Comfort Found in Good Old Books

by George Hamlin Fitch

The early editions of Thomas à Kempis' great work were in manuscript, many of them beautifully illuminated. A noteworthy edition was brought out in 1600 at Antwerp by Henry Sommalius, S. J. The works of Thomas à Kempis in three volumes were issued by this same editor in 1615.

The first English version of the Imitation was made by Willyam Atkynson and was printed by Wykyns de Worde in 1502. In 1567 Edward Hake issued a fine edition. Among the best English editions are those of Canon Benham, Sir Francis Cruise, Bishop Challoner and the Oxford edition of 1841. The best edition for the beginner is that edited by Brother Leo, F. S. C., Professor of English Literature in St. Mary's College, Oakland, California. It is in the Macmillan's Pocket Classics and has an admirable introduction of fifty-three pages. The notes are brief but very helpful.

Some of the best articles on Thomas à Kempis are to be found in The Catholic Encyclopedia and The Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought.

There has been much controversy over the authorship of The Imitation of Christ, but the weight of evidence is conclusive that Thomas à Kempis was the writer of this book, which has preserved his name for five hundred years. The book was issued anonymously and some manuscript copies of it bore the name of St. Bernard and others that of John Gerson. As Thomas à Kempis spent most of his life copying sacred books it was assumed that he had merely copied the text of another monk's work.

A Spanish student in 1604 found a sentence from the Imitation quoted in a sermon attributed to Bonaventura, who died in 1273, two hundred years before the death of Thomas. This caused a great literary sensation and it was some time before it was established that the sermon was not by Bonaventura but belonged to the fifteenth century. In casting about for the real author of the Imitation the Superior of the Jesuit College at Arona, Father Rossignoli, found an undated copy of the Imitation in the college library with the signature of Johannis Gerson. The college had been formerly conducted by the Benedictines, so it was assumed that Gerson was the real author. It was only after much research that it was proved that this manuscript copy of the Imitation was brought to Arona from Genoa in 1579. Constantine Cajetan, a fanatic in his devotion to the order of St. Benedict, found in a copy of the Imitation printed in Venice in 1501 a note saying, "this book was not written by John Gerson but by John, Abbot of Vercelli." A manuscript copy was also found by him bearing the name of John of Carabuco. Out of these facts Cajetan built up his theory that John Gerson of Carabuco, Benedictine Abbot of Vercelli, was the real author of the Imitation.

Thus began the most famous controversy in the annals of literature, which raged for several hundred years. Among the claimants to the honor of having written this book were Bernard of Clairvaux, Giovanni Gerso, an Italian monk of the twelfth century; Walter Hilton, an English monk; John Gerson, Chancellor of Paris; John Gerson, Abbot of Vercelli, and Thomas à Kempis.

What would seem to be conclusive evidence that Thomas à Kempis was the author is the fact that the Imitation was written for chanting. Carl Hirsche compared the manuscript copy of the Imitation of 1441 which he found in the Bourgogne Library in Brussels with other writings of Thomas à Kempis, also marked for chanting, and found great similarity between the Imitation and the works admitted to have been written by Thomas à Kempis.

The Imitation has been a favorite book with many persons. Mrs. Jane L. Stanford, who showed such remarkable faith in the university which Leland Stanford founded and who made many sacrifices to save it in critical periods, always carried a fine copy of Thomas à Kempis with her. Miss Berger, who was Mrs. Stanford's secretary and constant companion for over fifteen years, told me that whenever Mrs. Stanford was in doubt or trouble she took up the Imitation, opened it at random and always found something which settled her doubts and gave her comfort.

THE RUBÁ'IYÁT

Edward FitzGerald's version of the Rubá'iyát was the first to appeal to the western world. It has been reproduced in countless editions since it was first issued in London in 1859. Dole in the Rubá'iyát of Omar Khayyám (Boston, 1896) gives a fairly complete bibliography of manuscripts, editions, translations and imitations of the Quatrains.