Editing Thomas More’s Utopia (Louvain, T. Martinus, 1516): an example of Erasmian networks in action

Theodoricus Martinus Alostensis published the editio princeps of Thomas More’s Utopia at the end of the year 1516 in Louvain. Why did the English humanist give his text to this printer and not to someone like Johann Froben in Basel or Jodocus Badius Ascensius in Paris? In fact, Thomas More didn’t choose Theodoricus Martinus randomly, but had been guided by his friend Erasmus, who was living in Brabant at that time and was working directly with this printer. The humanist from Rotterdam then instructed his circle to monitor closely the printing of the text, to do the proofreading and to direct the publishing. He involved in this process his friend Petrus Aegidius – clerk of city of Antwerp and close friend of both More and Erasmus – and Gerardus Geldenhower. By studying the correspondence of Erasmus, we will first rebuild the process of printing the first edition of the Utopia. This will also be an opportunity to discover the role and the importance of a network of humanists within the workshop of a printer. Without this, Theodoricus Martinus would never have been able to build his identity as a “printer humanist” and to transform his workshop into one of the leading places for the diffusion of humanism in the Low Countries in the first decades of the 16th century.