This project contributes to an ongoing research study on Renaissance utopian thought in Italy. While the tradition of utopian literature is often associated with the publication of More’s Utopia, the Italian Renaissance produced a rich body of texts that explored ideal cities, political communities, and alternative social orders.
The broader research project supports the preparation of a scholarly book titled Italian Utopias of the Renaissance, which examines how Italian thinkers imagined ideal societies through literature, philosophy, architecture, and political theory.
Key figures in this tradition include authors such as Tommaso Campanella, whose La Città del Sole (1602) presents a highly structured communal society, and architectural theorists such as Leon Battista Alberti, whose writings envision ideal urban forms grounded in harmony and civic order. The objective of the student-assisted research project is to identify and map Italian utopian texts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, examining how Renaissance authors imagined ideal cities, political communities, and social organization. Students will help document the authors, texts, and themes associated with Renaissance utopian thought while situating these works within their historical and intellectual contexts.
A central component of the project will be the development of a conceptual and visual map of Renaissance utopian thought. Students will help identify key texts and ideas and organize them within a structured framework that links authors, cities, and political models. For comparison, I will particularly welcome information about utopian works in other languages and cultures, during the same time, and their influence on later utopias or dystopias. This mapping exercise will allow students to visualize how different Renaissance thinkers imagined ideal societies and how these ideas circulated across intellectual networks in early modern Europe.