Campanella, The City of the Sun (1602) — priest-governed, astrologically timed breeding
artifactOccult & Esoteric
In a utopia written in 1602, priests decide when people breed — and astrologers pick the hour.
Who they are
Tommaso Campanella, The City of the Sun[1].
What they do
It is an early-modern example of spiritually governed breeding.
How it works
The English text says 'the priests … determine the hours for breeding.' The Italian original adds that the astrologer and physician set the hour for when Mercury and Venus are in the right place.
Why it matters
It shows the idea long before modern eugenics.
The engine's record — word for word
[
Report #196] Tommaso Campanella's utopia, written 1602. The ruling priests control breeding: 'The priests, moreover, determine the hours for breeding' (English, Gutenberg). The Italian text sets the hour by astrologer and physician: 'Questa ora è determinata dall'Astrologo e Medico; e si forzan sempre di pigliar tempo, che Mercurio e Venere siano orientali dal Sole' (the English Gutenberg edition is abridged and omits this). A documented early-modern instance of spiritually governed selective breeding. Joins classical_infanticide_eugenics as a pre-Darwinian precedent.
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