La Imitazione di Cristo di Tommaso Da Kempis Nuovamente Dal Piu Corretto Originale Latino in Italiano Tradotta Per Opera di Enrico Enriquez ... Con Nuova Aggiunta di Devote Aspirazioni di S. Francesco Di Sales ...

By Thomas a Kempis

In Italian. 1775 Presso l'Erede di Niccolo Pezzana (Venice, Italy), 3 3/4 x 6 1/8 inches tall full leather bound, four raised bands to spine, gilt-ruled boards, engraving of Christ with his cross to title page, engraved printer's devices, text with engraved border, 432 pp. Covers stained, rubbed and edgeworn. Minor worming to upper margin of first six leaves, not affecting text. Page edges stained. A few pages with creased tips. Otherwise, a very good copy of this scarce edition. OCLC locates only one copy, at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris.

A translation by Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal Enrico Enriquez (1701-1756), with the addition of devotional aspirations from St. Francis de Sales.

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. In the past six hundred years, the work has been translated from Kempis' medieval Latin into nearly every language in the world.