Is My Utopia a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Louvain: Thierry (Dirk) Martens, December 1516, quarto, in Latin — the census claim is confirmed
• Title begins 'Libellus vere aureus nec minus salutaris quam festivus de optimo reip. statu, deque nova insula Utopia', with the title naming More as citizen and undersheriff of London and crediting Pieter Gillis (Peter Giles) of Antwerp as editor; the edition was seen through the press under Erasmus's direction
• The 1516 Louvain first contains a woodcut map of the island of Utopia — ANONYMOUS and comparatively crude — together with the 22-letter Utopian alphabet and quatrain, verses by Gillis, Gerard Geldenhouwer and Cornelius Grapheus, and More's dedicatory letter to Gillis
• The map is the critical discriminator: the elegant bird's-eye map everyone recognises is by Ambrosius Holbein and was made for Froben's Basel edition of 1518, which also introduced the woodcut of the interlocutors and a Hans Holbein title-page border
• A copy with the Holbein map is a Basel 1518, not the Louvain first

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The Latin Louvain 1516 is the true first and precedes all. Sequence of the early Latin editions: Louvain, Martens, December 1516 (first); Paris, Gilles de Gourmont, 1517 (second); Basel, Johann Froben, March 1518 and again November 1518 — the November Basel is the revised text and the most-reproduced, and is frequently miscalled 'the first' because of the Holbein map. Both the Latin first and the first in English are collected. The first English is Ralph Robinson's translation, 'A fruteful and pleasaunt worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called Utopia', London: Abraham Vele, 1551 — a full 35 years after the Latin and 16 years after More's execution. Robinson's revised second edition of 1556 is a separate, later edition and drops the dedicatory letter; it is not the first in English.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club era applies to the 16th-century printings, and no book-club tells are documented. The realistic encounters are modern scholarly and reprint editions — the Yale Edition of the Complete Works, Cambridge Texts, Everyman's Library, Modern Library, and press facsimiles of the 1516 or 1518 sheets — all first thus at best. A facsimile is identified by modern paper, a modern editorial introduction, and a publisher's imprint and date on the verso or in the colophon.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Utopia a first edition?

A first edition of Utopia by Thomas More (Thierry) is identified by: Louvain: Thierry (Dirk) Martens, December 1516, quarto, in Latin — the census claim is confirmed.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The Latin Louvain 1516 is the true first and precedes all.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club era applies to the 16th-century printings, and no book-club tells are documented. The realistic encounters are modern scholarly and reprint editions — the Yale Edition of the Complete Works, Cambridge Texts, Everyman's Library, Modern Library, and press facsimiles of the 1516 or 1518 sheets — all first thus at best. A facsimile is identified by modern paper, a modern editorial introduction, and a publisher's imprint and date on the verso or in the colophon.

I have a first edition of Utopia — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.