Donald Traxler's Poetry: 06/16/21

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Informal Notes on De Imitatione Christi - III

One of the most interesting "omissions" in Puyol's list (see part II of this series) is this: Bk. IV, Chap. XV, 16: The words "super omnem devotionem" are, according to Puyol, found only in mss. Gaesdonck, Grammont, Kemp (the 1441 autograph), and Paris 2. It is enlightening to look at the whole verse:

"Hic in accipiendo sacram Eucharistiam magnam promeretur divinae unionis gratiam, quia non respicit ad propriam DEVOTIONEM et consolationem, sed super omnem DEVOTIONEM, et consolationem, ad Dei gloriam et honorem.

This is an example of a very common error in hand-copying a manuscript. The copyist's eye has skipped from the first "devotionem" to the second, and he simply copied out the rest of the verse, leaving out the words "super omnem devotionem." The error would not be easily caught and corrected, because the sentence still makes perfect sense. We do not need to assume that such an omission was intentional; it is, on the contrary, quite understandable.

Thomas à Kempis' text had already been copied at least a few times (we have mss. dated 1424 and 1427) before the "autograph" of 1441. The first few mss. avoided the copyists error described above; the rest did not.

De imitatione Christi has a logical, overarching structure, but it is not the only one possible. In fact, in the 1441 autograph the author went so far as to change the order of the books: the positions of Bk. III and Bk. IV were reversed! To be honest, this change does not surprise me, having read these books.

The subject of Bk. I is Admonitions Useful to the Spiritual Life; that of Bk. II is Admonitions Drawing one Within; Bk.III: On Internal Consolation; Bk. IV: On the Sacrament. It seemed to me, as a young man (thinking about entering the religious life), that the content of the first two books was pretty basic. For me, the heart of the work, the real "meat" of it, was in Bk. III, definitely my favorite. Bk. IV lowered the tension, and for me it was a letdown. The author, apparently, felt the same way, and tried to change the order of the books. Like any good writer, he wanted to end on a high note.

My plan, therefore, in these "Informal Notes," is to concentrate on Book III. Knowing that it impressed me greatly as a young man, I would like to understand why, and see whether it still does.

Photo: We Are Bodies of Light

115,000 Visits and a New Schedule

Greetings, dear readers. It took only fourteen days to go from 114,000 visits to 115,000. Unfortunately, this was due to pirate activity. Because of this, and also because writing these chatty little announcements takes me away from other writing that I need to do, I am changing the schedule. From now on, I'll announce at every five thousand visits, instead of every thousand. We are currently getting about two thousand visits (page-views) per month. If this rate continues, you should see an announcement like this about every two and a half months.

In between these announcements, you will continue to see the best poetry, prose writing, and photography that I can serve up.

As usual, thanks to all of you (even the pirates) for your continued interest and enthusiasm.