SINOLD VON SCHÜTZ, Philipp Balthasar [FARAMUND, Ludwig Er...

Die glückseeligste Insul...

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Peter Conrad Monath, Frankfurt, 1732. Octavo, with an engraved frontispiece and eight engravings (one folding); contemporary sheep, spine slightly worn but a good copy. A rare utopia that starts with travellers rejecting the corruption of American wealth, instead setting out to find the happiest island in the world: this is the second edition of a work first published in Königsberg in 1723. It begins by outlining the discovery of America, and describing how the riches of the continent are corrupting all who live there: we are all, asserts the author, worse Christians since 1492. As a reaction to this, a small boat is outfitted and sails for the Island of Happiness where they discover a 'pietistic, communistic, monarchical utopia inhabited by virtuous citizens leading simple lives: 'Mit wenig Worten: Ihr werdet bey der Christlichen Einfalt dieses gesegneten Königsreichs den Vorschmack des ewigen Himmelreichs finden'...' (Gibson). This perfect utopia is distinguished by the absence of European evils: war, religious controversy, lengthy lawsuits. Unsurprisingly, the visitors are sternly abjured not to reveal the island's location on their return.

Sinold von Schütz (1657-1742) was a varied and prolific writer who published, amongst other things, several religious treatises and devotional tracts, and was largely responsible for the 1704 publication of the German language encyclopaedia Reales Staats- und Zeitungs-Lexicon.
Gibson, 'St. Thomas More... with a Bibliography of Utopiana', 771.

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