The Imitation of Christ: Extracts Chosen from Challoner’s 1737 Translation, Illustrated with Illuminated Manuscripts

The Imitation of Christ has enjoyed greater popularity down the centuries than any Christian book apart from the Bible. Even today, the soul-searching words of the fifteenth-century monk, Thomas á Kempis, continue to resonate, unbounded by time or geography. Drawing on the Bible, the Fathers of the early Church and medieval mysticism, his four-part treatise shrugs off the allure of the material world, blending beauty and bluntness in a supremely spiritual call to arms. For this illustrated anthology, 40 memorable passages have been selected. Each excerpt is accompanied by exquisite art from one of the British Library’s finest illuminated manuscripts, including the Sherborne Missal, the Luttrell Psalter and the Bedford Hours. The result is a book to fire and inspire all who delight in the remarkable writings of Thomas á Kempis. Illustrated.