Thomas de Ke[m]pis de imitatione Christi [et] de contemptu omniu[m] vanitatu[m] mundi.

Accession number: 
PML 58
Uniform title: 
Imitatio Christi.
Published: 
Argentine impressus : [Johann Prüss], M.cccc.lxxxix [1489].
Description: 
[168] leaves : illustration (woodcut) ; 13.5 cm (8vo)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

On the attribution to Thomas à Kempis see A. Ampe, L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ et son auteur (Roma, 1973) and R.R. Post, The Modern Devotion (Leiden, 1968) pp. 520-536 (CIBN).
Title from half-title page.
Imprint from colophon, leaf X8v: Tractatulus venerabil[is] m[a]g[ist]ri Ioha[n]nis Gerson de meditat[i]o[n]e cordis. Arg[e]n[tine] impressus. Anno d[omi]ni M.cccc.lxxxix. finit feliciter.
Printed in Prüss's types 7:156G and 8:80G.
Signatures: [A⁸]; B-X⁸: 168 leaves, leaves [A]7-8 blank.
Paper format: Chancery octavo.
Woodcuts.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 12.3 x 8.8 cm.

Binding: 
18th-century (probably German) gilt-tooled (with medallion centerpiece stamps of the Crucifixion on the front cover and the Virgin and Child on the back cover) full brown calf over paper boards (13.5 x 10.5 cm), sewn on 3 supports; rebacked. Plain paper pastedowns; decorative endbands; dark edges.
Variant Title: 

De imitatione Christi

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary rubrication, red initials. Annotations: Some contemporary marginal notations, in several different hands, throughout text. Extensive prayer notations in margins (leaves [A]1 and 6v-8v).

Provenance: 
Munich, Franciscans, monogram stamp: S T A M (leaf [A]1r and top edge), inscription: "Monachij ad PP. Franciscanos pro Bibl." (leaf [A]2r), and shelfmarks: 428, 457, 184 (front pastedown); unidentified price inscription: "liber iste [con]stat iiij grossos" (leaf [A]1r); Johann Traber, inherited from his neighbor Alexander Raunspurger(?, d. 4 July 1515), inscription (leaf X8v), probably Franciscan monks in Munich; Francis Joseph Schorer (or Schoner?), inscription: "Ex libris Francisci Josephi Schorer(?) [???] 1751" (leaf [A]2r) and signature (front pastedown and leaf X8v); Bertram Ashburnham, Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), with shelfmark: 4.F (front pastedown), his sale, Sotheby's, 25 June 1897, lot 2120; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (rear pastedown), entire library purchased in 1902 by: Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Incunable Collection
Catalog Link: 
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Genres: 
Calf bindings (Binding)
Blind tooled bindings (Binding)
Gold tooled bindings (Binding)
Department: 
Printed Books