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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1■ ^'i-'Y'? " "^^ ^^'' P°"' ^^'^ ""« '■■nage et une similitude de Dieu , ce qui fut obombré dans le mr par la surabondante uertu de Dieu ; et la volonté de Dieu s est représentée devant l'image et la similitude qui alors reçurent la volonté. Ce furent là les anges : car ils mirent leur imagination dans la volonté , et dans le cœur de Dieu , et ils mangèrent du verbe du seigneur. Mais ceux qui, comme Lucifer, mirent leur imagination dans l'ame ténébreuse' aCn de monter au - dessus de la divinité et de' la douceur , et de là dans la puissance du feu il ( 294 ) CH. iS^l éatns réclair de feu , dans la puissance aiguë de Dieu, et afin d'être seuls dominateurs : ceux-là devinrent des démons , et ils tirent leur nom de leur expulsion hors de la lumière , attendu qu'ils étoient dans la lumière lorsque le fiât les créa ^ car le fiât qui les créa resta dans la lumière. 6. Ainsi le démon est coupable de sa chute ; car il se laissa mouvoir par la matrice de l'âpreté, tandis qu'il avoit cependant sa volonté pour s'attacher à la lumière ou aux ténèbres. Or , Lucifer éloit un trône ; c'est-à-dire , une source d'une grande essence , d'où proviennent tous ses subordonnés ; et ils firent comme lui. Ainsi ils furent rejetés en arrière dans les ténèbres j car la lumière de Dieu ne va point dans l'âpreté.
27. Quand les démons colériques , créés dans l'espérance qu'ils deviendroient anges au lieu de démons , eurent conçu dans leur imagination le dessein de dominer sur Dieu , et sur le royaume du ciel , le fiât qui les avoit créés , et qui travailloU à la figuration de l'image , fut infecté. Il enflamma aussitôt dans le miroir de la contemplation , Pélément, dans la similitude et dans l'extra-génération ; de façon que l'essence a engendré les éminentes essences d'où sortent les quatre élémens de ce monde , ou du troisième principe. L'aigu FIAT de Dieu , qui resta dans Pextra-génération , a créé l'extra-génération , d'où sont venues la terre et les pierres. 8. Car lorsque le fiât enflamma l'élément dans Pextra-^'éncralion , alors la matière enflammée deCH. 1^» ( 1295 ) vint saisissable. Elle ne convenoit point jnaintenani^ au paradis ; mais elle fut extra-créée. Toutefois^ pour que l'élément avec son extra-génération n'engendrât plus rien de cette sorte , Dieu créa de l'élément le ciel, et laissa le troisième principe sortir hors de l'élément , qui est XeMmbus céleste : là alors l'esprit de Dieu se contempla de nouveau dans la vierge sophie , ou dans l'éternelle sagesse, et trouva de nouveau l'image dans l'extra -génération, dans la substance périssable. Or , ce coup d'oeil contemplateur [ ou bien F image aperçue ] resta dans rattim rement aigu du fiât ; et le fiât le créa de manière qu'il devint substantiel ; et ce sont les étoiles , une pure quintessence, un écoulement du fiât hor* du limbus de Dieu , dans lequel l'élément reste caché.
39. Mais pour que l'essence aiguë et âpre ne fût plus dans l'attirement , alors Dieu engendra une image de la fontaine du cœur de Dieu , c'est-àdire , le soleil j et , par ce moyen , naquit le troisième principe de ce monde , qui mil toutes choses dans la douceur et dans la bonté. 10. Mais puisque l'éternelle sagesse de Dieu , comme étant dans la chaste vierge sophie de la puissance divine, s'étoit envisagée elle-même dans le principe de ce monde , dans le même lieu où Je grand prince Lucifer avoit été dans le ciel, dans le second principe : dès lors ce coup d'oeil eontemplateur étoit éternel ; et Dieu voulut que des images ou similitudes sortissent des essences , et que le fiât les créât selon l'espèce de chaque e«?- î I ( 29^ ) Cil. i5« sence. Ces similitudes doivent ôtre , après la dissolution de cette substance extérieure , une figure et une image dans le paradis , et une ombre de celle substance. 1 1. Pour que rien d'inutile ne sortît de la sagesse de Dieu , alors Dieu créa de toutes les essences les animaux , les oiseaux , les poissons , les reptiles , les arbres et les plantes ; en outre aussi les esprits de la quintessence , figurés dans les élémens ; par ce mojen , après le complément du tems, lorsque l'ex* Ira-génération retournera dans TElber, tout brillera devant Dieu , et son éternelle sagesse sera reconnue dans ses merveilles. 12. Mais puisque sa volonté étoît d'avoir aussi à ce même trône , dans Téternel élément , une créature qui fut mise à la place des^démons tombés , et qui défendit ce Heu dans le ciel , dans le paradis , alors il créa l'homme de l'élément.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1■ ^'i-'Y'? " "^^ ^^'' P°"' ^^'^ ""« image and a similitude of God, which was overshadowed in the fiat by the superabundant virtue of God; and the will of God represented itself before the image and the similitude which then received the will. Those were the angels: for they put their imagination in the will, and in the heart of God, and they ate of the word of the lord. But those who, like Lucifer, put their imagination in the tenebrous soul in order to mount above the divinity and above the sweetness, and thence into the power of the fire il ( 294 ) CH. iS^l in the flash of fire, in the sharp power of God, and in order to be sole dominators: those became demons, and they take their name from their expulsion out of the light, seeing that they were in the light when the fiat created them; for the fiat which created them remained in the light. 6. Thus the demon is guilty of his fall; for he let himself be moved by the matrix of the harshness, whilst he had nevertheless his will to attach himself to the light or to the darknesses. Now, Lucifer was a throne; that is to say, a source of a great essence, whence proceed all his subordinates; and they did as he. Thus they were cast back into the darknesses; for the light of God goes not into the harshness.
