The Imitation of Christ

The Imitatio Christi, probably written by Thomas a Kempis in the 1420s, was first translated into English in the mid-fifteenth century. This first translation is a generally clear and accurate rendering in which both the content and the rhetorical characteristics of the original are effectively conveyed in English. The translation was first edited by J. K. Ingram in 1893 (Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 63). Since then, further manuscripts have been identified, and more has been discovered about the translation's likely origin and circulation. The new edition is based on Cambridge University Library Ms Gg. i. 16, and gives variant readings from the other three surviving manuscripts. It includes an introduction, (covering the translation's manuscripts, source, stemma, dialect, and style), explanatory notes, and a glossary.