[Imitatio Christi].

contemporary 'semi-sombre' English Restoration binding

A near fine example of an English 'semi-sombre' binding dating from the Restoration of Charles II. The covers have been tooled in blind to a 'cottage-roof' design composed of panels where the goatskin has been ruled with concentric lines and tooled in bind, and alternately left untreated and tooled in gilt.

Similar examples are exhibited in Howard Nixon's English Restoration Bookbindings (see nos 113-116), and as no. 39 of his Five Centuries of English Bookbinding, which belongs to a French New Testament owned by Samuel Pepys. As Nixon explains, sombre bindings emerged in the 1670s 'for mourning use and Lenten observance' and were prevalent for the next 50 or so years (see English Restoration Bookbindings, p.45). Further examples of this style of binding can be seen in the Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge, Volume VI, Bindings (see no. 403).

The text is an anonymous English translation of Thomas à Kempis' great spiritual meditation De Imitatione Christi, an important work of Christian mysticism forming part of the Late Medieval Devotio Moderna movement which called for religious reform and apostolic renewal. This edition had earlier been printed in a smaller vicesimo-quarto format.

Kempis (d.1471) was born in Kempen, in the Diocese of Cologne, but received his education at Deventer, in the Low Countries where he came into contact with the Fratres Vitae Communis, a majority lay confraternity founded by the Dutch deacon Gerard Groot, a leading figure in the Devotio Moderna movement. Members took no irrevocable vows, but lived according to the monastic principles of poverty, obedience and chastity, with all earnings put into a common fund.

Having completed his studies, Kempis joined the reformed monastery of the Augustinian Canon Regulars at Mount Saint Agnes, near Zwolle, where he was ordained priest in 1413, later becoming Sub-Prior in 1429. From here he wrote lives of Groot and his associate Florentius Radwyn, and composed the four disparate mystical tracts, together forming the Imitation, which began to circulate in manuscript in the 1430s. The first printed edition appeared in 1473, and the first English-language translation in 1503 — it has never been out of print since and remains a mainstay in the canon of Western literature.

8vo (16.5 x 10 cm); text in English, engraved frontispiece, woodcut headpieces, green morocco bookplate to front pastedown; contemporary black goatskin tooled in gilt and blind to a 'semi-sombre' 'cottage-roof' design, the corners and rectangular centrepiece of both covers with ruled lines and tooled in blind, the other compartments tooled in gilt with tulip and paisley design, gilt spine in 6 compartments, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece to second compartment, overlaying(?) earlier blind-tooling, all edges gilt, a little rubbed with areas of slight fading, some time varnished, near fine; [42], 326pp.

ESTC R26293; cf. Howard Nixon, English Restoration Bookbindings, nos. 113-116, Howard Nixon, Five Centuries of English Bookbinding, no.39 & Howard Nixon, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge, Volume VI, Bindings, no.403.