Scholars believe it is possible to reconstruct with considerable certainty the history of the writing of Utopia, and that history throws some valuable light on the understanding of the work.
In May, 1515, More went to Bruges in the Netherlands as a member of an English governmental commission to negotiate for trade agreements with representatives of Prince Charles, Viceroy of the Netherlands for the emperor. About mid-July a recess was called while the Dutch representatives returned to court to confer with their government. During the succeeding weeks of enforced leisure (possibly as much as three months), More took the opportunity to visit Antwerp, where he became acquainted with Peter Giles, a scholarly gentleman who was a friend of Erasmus. It was the hope of Erasmus that these two should meet because he was sure they would find much in common. Evidently they found a great deal of pleasure in one another's company, and there is good reason to believe that in the course of their frequent conversations they talked seriously on such subjects as the recent discoveries of new lands and strange peoples and governments, good and bad. Utopia appears to have grown, directly or indirectly, from ideas that were generated in those meetings. It is known that before More left the Netherlands that autumn he visited Peter Giles again and showed him a manuscript which described a commonwealth called Utopia.
That manuscript, however, was not the complete version of the book as we know it. It contained only two sections of the complete book — one, the Introduction to Book I, telling of More's meeting Giles and being introduced to Hythloday; and two, almost the entire text of Book II, the section called "The Discourse on Utopia."
