not differ much in age, what is shown here is exactly the sort of mutual
love that there ought to be between a father and his son".(ch.32) It is
of course analogous to the relationship between God and man, where there is both
free will and obedience: “Christian freedom needs neither commandments nor
threats, but moves of its own will. " in the appropriate
direction.(ch.18)
There is also a general obligation to be submissive. It
eases the task of the Aeconomus - a
steward or manager [9] - who sees to the equitable allocation of supplies to
members of the community, for "no one claims special rights over the
food or demands more dishes than are commensurate with the season and the
customs of the community"(ch.35} Similarly production is kept up even
though they have very limited working hours because everyone thinks it infamous
“to take more than the permitted amount of leisure"(ch.16)
Submissiveness,
albeit to God, is also how leaders are identified - "The more one is
ruled by God's will, the more suitable he is judged to be to rule over
others."(ch.18), and it is part of the test that must be passed
by potential members of the community: when he landed on the island Andreae's
examiners wanted to know what he had learned «of selfmastery, of service to
his brother, of rebelling against the world, of resignation to death, of
submission of the spirit."
These
characteristics serve to identify the servants of the community as well as its
rulers. There is no slavery[11], and there are few servants, in Christianopolis
and the consequence is that «where slavery is absent, nothing is left that
the human body finds wearisome - nothing burdensome or exhausting”(ch.16)
Paradoxically, then, because there is no slavery the citizens of
Christianopolis have no difficulty in performing the collective tasks of slaves
or servants, and some take it further with the idea of 'Christian Poverty' or
'Sacred Poverty', an extreme form of resignation and submission. These
individuals may be related to the Buthrescae of More's Utopia - " It
is not enough for Christians to be good in accordance with the precepts of
Ethics and Political Science ... 'sacred poverty' [l2] is the name
given to the achievement of those who ... renounce even the things of
this world that are permitted. Those people who join this group unlearn
everything, abandon everything, and suffer everything ... whatever gifts
of God they have they hand over to the community, holding back nothing for
themselves. "
Christianopolis is set in the world as it is, with all
its dangers and imperfections. Alongside the proper concerns of the community "(the
truth of the Christian religion, the cultivation of virtue, and the ways in
which the mind can be sharpened)[13] there is the need for treaties,
war, trade, buildings and supplies."(ch.27) So there is an armoury
containing weapons of war, and treasury containing the financial sinews of war;
in the scantily furnished accommodation of the Christianopolitans there are
weapons, ready to defend the community. Of course this is partly a metaphor,
just as the lighting on the streets at night is: the faith must be defended at
all times. But it is also part of a perfectly realistic response to the problems
of life in the 17th century. There is a moat and there are bastions, with
lookouts on duty day and night; fire was an even more serious danger than war,
so, as in More's Utopia tII,120,32-33}, the buildings are made of brick
and there are fire walls at regular intervals. Trade with outsiders, as in
Plato's Republic, is the province of specialists who free the rest of the
community from this burden.
Some
of Andreae’s political institutions also arise in relation to human frailty or
weakness, the imperfect world as it is: "certainly it has to be
acknowledged that human nature can not be completely driven out anywhere. So if
it does not heed repeated warnings, or if necessary serious rebukes, then it
must be beaten back by more severe measures."(ch.19)[14] Practical
politics, based on the experience of human tyranny, suggests that the government
be headed by a triumvirate because Christianopolis does not match the divine
structure perfectly: "Although there are many advantages to a monarchy ...
they distrust human moderation ... There are experiences close to
hand, and the more a man is prone to tyranny and dissipation, the sadder such
experiences are. Here surely a triumvirate is the safest, to which only the best
and most experienced people in the community are admitted after they have
progressed up though all the levels of virtue. "(ch.27)
Power
is therefore distributed between the members of a triumvirate not only because
it parallels the Trinity, but also because it is a safer political structure. "Each
of these (three) leaders carries out the duties of his office, though not
without the knowledge of the others; they all take counsel together where the
safety of the community is concerned. Each of them has a council, but on certain
days they all come together to reach a general agreement on matters of the
highest importance. "(ch.27)
In some respects the community is dominated by
technological processes: the citizens are accommodated in a series of buildings
laid out in concentric squares which reflect functional specialisation and a
hierarchy of activities. Where basic production is concerned, the four-square
structure embodies the technological processes of the community (agriculture and
stock-rearing; milling and baking; butchery and boiling; smelting and firing).
