The Imitation of Christ (De imitatione Christi)
A book of spiritual counsel in four parts, on the inner life, on consolation and on communion, written in Latin in the early fifteenth century. It is commonly printed under the name of Thomas à Kempis, a canon of Mount St Agnes near Zwolle.
Read the text at gutenberg.org ↗Facsimile of the manuscript of 1441 in the hand of Thomas à Kempis (London, 1885) ↗
The work is made up of four short books: admonitions for the spiritual life, on the inner life, on inward consolation and on the sacrament of the altar. The text names no author. Its opening chapters set humility and a good life above learning pursued for its own sake.
The oldest evidence for the author cited in this wiki is a manuscript of 1441 written by Thomas à Kempis himself; see Autograph Manuscript of the Imitation of Christ (1441) for what that manuscript does and does not show. The book is cited here as a document of the circle described in the Devotio Moderna and the Imitation of Christ, without deciding who composed it.
Cited in
- 1384 to 1441, firm date