Beautifully bound devotional work
[BINDING.] KEMPIS, Thomas. The Imitation of Christ. London: Rivingtons. 1874.
12mo. Contemporary black straight-grain morocco with bevelled edges, boards panelled in gilt with turn-ins richly gilt, spine with raised bands, tooled and lettered directly in gilt, all edges gilt over red, marbled endpapers; pp. xiii, [3], 207, [1], with photographic plates laid in throughout; previous owner's ink inscription dated 'June 18 1879'; closed tear to frontispiece near gutter, but generally very good.
The Imitation of Christ in a deluxe full morocco binding.
Arguably one of the most widely read Christian devotional texts, superseded only by the Bible, The Imitation of Christ was originally composed anonymously (but confidently attributed to Thomas à Kempis) in Medieval Latin sometime between 1418-1427 in the Netherlands. The Imitation of Christ is split into four different books; 'Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life', 'Directives for the Interior Life', 'On Interior Consolation', and 'On the Blessed Sacrament'. No Christian book besides the Bible has been translated into more languages than Imitation.
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