Utopian travels in Africa during the Age of Enlightenment

[Berington, Simon]. Geschichte des Gaudentio di Lucca oder merkwürdige Nachricht seiner sonderbahren Reise durch die Sandwüsteneyen des innern Africa nach Mezzoranien [...].

€ 950,00

First German edition. A popular imaginary voyage abounding with lost-race elements - perhaps the "first such story to invoke a lost race of ancient Egyptians" (Bleiler). Once thought to be the work of Bishop Berkeley but in fact by Simon Berington (1680-1755), professor of poetry and philosophy at the English College at Douai. First published in London in 1737 and reprinted many times, the book saw editions in French, German, and Dutch.

"Lost race novel of the finding of a utopian civilization in Africa; allegedly translated from the Italian but actually a native British production and a pioneer of the genre" (Locke). "Despite the claim that the author first wrote in Italian, this work was originally written in English by a Catholic priest. It gained early fame because it was attributed to Bishop George Berkeley. Neither Berkeley nor Berington bothered to deny the attribution". The novel describes, through the testimony of the hero Gaudentio di Lucca at the Inquisition, the kingdom of Mezzorania in northern Africa, an earthly paradise accessible only by a narrow road. "Mezzorania, it should be noted, is still another of those countries set in a remote area, occupied, in this case, three thousand years earlier by a people fleeing from invading armies. Without contact with the outside world they have been free to develop in a natural environment, with a natural religion and a consequent utopian society" (Lewis). The work echoes other 18th-century writers including Fenelon and Lescondel, perhaps even the earlier Vairasse.