Francis Lodwick (1619–1694): A Country Not Named (MS. Sloane 913, fols. 1r–33r)

This is the first edition of A Country Not Named, a utopian work written by Francis Lodwick, merchant, language-planner, and F.R.S. This remarkable text survives in a sole manuscript and has remained virtually unknown until now. Lodwick, who also attempted the creation of an artificial language, is usually discussed as a figure in the history of linguistics, but this work, as well as his other manuscripts, reveals his wider interests. Lodwick was theologically heterodox, and his utopia embodies his ideas on the vast age of the world and the nature and origin of religion.

An edition with an annotated primary bibliography and an introductory essay on Lodwick and his intellectual context.