Which 1516 book coined the word for an ideal society?

Utopia, by Thomas More, and the joke is in the name. It is Greek for no place - ou-topos - and More was well aware that it puns on eu-topos, good place. The book describes an island society with no private property, six-hour working days, universal healthcare and religious toleration, narrated by a traveller called Hythloday, whose name translates roughly as dispenser of nonsense.

So whether More meant it as a blueprint or a satire has been argued for five hundred years. He was a devout Catholic and Henry VIII's chancellor who had heretics burned, and his imaginary island permits divorce, euthanasia and married priests - which is difficult to read as a programme he endorsed. It was written in Latin for a scholarly audience and he resisted its translation into English.

He was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept Henry as head of the church, and the word he coined for a place that does not exist has been used ever since for places people have tried to build. The Soviet Union put him on an obelisk in Moscow as a precursor of communism, which is a considerable afterlife for a lord chancellor executed for loyalty to the Pope.