Two weeks have elapsed since the first entry in this series, during which time I have learned a great deal about the textual history of this work. I'll recap some of it here, as briefly as I can.
The manuscripts of the Imitation of Christ fall into two main classes, according to Puyol (Variantes, 1898) and Lupo (critical edition published by the Vatican in 1982): the Italici (from Italy), and the Transalpini (from other countries, notably the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany). For 400 years, people in France and Italy were very attached to the theory the this devotional work had been written by Jean Gerson. This was the theory supported by Puyol at the end of the nineteenth century. Some scholars (Pittigliani, 1939) said that the Italici seemed to be textually anterior to the Transalpini. The debate was probably at its peak in the late seventeenth century, but it took a long time to die. Rosweyde, a Jesuit, took great pains in the front matter to his edition of 1691 (which was based on the autograph of 1441) to show that Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) was, in fact, the the author. This is now pretty much universally recognized. Jean Charlier de Gerson (1363-1429) was an amazing and extraordinary person, well worth studying, but he did not write the Imitation of Christ.
Puyol (1898), as a supporter of the Gerson theory, was wrong in his analysis, but his work in identifying the variants in the mss. and some incunabula was truly monumental, and I don't think anyone has surpassed it. On Page four of VARIANTES (1898) he provided an extremely useful list by which we can identify the parentage or basis of a text of the I. C. I give the list here, in two screen captures:
One of these "omissions" can tell you right away whether the text in front of you is of the Italian or the Transalpine class; Qui pro amore tuo . . . (III X, 25) is missing from all the Italian texts, and present in all the Transalpine. Interestingly, this omission in all Italian texts translates as "Those who for your love shall reject all fleshly delights . . . " Too much for the Italians, I guess.
Another of them, "Nunc sunt dies salutis . . . ," is only found in fourteen documents, including some of the oldest and best ones.
Perhaps best of all, "Super omnem devotionem . . . " (IV, XV, 16), is only found in four mss., and they are among the oldest and best (Gaesdonck, Grammont, Kemp, and Paris 2). If the text before you contains these words at the end of Chapter XV of Book IV, you have a good one. They are in my book, previously owned by Bishop Buddy, which I now believe is based on Kemp (the 1441 autograph).
The question I raised concerning the completion of the quotation of John 8:12 is an interesting one. It (the completion of the quote) only occurs in a few mss. and one incunabulum (that of Venice, 1483). It is an addition, not original.
For those who care, there is an easy way to get close to the 1441 autograph: it is the fine 1691 edition of Fr. Rosweyde, SJ. It is easy to read (unlike the fifteenth-century mss. and editions), and Google Books has kindly made it available to read online or to download as a pdf (I did both).
In conclusion, I would like to say that Bishop Buddy's book, which I have carried with me through many moves for sixty years, is an excellent one, probably based on the 1441 autograph, perhaps via Rosweyde's fine 1691 edition. It was published by Dessain, Mechlin, Belgium, in 1881. There, they always knew who the author of De imitatione Christi was.
Above: part of the title page of the 1691 Antwerp edition.
Text Copyright © 2021 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
