Introduction to <i>Antangil</i>

The first French Utopia... now translated.

                    The year 1616 found France witness to a period of great societal stress & general malaise felt throughout much of the kingdom. Revolt, and general uprising, was a near constant threat. The Estates General,[1] a once-in-a-generation body politic wherein much hope had been placed in addressing the great lingering issues of that time, had ended the previous year in utter failure. Such was the result of the unwillingness of the three estates to come together to form any meaningful resolutions. In addition, the crown had its own agenda which in the short term was to secure the regency of the Queen Mother, and in the long term 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, who dubbed it "the first French Utopia",[2] the mystery surrounding the identity of the book's anonymous author has remained its sole attraction. Yet inside these Moroccan leather covers, cloaked in the guise of a fantastical adventure, a political treatise of great merit awaits. For bound within are expressed guiding principles and fundamental precepts found in the later writings of Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau among others. Ideas that 170 years later would be expressed in the Declaration of Independence, 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; 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 the need of each of the provinces. Furthermore, an early expression of inalienable rights divinely given can be found in the name Antangil itself which is given to mean Celestial Grace.

                    With all that said, it's ironic that nearly all those who have commented on this book have given it a poor review, some have even labeled Antangil a dystopia. However, nearly all these negative reviews comment on the book from a literary point of view. 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. Regarding the book and its unknown author Chinard wrote the following:

"Here is a logically and solidly constructed political system such as one finds neither in Veiras nor in Foigny and which, more or less, is the one that the Federalist would have wanted to establish in the United States a century and a half later. ... 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 Pantagruet, and Gargantua are no less worthy of attention."[3]

From Chinard's statement, we can conclude in part that if Antangil were written in English much greater attention would have been given to this book. We encourage all to read the whole book as there is a lot to be found inside of ideas regarding republican government, an advanced universal education system, and the author's pathway to a universal Christian religion based on the ancient church. 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 unto heights unbound, to a grace yet to be achieved.

To supplement the translation we have provided notes and informative links. We hope you will enjoy this historical journey and excuse the awkwardness of our translation which we hope to improve along the way.

1. "Almost all the important Frenchmen of the time were gathered in Paris from October, 1614, to March, 1615, and the religious, intellectual, social, and political movements they represented were in open conflict. The Estates General met in the period just before absolute monarchy became firmly established in France; the attempts of the three estates to reform the royal government and the reasons for their failure reveal both the growing strength of the monarchy and the conflicting and self thwarting interests of the orders of French society." [SEE, Hayden, James Michael, "The Estates General of 1614" (1963). Dissertations. 701. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/701.]

2. Les successeurs de Cyrano de Bergerac , by Frederic Lachevre; Edward Champion, Paris (1922). SEE Appendice, page 261 piece titled, La Premiere Utopie du XVII Siecle (1616).

3. Review by Gilbert Chinard. Modern Language Notes, Vol. 49. No. 6 (Jun., 1934) pp. 413-415; John Hopkins University Press.