Of The Imitation of Christ : Four Books 1884 by Thomas A Kempis

James R. Osgood and Company, Boston. Good. 1884 James R. Osgood and Co. (Boston, Massachusetts), 6 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches tall beige buckram cloth hardcover, no dust jacket (as issued), gilt lettering to front cover and spine, printed on heavy paper, copiously illustrated with engravings and printers devices throughout and more than a dozen generously ruled full-page engravings, all pages red ruled, x, [8], 353 pp. Heavy soiling and moderate rubbing and edgewear to covers, with heavy age toning and creasing to spine. Prior owner name to blank front free-endpaper. Chip to lower tip of half title page. Otherwise, apart from slight marginal age toning and a couple of pages with slight marginal soiling, a very good copy - clean and unmarked - of this handsome printing. Note that this is a heavy and oversized book, so additional postage will be required for international or priority orders. ~KM2~ [3.5P] The Imitation of Christ was written (or at a minimum, transcribed) by Catholic monk Thomas Kempis (circa 1380-1471), as four separate books completed between 1420 and 1427, at Mount Saint Agnes monastery, in the town of Windesheim, located in what is now the Netherlands. He wrote these works for the instruction of novices of his Augustinian monastic order, followers of Geert Groote's Brethren of the Common Life. But the writings quickly became popular among all the literate faithful. They were copied together in one manuscript as early as 1427, by Kempis, and copied (and later printed) together fairly consistently thereafter. Soon after hand-copied versions of the Imitatio Christi initially appeared, the printing press was invented, and it was among the first books after the Bible to be printed. There is probably no other book other than the Bible which has been printed in so many editions and translations.