[22], 291, printed pages in Latin, plus 9 page index at end. Additional title page with copper-plate illustration of an angel and the cross. Title page with oval vignette, the official printer's mark of the Flemish publisher Joannes Baptistaa Verdussen. Full copper-plate engraving for each of the four books - all very crisp and bright impressions. Original cream endpapers Mild age-toning. Similar text to the Anvers, 1647 edition of Philippe Chifflet (1597-1663). Edited by Frederic Leonard (1665-1712). Clean historical ex-libris stamp of the Graymoor Friars Library to the verso of the title page. 62 x 102mm. Contemporary full calf; spine in compartments with central gilt motifs and baroque corner-pieces; three raised bands. Corners bumped and slightly worn; spine with some wear and gilding rubbed in places. Not in Bondy,nor Spielmann nor Welsh. OCLC, 71651380. Found by WorldCat in just three libraries, worldwide (Royal Library of Belgium, Radboud University, and Mennonite University Libraries). Early, remarkably crisp strikes for the frontispiece and plates, entirely free from the usual plate-wear seen in late 17th-century devotional printings. The Imitation of Christ is a handbook for spiritual life arising from the Devotio Moderna movement. The text is divided into four books, which provide detailed spiritual instructions: "Helpful Counsels of the Spiritual Life", "Directives for the Interior Life", "On Interior Consolation" and "On the Blessed Sacrament". The approach taken in the Imitation is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ by other friars. The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life. A beautiful and remarkably preserved pocket-sized late-baroque printing from the famed Verdussen press in Antwerp.