An Extract of the Christian's Pattern; Or, A Treatise on the Imitation of Christ, Written in Latin, by Thomas a Kempis

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1840 Piercy and Reed (New York), 2 3/4 x 4 5/8 inches tall embossed blue cloth hardcover, gilt-lettered brown leather label to spine, 218 pp. Slight to moderate soiling, rubbing and edgewear to covers, with slight bumping to all four tips. Former Maine Wesleyan Seminary copy, with bookplate to front pastedown, ink shelf number and pencil prior owner name to blank front free-endpaper and a shelf label to lower spine. Ink number and pencil prior owner name to blank front free-endpaper. Otherwise, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - of this scarce pre-Civil War issue. Not in OCLC. ~SP02~ [1.0P] A rare 1840 New York imprint of John Wesley's 'extracts' from the fifteenth century devotional classic The Imitation of Christ. Anglican cleric and theologian John Wesley (1703-1791), who, with his brother Charles and fellow cleric George Whitefield, founded Methodism, made a full translation of The Imitation from Latin to English in 1735 as one of his first published works. After the birth of the Methodist movement in 1738-39, Wesley produced this greatly abridged version, entitled 'An Extract of the Christian's Pattern,' first printed in 1741 and reprinted dozens of times thereafter in mostly tiny, pocket-sized editions like this, most of which did not survive heavy devotional use by adherents and are therefore rare today in the market. Wesley produced four different editions of Kempis?s work and considered it indispensable in achieving true religion of the heart. The Imitation of Christ was written (or at a minimum, transcribed) 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. N° de ref. del artículo SP02-0822-13033

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