Recommended Reading for Good Governors: Utopia de Thomas Moro (1637)

Abstract

Gerónimo de Medinilla translated Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) into Spanish in 1637, more than a century after the text was printed in Leuven. The paratexts of the translation imply that Medinilla might have published his translation with a practical and political intention, which is reminiscent of the first interpretations of the humanist’s work by sixteenth-century Spanish readers. This paper analyzes two textual references from the translation to discuss the hypothesis that it was offered as a manual for governors. It also proposes an original biography of Gerónimo de Medinilla. This will serve to contextualize the translator and the potential final purpose of the edition.