In Memoriam Sir Thomas More
On this date July 6 in 1535, English lawyer, author, philosopher, statesman and Lord High Chancellor of England Sir Thomas More was executed for treason against King Henry VIII of England. Best known for his most controversial work, Utopia, about the political system of an imaginary island state, More was Chancellor from October 1529 to May 1532. A staunch Catholic, More came into conflict with the King over More’s campaign against the Protestant Reformation and the King’s (and the nation’s) separation from the Catholic Church, eventually leading to More’s resignation from the Chancellorship in 1532. Further conflicts with the King led to More’s imprisonment, charges of high treason, and his eventual execution by decapitation. For his staunch commitment to and defense of his Catholic faith resulting in his death, More was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935 as a martyr, and in 2000 Pope John Paul II declared him the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.
Shown here are pages from two publications. The first is a 1726 edition of The Life of Sir Thomas More by More’s great grandson Cresacre More (1572-1649), published in London by James Woodman and David Lyon. The original edition was published in 1631 without a place or date, but was probably printed in Louvain in what is now Belgium. The frontispiece is from a famous painted portrait of Thomas More by Hans Holbein, here etched in copper by George Vertue.
The second is a two-volume, 1808 edition of More’s Utopia with the original 16th-century English translation by Ralph (or Raphe) Robinson and additional material for this edition by Thomas Frognall Dibdin, printed by William Bulmer for William Miller. Utopia was first printed in Latin in Louvain under the editorship of Erasmus in 1516. After revisions by More it was then printed again in Basel in 1518. It was not until 1551, sixteen years after More's execution, that it was first published in England by Abraham Veale (or Vele) with Robinson’s English translation. The edition shown here uses Veale's second English edition of 1556. We don’t know who did the lithographic frontispiece portrait of Thomas More, but the handsome wood engravings in this publication are signed “Austin” and are most likely by the painter and wood engraver Richard Turner Austin (1781-1842) whose father Richard Austin (1756–1832) was William Miller’s punchcutter.