The first French Utopia... translated HERE.

Introduction

                    The year 1616 found France witness to a period of deep societal stress and a general malaise felt throughout much of the kingdom. Threats of uprisings from the Prince of Conde and other malcontents, the preeminence of the Roman Catholic Church, the minority rights of Protestants, an unfair tax system, and the marriage of the young French king to a Spanish princess were among the most pressing issues of the day. The Estates General, a once-in-a-generation body politic wherein much hope had been placed, had ended the previous year in utter failure. This was the result of the unwillingness of the three estates to come together on any meaningful recommendations on the critical questions before them, and the crown having its own motives, which in the short term was looking to secure the continuation of the Queen-Mother as regent on behalf of her juvenile son, and in the long term was looking to institute a more centralized, authoritative government under its control. Responding to the deplorable state of his nation, a book of no literary acclaim was caused to be printed by an anonymous author titled Histoire du Grand et Admirable Royaume d'Antangil...

                    Since having been reintroduced to the world in 1922 by famed French bibliophile, Frederic Lachevre,[1] who dubbed it "the first French Utopia", the mystery surrounding the identity of the book's anonymous author has remained its near-sole attraction.[2] Yet inside these Moroccan-leather covers, cloaked in the guise of a historical adventure, a political treatise of great merit awaits. For bound within are expressed guiding precepts and fundamental principles found in the later writings of Locke, Montesquieu, Harrington, and Rousseau, among others. Ideas that 170 years later would be enshrined in our own American Constitution and implemented by our founding fathers. Such novel ideas as an elected sovereign, with limited powers, who could be removed at any time for bad behavior; term limits for elected officials; an independent judiciary; a bicameral legislature; federalism whereby laws enacted by the Senate would be returned to the local provinces & there could be accepted or rejected in full, or could be altered to suit each of the local populations. Some of the same ideas and principles found in Antangil would facilitate a fledgling American republic to rise out of the ashes of revolution, to soar to heights unbound, unto a grace yet to be achieved.

                    Yet with all that said, it's ironic in the least that nearly all those who have commented on this book have given it a poor review, some have even termed Antangil a dystopia. But all these negative reviews have been looking at the book from mainly a literary perspective. An exception to this was Gilbert Chinard, a French-born American historian and Jefferson scholar, who recognized the similarity between Antangil and the U.S. Constitution. Chinard writes of the book's unknown author:

"... despite the awkwardness of his style, he deserves to retain the attention of historians. He indeed brings us valuable indications on the diffusion of certain ideas that we tend too much to attribute to the eighteenth century and more particularly to the English eighteenth century and which, very often, had been glimpsed and even developed from the end of the sixteenth. The chapters on education, where the influence of Rabelais is evident, but which mark an obvious progress on the Pantagruet, and the Gargantua are no less worthy of attention."

From the previous statement by Chinard one can conclude that the dissemination of many of the ideas found in the American Constitution that have been attributed to philosophers of the late 17th-century and beyond were developed and even published much earlier than many suppose. One could also conclude that if Antangil were written in English, much more learned attention would have been dedicated to this work.

We encourage all to read the whole book as there is much to be found inside regarding this author's own vision of a republican government, with numerous checks and balances, an advanced universal education system, and the his pathway to a universal Christian religion. Please excuse the awkwardness of our translation, which we hope to refine over time. To supplement the translation, we have added notes and informative links. We hope you will enjoy!

1. Frederic Lachevre was the first to coin the phrase "first French Utopia" in regard to Antangil. SEE addendum attached to Les successeurs de Cyrano de Bergerac (1922) titled La Premiere Utopie du XVII^e

2. Though there was only one printing of Antangil (1616) there are two printers associated with the book. The first of these was Thomas Portau of Saumur, France and the second was Jean Le Maire of Leiden. There is no doubt that Portau was the actual printer, yet the mystery remains, arising from that fact that every known volume of Antangil carries a placard, or the remnants of one, with the name of printer Jean Le Maire of Leiden. While Portau was associated with the Academy of Saumur, LeMaire had some association with the University of Leiden.