[THOMAS À KEMPIS].

      Venice, [Joannes Leoviler of Halle] for Franciscus de Madiis, 1486. An early small-format edition of the Imitatio Christi, here attributed (as often) to Johannes Gerson, whose De meditatione cordis is printed as a supplementary text at end (last four leaves). It is from a rare Venetian press which worked intermittently for only three years from 1485 to 1488. The printer was a German who came from Schwäbisch Hall, near which Leoviler is situated.Contemporary owner's name on front flyleaf, "Hiero. Puechperger". Another ownership inscription on last leaf, "das pyechlein kert [=gehört] zu Beatrix Zengerin", written in Bavarian / Austrian dialect.The red colour of the binding recalls Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford's "bookes clad in blak or reed".HC 9090*; BMC V 406; Goff I-11. Bound up with, Pseudo-AUGUSTINUS, Sermones ad heremitas, Venice, Paganinus de Paganinis, 26 May 1487.