De imitatione cristi.

Accession number: 
PML 510
Uniform title: 
Imitatio Christi. French.
Published: 
Imprime a Paris : par Jehan Lambert, xvi. iour de novembre. Mil cccc.quatrevi[n]g[t]s et treze [16 November 1493].
Description: 
[1], ii-Cx, [4] leaves : illustrations (woodcuts) ; 21 cm. (4to)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from half-title page, leaf a1r. Incipit, leaf a2r: Cy co[m]mence le Livre tressalutaire Intitule De limitacion nostreseign[eu]r Iesncrist [sic]: et p[ro]faict conte[m]pnement de ce present miserable monde.
Imprint from colophon, leaf o6r: Cy finist la livre de imitatione cristi Et de contemptu mundi. Translate de latin en francois. Et imprime a Paris par Jehan Lambert. Le xvi. iour de novembre. Mil cccc.quatrevi[n]g[t]s et treze.
Printed in Lambert's type 1:95G.
Signatures: a-i⁸ K⁸ l-n⁸ o⁶; .:⁴: 114 leaves. Printed foliation with mistakes.
Woodcuts.
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).
De contemptu mundi attributed to Saint Bernard or Jean Gerson in incipit, leaf a2r.
PML copy on vellum.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 20 x 13.4 cm.
PML copy missing 2 leaves: a1 and e8.

Binding: 
18th-century calf over paper boards (21 x 14 cm.), sewn on 4 supports, with the gilt armorial of Foucault. Marbled paper pastedowns and endleaves, with plain paper endleaves; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

De l'imitacion nostre seigneur Jesu crist

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary French rubrication, gilt initials and paragraph marks on red ground, yellow capital strokes. Wooducts illuminated, with alterations to printed scene. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.

Provenance: 
Nicolas Joseph Foucault, marquis de Magny (1643-1721), armorial binding; Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and bibliographical notes: No. 19, 8/5/96 and price code: yl/-/- +com (front endleaf 1 verso); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: