[Rarebooks] FS: 1st Italian trans. of Thomas a Kempis' "Imitation of Christ" Venice: 1488

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(INCUNABULA) [Thomas a Kempis, Saint]. IMITATIO CHRISTI [Italian]. Venice: Joannes Rubeus Vercellensis. 22 March, 1488. 4to. ff.(78). Roman type, 36 lines per page. Initial spaces with printed guide letters. 204mm. x 148mm. Rubricated throughout in a contemporary hand, with initial letters in red and intermittent paragraph marks in red & blue. An additional 8-leaf gathering bound in at end of the volume, with a 12-page Latin text by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (Parabola II) in manuscript, written in a contemporary renaissance hand. Six-line loan inscription in Italian from "Fra Juliano, visitatore" to "Fra Ludovich", dated April 14th, 1495, on the title-page. Twelve lines of calligraphic exercises, perhaps 17th century, on a blank leaf at rear of volume. Ownership inscription dated 1743, on front flyleaf, the name now obliterated. 18th century vellum, author and date inked on spine. 19th century bookplate of Charles & Mary Lacaita on front pastedown. First leaf lightly soiled, otherwise a clean & crisp copy.	$25,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
Goff I-45; GW M46878; ISTC ii00045000. ISTC cites 9 locations in North America and 25 in Europe (mostly Italy). BMC V: 416. See PRINTING & THE MIND OF MAN #13 (the 1473 first printing) calling the IMITATIO "The most widely read devotional manual apart from the Bible."
The first edition in Italian of Thomas a Kempis' IMITATIO CHRISTI, handsomely rubricated, and with an additional gathering bound in at end with a manuscript copy of the second Parabola of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Considered among the most significant works of Christian devotional literature, IMITATIO CHRISTI was composed in the Netherlands circa 1418-1427, and was an immediate success. It circulated widely in manuscript, and was first printed in Augsburg in 1473; ISTC cites over 70 incunable editions. Vernacular editions appeared early, starting with a Catalan edition in 1482; by 1500, the text had been printed in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Czech. ISTC records 12 editions in Italian. Authorship of the text was long debated, but it is now generally agreed that it is the work of Thomas a Kempis (ca. 1380-1471). The translator of this Italian version is not known.
The manuscript at the end of the volume is Bernard's DE CONFLICTU DUORUM REGUM; it is the second of the eight texts known as the PARABOLAE. It is written in a hasty and somewhat careless humanist cursive, most likely non-professional; the first page has a single large initial and is rubricated in red.


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