An elaborate woodcut border by Hans Holbein the Younger frames the text. Architectural columns support an arch populated by putti, with a caduceus at the base, signifying classical knowledge and the humanist spirit of the Renaissance.

THOMAS

MORUS TO PETER

GILES

I am almost ashamed, my dearest Peter Giles, to send you this little book concerning the republic of Utopia after nearly a year, since I do not doubt that you expected it within a month and a half. For you knew that the labor of invention had been removed for me in this work, and that there was no need to think about the arrangement, as I only had to recite those things which I heard Raphael narrating together with you. Therefore, there was no need to labor over the expression, since his speech could not be exquisite, as it was first spontaneous and extemporaneous, and secondly, as you know, from a man not as learned in Latin as in Greek. Furthermore, the closer my own style approaches his neglected simplicity, the closer it will be to the truth, to which alone in this matter I owe and hold my concern.