 On June 1, 1607 the treatise was dedicated to Kaspar Schoppe, a German scholar who had come to Naples in the spring of that year to make contact with the imprisoned Campanella, who informs us that Schoppe suggested the title by which the work is known—he himself had called it Recognoscimento della vera religione universale (Identification of the True Universal Religion). Written in Italian, the treatise was translated into Latin in the following years by Campanella himself; it was printed in Rome in 1631, then in Paris in 1636. The original Italian version has recently come to light, discovered in an autograph manuscript held in the Vatican Library. In the prefatory letter, addressed to Schoppe, Campanella weaves a moving account of the dramatic events his life into a powerful contrast between darkness and light: on the one hand, there is a dark age dominated by reason of state; on the other, there is a determination to kindle a light in order to distinguish truth from error, philosophers from sophists, princes from tyrants, religion from superstition. The first chapter acts as an introduction, setting out the different ways of dealing with religion. From the outset, two figures take center stage and come face to face as the heroes and villains of the story: philosophers and politicians. The latter deny God and his providence, maintaining that all religions are political in origin. Such doctrines, based on self-love, are extremely difficult to eradicate and constitute the plague of every age, since their supporters refuse to engage in any dialogue, closed within the arrogant certainty of possessing the truth. Diametrically opposed to them are the philosophers, who believe that there is only one true and certain truth, that is natural and common to all. Uncertain when it comes to supernatural dogmas, they live in a virtuous manner in conformity with nature. Without doing harm to anyone, they endeavor to accomplish works that are honest and beneficial to the human race. Since they have no desire for honors or wealth, “they live content with little and enjoy contemplation, and they have more esteem for themselves than for a king or a pope or a monarch.”