THE SPARROW COPY
THOMAS À KEMPIS.
De imitatione Christi libri quatuor.
‘Leiden’ [Amsterdam], Elzevir, 1658.
12mo, pp. 261, [3 (blank)]; title copper-engraved, ruled in red throughout; very lightly toned; bound in eighteenth-century French red morocco, borders roll-tooled in gilt, spine richly gilt in compartments aux petits fers and lettered directly in gilt, edges gilt, citron morocco doublures with borders roll-tooled in gilt, marbled endleaves, blue ribbon placemarker; minor worming to lower joint, a few small scuffs, corners slightly bumped; armorial bookplate of Frederick Keppel to front doublure, booklabel of John Sparrow to front pastedown.
Second Elzevir edition of Thomas à Kempis’s Imitatio Christi, with a new engraved title and a false imprint, handsomely bound in French red morocco with citron doublures.
Following an undated edition of 1653, the present edition includes a new and striking engraved title showing a line of crucigerous Christians following Christ, surrounded by putti bearing the Instruments of the Passion. The typography of the volume conforms to that of the Elzevir presses in Amsterdam, not Leiden as suggested by the false imprint; this is likely an attempt to make the book more palatable in Catholic markets.
The principal work of the great ascetical writer Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471) and perhaps the best-known spiritual manual, the Imitation of Christ here appears in the recension of the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde (1569–1629) and is followed by Rosweyde’s life of à Kempis.
Provenance:
1. Frederick Keppel (1728–1777), son of Willem van Keppel, second Earl of Albermarle, brother of General George Keppel, third Earl, and of Admiral Augustus Keppel, first Viscount Keppel, and illegitimate great-grandson of Charles II. He was educated at Westminster and Christ Church and served as chaplain to both George II and George III; he was appointed Bishop of Exeter in 1762 and Dean of Windsor in 1765.
2. John Sparrow (1906–1992), lawyer, bibliophile, and Warden of All Souls College, Oxford, known as a collector (particularly of association copies) and as a patron of the Oxford Society of Bibliophiles.
STCN 85309330X; USTC 1839490; Willems 1232.
