The Imitation of Christ

The Imitation of Christ, originally written in Medieval Latin as *De Imitatione Christi* around 1418–1427, is a Christian devotional handbook rooted in the Devotio Moderna movement. Its author, Thomas à Kempis, composed the work as a guide for the spiritual life, divided into four books of detailed instruction: “Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life,” “Directives for the Interior Life,” “On Interior Consolation,” and “On the Blessed Sacrament.” The book emphasizes turning inward and withdrawing from worldly concerns, rather than the active imitation of Christ practiced by some other religious orders, and places devotion to the Eucharist at the center of spiritual practice.

After the Bible, this text is likely the most widely read Christian devotional work and is considered a classic of religious literature. It was first written anonymously in Latin in the Netherlands, and its popularity spread quickly. Following its first printed edition in 1471–1472, it saw 745 editions before 1650. At that time, no book other than the Bible had been translated into more languages.

The concept of imitating Christ has long been central to Christian thought, appearing in early documents like the Pauline Epistles. Church figures such as Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and Francis of Assisi each explored this theme in their own ways. The Devotio Moderna movement, founded by Geert Groote in response to what he saw as declining monastic traditions and moral laxity among clergy, sought to revive genuine piety and convert or reconvert indifferent clergy. *The Imitation* emerged from this flourishing community in Northern Europe and eventually outlived the movement, which ended with the Protestant Reformation.

The book was written anonymously, which is consistent with its own advice to “love to be unknown” (Book 1, Ch. 2) and to focus on the truth of what is said rather than the identity of the speaker (Book 1, Ch. 5). For centuries, authorship was disputed: Italian Benedictines attributed it to Giovanni Gersen, French scholars to Jean Gerson, and others to Bonaventure, Bernard of Clairvaux, or Ludolph of Saxony. Some even claimed it was a compilation of various mystical authors. However, modern scholars generally accept Thomas à Kempis as the author, supported by contemporary manuscripts—including an autograph codex—and members of his own order.

By 1471, the work was so frequently hand-copied that about 750 manuscripts survive. Thomas à Kempis’s own 1441 autograph is held at the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels. The first printed edition appeared in Augsburg around 1471–1472, and by the end of the 15th century, over 100 printed editions existed, with translations into Italian (1480), Catalan (1482), German (1486), French (1488), Low German (1489), Spanish (1490), Portuguese, and Dutch (1496). The book received immediate acclaim; George Pirkhamer, prior of Nuremberg, wrote of the 1494 edition that nothing holier, more honorable, or more profitable for the Christian commonwealth could be done than to make Thomas à Kempis’s works known. The total number of counted editions exceeds 2,000, with 1,000 in the British Museum, 770 in the Biblioteca de Catalunya Kempis Collection, and 400 in the Bullingen collection donated to Cologne in 1838. De Backer lists 545 Latin and about 900 French editions.