 In the second of two written defences, Campanella sought to justify and legitimate his own initiative by placing it within a prophetic context, so that it would not be regarded as an act of rebellion, which would entail the death penalty. He later developed this work as the Articuli prophetales, but during his trial he decided that presenting it to his judges would be a futile effort. Instead, he resorted to a clever ploy in order to avoid capital punishment. The death penalty could not be inflicted on those deemed insane because, since they were not in a position to repent, the judges would be responsible for the eternal damnation of their souls. Clinging to this judicial cavil, Campanella pretended for many months to be out of his mind. His condition was, in the end, confirmed by means of a horrible form of torture, called the “vigil” because, in addition to the bodily suffering that was inflicted, victims were also subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation. He would refer to this terrible moment in his life as proof of the freedom of the human will, that cannot be bowed even by the most extreme physical pressure. Although disillusioned and embittered by the catastrophic result of his noble Calabrian plan, Campanella questioned himself about the reasons for this failure, reflecting on the role of the prophet who, as bearer of an uncomfortable and unpleasant message for those in power, cannot avoid being persecuted and put to death. Having achieved the supreme good of preserving his life, he wrote his most famous work, The City of the Sun, in the form of a “poetical dialogue” between a Genoese sailor who had accompanied Columbus on his voyage to America and a Knight Hospitaller. It first appeared in Latin translation as the appendix to his Politica, published in Frankfurt in 1623. His aim was to describe an ideal model of society that, in contrast to the violence, disorder and irrationality of the real world, was in harmony with nature, understood as an expression of God’s intrinsic “art” and wisdom. He was, in fact, convinced that present-day society was a labyrinth of injustice and unhappiness precisely because it had deviated from this natural model. The more a city constituted a “body politic,” the happier it would be, with its individual parts integrated so as to form a unitary organism and its various limbs, diversified according to function, entirely coordinated to serve the communal well-being.