The Trans-Reformational Imitatio Christi: Translation, Transmission, and Reception

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Barbara Zimbalist

Organizer Affiliation

Univ. of California-Davis

Presider Name

Barbara Zimbalist

Paper Title 1

The Biology of the Holy Body in Lady Margaret Beaufort's Imitatio Christi (ca. 1503)

Presenter 1 Name

Samantha Katz Seal

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Weber State Univ.

Paper Title 2

From Richard Whitford to Thomas Rogers: The Imitatio Christi in England, 1530-1580

Presenter 2 Name

Steven Rozenski

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Harvard Univ.

Paper Title 3

Sebastian Castellio's De Christo imitando and the Imitatio Christi

Presenter 3 Name

Rand Johnson

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Western Michigan Univ.

Paper Title 4

Respondent

Presenter 4 Name

John Van Engen

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Univ. of Notre Dame

Start Date

9-5-2013 7:30 PM

Session Location

Valley II 204

Description

Thomas van Kempen/ à Kempis' "Imitatio Christi," one of the most popular devotional texts in late medieval and early modern Europe, has long suffered from critical neglect. Yet the text and its afterlives provide multiple points of entry to central discourses of medieval and early modern studies: devotional reading habits, the history of the vernacular, manuscript and print history, translation practices, Reformation history, and questions of periodization. The recent (2011) publication of Maximilian von Habsburg's "Catholic and Protestant Translations of the Imitatio Christi, 1425-1650," offers new approaches to this seminal text, and suggests exciting new avenues for future work on the "Imitatio Christi" and its textual legacies. Our panel approaches the "Imitatio Christi" from a variety of different perspectives: the devotional and literary contexts of its production and reception, its manuscript, print, and transmission history, its multiple vernacular translations, and its diverse textual traditions across European vernaculars.

Barbara Zimbalist