As the diagram shows,[15] there is a flow of resources and processes around the
structure (grain goes via mills to the bakery, livestock goes via the
slaughterhouse to the kitchens). There are also technological links, such as
grain milling, timber milling and metal grinding (processes which utilise 'motion
without heat' or baking and wine-making (which share the use of yeast and
heat). Kilns in which bricks and pottery are fired are adjacent to the bakery,
while the section which melts metal and glass is adjacent to the part in which
meat is boiled and stewed. Co-ordination of decisions between the people in
charge of productive areas appears to be through shared deputies (see
endnote17).
Deeper within the community, at the level of craft
production, the same square layout relates to the four materials (metal, stone,
wood and textiles) and two levels of skill with which craftsmen work. At the
heart of the community is a circular temple surrounded by the college or citadel
which is also square in plan, housing the eight academic departments on which
Christianopolitan education centres. That is, the structure embodies
technological relationships - but it also reflects other, theological purposes.
Consider
the four-square defences. The square layout of the community is reminiscent of
that to be found in Dürer's plan for an ideal city (1527), an out-of-date
defensive structure for 1619, when a polygonal arrangement had come into vogue.
Andreae was well aware of its military inadequacies: 'The most important
thing in fortification is not to leave any point on the wall which can not be
supported from one, two or several others. So to this end ... triangular
structures please few architects, square ones scarcely any... ' (Collectaneorum
Mathematicorum Decades XI 82)[16] That is, the architecture of
Christianopolis, and its vaunted impregnability, are to some extent symbolic, a
metaphor.
In
the middle of each range of buildings, and on the corners of each square, there
are towers which house the leaders of the community. The authorities can thus be
grouped into sets of four leaders and their deputies; they make up a
mathematically-expert meritocracy, and they administer a rationally-planned
economy; for example, the Aeconomus who ensures "that no-one receives
less than his share ... has the greatest skill in calculating the annual
supply of foodstuffs that will be sufficient for the people so that they will
never go hungry, but will also never feed lavishly, placing their spirit in
bondage. "(ch.35) The supplies to be used are divided up according to
the year's harvest, then issued each week according to the number of families.
This
is akin to the Socialist Accounting of the early days of the Soviet Union, and
understandably all members of the administration have to be expert
mathematicians. At the same time they serve as the moral and religious leaders
of the four sectors of the community.[17] There may be something of Calvinist
Geneva in this aspect of the text, which combines renaissance town planning with
the New Jerusalem; there are certainly also echoes of the Carthusian monastery.
The triumvirate is fitted a little awkwardly into the four-square structure[18]
by the addition of the Chancellor, who seems to be both the deputy of the
Scholar Abida and also the one who mediates between the supreme authority and
the people: “The governors of the community - those in charge of
Religion, Justice and Learning - have their seat here. and they have the
Chancellor added as their spokesman "(ch.26). “The Chancellor
announces all the decisions of the triumvirate, publicises them and broadcasts
them; for this he requires the greatest skill and trustworthiness".(ch.27)
His relationship to the community is asserted to be like that of Christ to the
universe “in that he lays open all hidden things and reveals all secret
hiding places. "(ch.37)
There
is some indication that there is supervision at the level of the apartment block
by a kind of concierge-cum-paterfamilias "Each house has a single
entrance, which the head of the household is in charge of (ch.23). To judge by Theophilus (11) such people would
be responsible for censuring backsliders and praising the more pious, sober,
modest and industrious citizens in their building. At this level too there is a
reminder of compulsion to maintain standards where "[the apartments] are
kept up, moreover, at the general expense and careful inspectors are provided
lest anything be thoughtlessly damaged or altered"(ch.23) While
they are not much stressed, there are penalties and punishments in
Christianopolis.
Christianopolis
is not conceived of as a lotus-eating arcadia. To return to the economic
problem, scarcity is not avoided by shifting the frontiers of production out
towards abundance; rather it has to be overcome by a combination of restraint in
consumption, and a universal obligation to work. This is not unusual in
authoritarian regimes in times of crisis, but Andreae’s ideal has willing
restraint in consumption as the normal condition, along with a voluntary desire
to work almost the complete antithesis of modern economic attitudes which (in
Jevonian terms) oppose the pleasure of consumption to the pain of working.
"Work,
or as they prefer to call it, 'the exercise of the hands"'[19]
is regarded as a necessity for the health of the body, and "is done
to a plan, and everything that is produced is taken to a common store. It helps
that there is a balance of labour and rest which strengthens the people, so they
always go to their work with alacrity." By contrast in Turbo the
Antichrist promotes the view that "Whoever can possibly do so in any
way, should be an idler, as is proper for a free-born man. If one can not do
this from one's own resources, one should seek out a parasitic relationship as a
dependent of another person".
The
planning procedure is not described in any detail, but The master of each
craft receives sufficient supplies of material from the storehouse for the work
of the next seven days ... The people in charge of this business live in
the smaller towers built at the corners, and they know in advance what is to be
produced, in what quantity and form, and they advise the craftsmen accordingly (ch.16).
