Messianic and Utopian Influences on Imperial Spain: A Comparative Study in the Works of Tommaso Campanella and Pedro Fernández de Quirós

Roure draws a novel connection between Tommaso Campanella’s utopian ideas for Imperial Spain and Catholicism and Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós’ vision of an idyllic society and a mythical city of New Jerusalem in the antipodes.

The book presents newfound evidence suggesting Spain experimented with Messianism to secure their empire in the late Renaissance. The case is made that the Spanish monarchy contemplated Campanella’s Messianic ideas and sent Quirós to initiate them on ...