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The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw a rise in European travel to Persia, and consequently in writings about such travel. 1 Many of these emanated from the group surrounding the brothers Anthony and Robert Sherley, who first travelled to the East in 1598 and whose experiences in Persia were documented in a range of texts published in the early seventeenth century. The Sherleys' journey to Persia was begun from Italy; originally bound for Ferrara in the service of the Earl of Essex, they eventually arrived in Persia via Venice in December 1598, with the aim of promoting English interests there and assessing the potential for trade. 2 It is uncertain whether the Persian expedition was undertaken with or without Essex's knowledge or approval; neither brother went back to England before the earl's death in 1601. After several months in Persia, Anthony returned to Europe in 1599 in company with , on an ambassadorial visit to a series of European courts. 3 Robert, the younger brother, remained in Persia in the service of the Safavid ruler, Shah 'Abbas I; he returned to Europe himself as 'Abbas's ambassador in 1609 and subsequently spent two extended periods in London, from 1611 to 1613, and from 1623 to 1627. 4 Both Sherley brothers, though born Protestant, are believed to have converted to Catholicism whilst in Persia, a fact which was probably known in England by the early years of James VI and I's reign. 5 Anthony

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Recent studies of the Renaissance utopia have focused on the importance of historicising utopia and in particular of considering the influence of contemporary developments in science or natural philosophy on the development of utopianism during the period. This article, having assessed the problem of defining the utopia, surveys some of the most prominent examples of the utopian mode of discourse from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (including those of More, Bacon, Campanella, Andreae and Cavendish). Considering scholarship which illuminates the relationship between utopian writings and the theories and practices of natural knowledge, it reflects on the utopia's abiding interest in spiritual improvement alongside social and scientific reform.

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