The requisite behaviour is also to be produced in
Christianopolis by education, whose function is not merely to eliminate
undesirable traits, but also to form desirable ones. When Andreae visits the
college in Christianopolis he finds "a school which was much more
spacious and attractive than one would believe. It was divided into eight
lecture theatres where the young people, the most precious thing that the
community has in its care, are moulded and shaped to God, nature, reason and the
public good. "(ch.51) This 'moulding and shaping' is a recurrent theme:
the role of the teachers in Christianopolis is one of «moulding these young
people who constitute a miniature community - which will be the successor
to the greater one. " This is why the selection of teachers is so
important, for they have to be worthy to be “entrusted with the most
important part of the future safety of the community."(ch.5) And
in a similar passage in the dialogue Theophilus "For to raise the
youth properly is to form or reform the state itself (Theophilus III,
p.90)[20] Contrast this with the cynical view of Antichrist in Turbo that
“Careful bringing-up of children is to be avoided, since it destroys the
innate nobility of their spirit."
Examples
and role-models are also stressed: there is no lack of incentives to effort “for
among these citizens there are so many examples of friends of God that are very
frequently held up and impressed in various ways on the minds of young people,
that every noble spirit burns like a glowing coal to imitate them "(ch.18}
In addition the temple at the centre of the community doubles as a theatre in
which religious dramas are performed to fix their ideas more firmly in the minds
of the youth. Moreover, “there are pictures and statues of famous men with
their manly or noble deeds to be seen everywhere, no mean encouragement to the
young to strive after virtue. "(ch.48} To put this into context, we
should perhaps remember that in Campanella's Città del Sole the
character of future children can be moulded by having pregnant mothers look upon
suitable statues and paintings.
The strength of this model is that it can be read in
both directions. One can take Christianopolis to be a simplification or
illustration of theological relationships. But one can also read it the other
way, as a series of statements about government, society or the economy which
are validated by reference to their theological parallels.
Whether
or not the kind of community he visualised is feasible is anyone's guess. It
certainly came close to being initiated in England under the Commonwealth, as
did a number of other schemes. The solution to the economic problem of scarcity
and choice lies in a combination of measures to ensure that the community is
viewed by its members as a family, the town as a household, and the economy as a
single workshop. Clearly the system would require what Games Theorists would
call 'Joint Commitment' to produce group bonding, and it would seem that Andreae
anticipated the need to exclude unsuitable adults from the community by a
rigorous triple examination of all newcomers, as well as ensuring that children
born within the community are educated or indoctrinated so as to produce
altruistic future members. There is no private property to speak of, no
exchange, no price-forming markets within the community; insofar as anything
resembling trade takes place, its benefits are not so much enhanced consumption
possibilities but rather an increased awareness of human interdependence and
unity.[21]
Andreae then operates
largely on what may be called the supply side: his concern appears to be with
ensuring that those who are able and willing to produce do so. As to demand,
this is subject to a kind of self-restraint. The 'true needs' of more recent
writers like Marcuse (food, clothing, shelter at the available level of
technology) are to be met at levels which appear to owe a great deal to monastic
practice - the materials for four dishes a day are issued from a central store,
each individual has two suits of clothing
(simple, comfortable, non-fashionable), housing is in three-roomed apartments
clearly modelled on a plan illustrated in Collectanearum Mathematicarum (pl.
79) as suitable for modest habitation.
Any surplus supplies are utilised not for increased individual consumption, but for the exercise of craftsmanship and the faculty of invention; this may lead to a kind of collective consumption, if the output is devoted to the decoration of the central temple of the community; or it may be seen as scientific advance, which is a way of uncovering the creator in His creation.
Perhaps
there can be a collective understanding as to how much time each person should
spend at work, in study or in prayer, and a collective restraint on consumption.
If Andreae is correct in his view that each individual, under suitable
conditions, will wish to exercise all three aspects of his being, then there is
no need of material incentives to work - the individual will wish to work, just
as he also wishes to relax, to study or to engage in worship. There need not be
a 'free-rider' problem in such circumstances, and (to borrow the terminology of
collectivist economics) in his 'Oeconomy' Andreae may have been groping towards
a model which needs neither the 'economic levers' of the market system nor the
'administrative levers' of planned or command systems.
[1] Heimann
made the point clearly in 1945: "... as long as the prevailing type of
economic system was the authoritarian planned economy [including feudalism]
there was no need for, or possibility of, a special science of economics."
Marxists of course would place greater emphasis on the absence of wage labour in
pre-capitalist economies.
