L'Imitation de Jesus-Christ, Traduite et Paraphrasee en Vers Francois par Pierre Corneille ... Edition Nouvelle, Retouchee par L'Auteur, etc.

By Thomas a Kempis

In French. 1715 F. Foppens (Brussels, Belgium), 4 x 6 1/4 inches tall brown pebbled hardcover boards over gilt-embossed leather spine, illustrated with engraved frontispiece and several full-page engravings, xxiii, [2], 440, [8] pp. Slight soiling, rubbing and edgewer to covers. 3/4-inch shelf number label to bottom of spine. Small ink notations to top edges of blank front free-endpaper and verso of half title page. Slight soiling to title page and a few interior pages. Otherwise, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked - of this rare issue, a reprint of the Foppens edition of 1704. OCLC (No. 1063600584) locates only one copy - at the British Library.

In French verse. An early Brussels imprint of Pierre Corneille's renowned verse translation of the devotional classic, 'The Imitation of Christ.' Corneille (1606-1684) was a French tragedian, and one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Moliere and Racine. In 1652, his play 'Pertharite' met with poor critical reviews; a disheartened Corneille decided to quit the theatre, and in his retreat at Rouen began to translate the 'Imitation of Christ' at the solicitation of Queen Anne of Austria. This is widely considered the best verse translation of the Imitation.

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 apart from the Bible which has been printed in so many editions and translations.