27. When the choleric demons, created in the hope that they would become angels instead of demons, had conceived in their imagination the design of ruling over God, and over the kingdom of heaven, the fiat which had created them, and which was working at the figuration of the image, was infected. It kindled at once in the mirror of the contemplation, the element, in the similitude and in the extra-generation; so that the essence has begotten the eminent essences whence go forth the four elements of this world, or of the third principle. The sharp FIAT of God, which remained in the extra-generation, has created the extra-generation, whence are come the earth and the stones. 8. For when the fiat kindled the element in the extra-generation, then the kindled matter beCH. 1^» ( 1295 ) came seizable. It suited not now paradise; but it was extra-created. Nevertheless, so that the element with its extra-generation should beget no more anything of this sort, God created of the element the heaven, and let the third principle go forth out of the element, which is the celestial limbus: there then the spirit of God contemplated itself anew in the virgin Sophia, or in the eternal wisdom, and found anew the image in the extra-generation, in the perishable substance. Now, this contemplating glance [ or rather the perceived image ] remained in the sharp attraction of the fiat; and the fiat created it in such manner that it became substantial; and those are the stars, a pure quintessence, a flowing of the fiat out of the limbus of God, in which the element remains hidden.
39. But so that the sharp and harsh essence should be no more in the attraction, then God begot an image of the fountain of the heart of God, that is to say, the sun; and, by this means, was born the third principle of this world, which put all things into the sweetness and into the goodness. 10. But since the eternal wisdom of God, as being in the chaste virgin Sophia of the divine power, had envisaged itself in the principle of this world, in the same place where the great prince Lucifer had been in heaven, in the second principle: thenceforth this contemplating glance was eternal; and God willed that images or similitudes should go forth from the essences, and that the fiat should create them according to the species of each es- î I ( 29^ ) Cil. i5« sence. These similitudes must be, after the dissolution of this exterior substance, a figure and an image in paradise, and a shadow of that substance. 1 1. So that nothing useless should go forth from the wisdom of God, then God created of all the essences the animals, the birds, the fishes, the reptiles, the trees and the plants; besides also the spirits of the quintessence, figured in the elements; by this means, after the completion of the time, when the extra-generation shall return into the Ether, all shall shine before God, and his eternal wisdom shall be recognised in his marvels. 12. But since his will was to have also at this same throne, in the eternal element, a creature which should be put in the place of the fallen demons, and which should defend this place in heaven, in paradise, then he created man of the element.
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
Saint-Martin's French rendering of Boehme's 'Von den drei Principien göttlichen Wesens'. The same work stands in this estate in English as boehme:2. The title page also advertises 'L'Aurore naissante, du même Auteur' from the same booksellers — Saint-Martin's translation of the Aurora, whose English counterpart the estate holds as boehme:1. Reading the two versions against each other shows what a Martinist made of a German shoemaker's theosophy.
→ boehme:2
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.
This work carries, in the author's own voice, both a set of hostile comparisons drawn against named peoples and an explicit refusal of any such boundary, and the Press publishes both rather than either alone. At Ch.25 §85 he calls the Jews blind; at Ch.17 §106 he warns of a coming visitation of the Jews and the Turks; and at Ch.26 §32-33, asked whence the Turks are grown, he answers "From thy perverted sense" — laying the rise of Mahomet at the door of christian pride and disputation. Against these stands Ch.25 §72, which opens the grace with no boundary at all: all men are invited to it, of whatever race, "whether Turks, Jews, Pagans, Christians", and no one is excluded. The same chapter that indicts turns the indictment inward at §105-106 — each believes not to dwell in Babel, and the author includes himself — and §33 concludes that God should be as near the one as the other. The contradiction is the author's, it is not resolved by him, and removing either half would misrepresent the work. Operator ruling, 2026-08-29.