[2] The
position taken here is in effect that the emergence of 'economics' (as we now
use the term) to replace the earlier 'political economy' was in reality a shift
in the research programme or paradigm rather than the birth of a new discipline.
[3] Christianae
societatis imago and Christiani amoris dextera porrecta (1620); Verae
unionis in Christo Jesu specimen (1628)
[4] According
to Andreae the law of God and the gospel of Christ "never at any time
praise the rule of men over each other, but always encourage the fraternal
community which has been ordained." (Christianopolis, chapter 21),
hereafter referred to as (ch.21). All references have been retranslated from the
original; the only English version of Christianopolis by Held (1917) is
seriously flawed.
[5] As a sceptical French critic put it in connexion
with a later Utopian scheme: Et qui videra les pots de chambre?
[6] In the Netherlands at this time women seem to have
achieved a considerable degree of economic independence; by contrast, in parts
of Italy some women were kept in a kind of purdah. See e.g. Fynes Moryson Itinerary
vol.1V pp. 58, 95-6, 468
[7] It is to escape from Tyranny, Sophistry and
Hypocrisy that Andreae voyages to Christianopolis; they also occur in his Mythologiae
(VI,16), where Campanella is described as engaged in a battle against
Ignorance, the bastion of the triple evils of Tyranny, Sophistry and Hypocrisy.
As Montgomery observes (p.49 n.116) Andreae met this idea before when he
translated Campanella's sonnet Delle radici de'gran mali del mondo, including
the verse: 10 nacqui a debellar tre mali estremi/ Tirannide, sofismi,
ipocrisia:/ Ond'or m'accorgo con quanta armonia/ Possanza, senno, am or m'insegno
Temi
It may be noted that 'Possanza', 'senno' and 'amor'
in line 4 match up with 'Pon', 'Sin' and 'Mor', the three rulers (under 'Hoh')
of Campanella's 'Utopia', the Citta del Sole; evidently they correspond
to Abiezer, Abida and Abi-Albon.
[8] He makes the same point again with "Nothing
gives orders more effectively, and nothing renders obedience more promptly, than
love"(ch.32}
[9] Held translated publicus economus' as 'state
economist'; exciting as it would be to have this early use of the term, this is
not what the words mean. In Andreae's day 'oeconomus, economus, aeconomus,
yconomus' still meant a steward or estate manager.
[10] This may be compared with Article V of the Knights
of the Golden Stone in Andreae’s Chymische Hochzeit: "You shall not be
willing to live longer than God will have you".
[11] Slaves, some of whom are purchased abroad and some
Utopian citizens undergoing punishment, are essential to take care of work
thought to be intrinsically unpleasant or degrading in More's Utopia. Similarly
there is more than a suggestion that the heavier agricultural work in
Campanella's ideal Città del Sole is to be carried out by slave-gangs
working under armed overseers.
[12] Elsewhere Andreae uses 'resignation' (Die
Gelassenheit) to explain the principles of 'Christian Poverty' Civis
Christianus Chap. L 'Pauperies'
[13] These are the provinces of the Theologian, the
Judge and the Scholar respectively.
[14] It is the function of the Judge "to make
just use of standards of measurement, weights and quantities, and to administer
the exact proportion of things. He believes that his aft applies to
anything to do with taming mankind and thoroughly subduing the old Adam".
[15] The diagrams are taken from Andreae, with added
translations superimposed.
[16] The Collectaneorum also depicts Speckle's
'perfect' system of fortification, with twelve bastions and redoubts on the wall
round the city, and six bastions surrounding the inner citadel. Andrea: borrowed
this arrangement (see diagram 2) in the Christenburg to represent
features of the Lutheran faith.
[17] This pattern corresponds to the arrangement
described in Chap. 4 in which the four directors of production occupy the great
towers in the middle of each range. and their four deputies inhabit the smaller
towers at the corners of the community. Each director shares two deputies, and
each deputy assists two directors. This appears to be how Andreae thought
decisions might be co-ordinated.
[18] The difficulty of reconciling triangle and square,
triad and tetrad was one with which Andreae's contemporaries were very familiar.
for example in chemistry and medicine where one of the competing models favoured
three elements (mercury, sulphur and salt) and the other four (air, earth,
water, fire).
[19] The term parallels that used in the Rule of St
Benedict 'the work of the hands' (opus manuum).
[20] 'spacious and attractive ... moulded and shaped
... form or reform' are typical of Andreae’s wordplay - "spatiosissimam
et speciosissimam ... inflectitur et reflectitur ... efformare aut
reformare" in the original. Behind the word-games, however, is a
serious purpose.
[21] As in the waistcoat associated with the followers
of St-Simon, which buttoned down the back and required the assistance of another
member of the group to fasten up or remove.
Bibliography
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