THE CHRISTIAN'S PATTERN: OR, A TREATISE OF THE IMITATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN FOUR BOOKS... TO WHICH ARE ADDED, MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS, FOR SICK PERSONS by Thomas a' Kempis (trans. George Stanhope) - 1698-01-01

M. Gillyflower, R. Sare, T. Bennet, F. Saunders, &, 1698-01-01. Leather Bound. Very Good. 1698 first Stanhope edition Printed by W[illiam] O[nley] for M. Gillyflower, R. Sare, T. Bennet, F. Saunders and M. Wotton (London), 4 7/8 x 7 3/4 inches tall full leather bound, gilt lettering to crimson leather label to spine, marbled endpapers, engraved frontispiece and full-page engraving preceding each of the four books signed by renowned Flemish engraver Michael van der Gucht (1660-1775), [12], 339, [3], 45, [1] pp., complete. Newly rebound. The plate preceding the third book has a bit of text offsetting to the lower margin. Very minor age toning to the paper in the last third of the volume. Otherwise, apart from a few minor instances of light marginal staining or very few instances of light foxing, a very good to near fine copy of the scarce first edition of this George Stanhope edition, which was reprinted over the ensuing years more than twenty times. In fact, Stanhope's was likely the most popular English edition of the Imitation of Christ throughout the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth. References: Wing (1996), T946; ESTC No. R9577. The English Short Title Catalog records only seven copies in North America, and American Book Prices Current shows no copies coming up for auction in the past 30+ years. ~KM2~ George Stanhope (1660-1728) was a clergyman of the Church of England, rising to be Dean of Canterbury and a Royal Chaplain, and a leading figure in church politics of the early 18th century. Despite the popularity of this translation of the Imitation, as well as prior translations or adaptations of Epictetus, Charron's 'Books on Wisdom' and and Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Stanhope's style has been criticized as overly paraphrastic, using 'flowing sentences that pleased the reader in Queen Anne's reign.' The Imitation of Christ (or, as the title is translated here, The Christian's Pattern) was written (and edited from his order's writings) by Catholic monk Thomas a 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.