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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.
1térieur ; l'élément avec le paradis , et le paradis est devant Dieu. La semence extérieure a ses essences qui inqualifienl premièrement avec les élémens extérieurs. Les élémens extérieurs inqualifient avec les étoiles extérieures ; les étoiles extérieures mqualifient avec l'àpreté extérieure , la colère et la méchanceté ;|et la colère et la méchanceté , dans Yi\\iveiéyinquaUfient avec l'origine de la premièro âpreté de l'abîme infernal 5 l'abîme inqualifie avec le démon. 32. C'est pourquoi , ô ! homme , réfléchis à ce que lu as acquis par le corps terrestre 5 tu es réduit à manger et à boire du mauvais et du bon; ce que Dieu cependant avoit défendu. Ici vois dans la base des essences , et ne dis point avec la raison que c'est simplement pour avoir été désobéissant, que Dieu s'est enflammé , et que sa colère ne peut pas s'éteindre : lu te trompes. Si la claire divinité s'éloil enflammée , elle ne se seioit pas laite homme par rapport à toi, pour te prêter son secours. Regarde seulement le but dans l'éternité , et tu trouveras tout. 33. Ainsi , par la copulation , le royaume des ténèbres et du démon est semé à-la-fois; et le troisième centre de la grande ardeur s'élève de concert.. C'est de là que l'âprelé et la maison de la chair sont engendrées ; car le pur amour qii^ atteint l'élément , et de-là le paradis , a un centre pudique et chaste , et il est fixe en soi-même. 34. Je te donne de ceci un juste exemple à considérer hautement et avec attention. Regarde deux ( 3oG ) CH. i5.
2)ennes gens qui ont déjà atteint la fleur de la noble teinture dans la matrice et le limbus, de façon qu'elle soit enflammée : combien ils se portent Tua à l'autre une fidélité cordiale, et un pur ^mour jusque là que chacun d'eux se plairoit délicieusement à partager son cœur avec l'autre , si cela se pouvoit faire sans danger et sans mourir ! Or , c'est là la vraie fleur paradisiaque , et cette fleur atteint et inqualifie avec l'élément et le paradis. Mais aussitôt qu'ils se prennent l'un et l'autre, et qu'ils se livrent à la copulation , alors ils s'infectent mutuellement par leur ardeur , qui est née des élémens externes et des étoiles , et qui atteint l'abîme 5 et ils deviennent souvent ennemis juré* l'un de l'autre. Même s'il arrivoit que la com« plexiou fut assez noble pour qu'il restât encore de l'amour , il ne seroit cependant plus si pur ni si fidèle qu'étoit le premier avant la copulation ; lequel amour étoit plein de feu, tandis que celui dans l'ardeur est terrestre et froid. Il est bien vrai que celui-là doit garder la fidélité , puisque sans cela il n'y en auroit pas ; ainsi qu'il est reconnu dans plusieurs comment ensuite, dans le mariage, on recherche les débauches et les prostitutions^ et comment on cherche le sucre que le démon jète dans la noble teinture , si l'homme s'y abandonne. 35. Puisque l'on voit donc ici de nouveau que Dieu n'avoit pas voulu la copulation terrestre y 2'homme auroit du rester dans l'amour plein de feu , qui étoit dans le paradis, et engendrer de soi <^«- »^' ( 3o7 )
3Mais la femme étoit dans ce monde , dans le règne des élémens extérieurs , dans l'ardeur du fruit défendu dout Adam ne devoit pas manger. Or , quoiqu'il en aitmangé,eiqu'ainsi il nous ail perdus! cependant il en est de lui comme d'un voleur qui a été dans un délicieux jardin , et qui en est sort£ pour aller voler : maintenant il y retourne, et voudroit rentrer dans le jardin 5 et le jardinier s'y odpose. S'il tend une main dans le jardin pour en avoir un fruit, alors le jardinier vient, et lui arrathe le fruit de la main -, et il faut , dans son ardeur et dans sa colère, qu'il s'en aille de là. Il ne revient plus au jardin 3 [{ ne lui reste que son ardeur désTrante, au lieu du fruit. Voilà ce qu'il a reçu au lieu du fruit paradisiaque ,• nous en devons mamtenant manger tous , et vivre dans la femme. ^(^^ Ainsi , je vous donne grandement à penser ce que c'est qu'un homme ; ce que l'homme .ème, et ce qui croît dans la semence, c'est-à-dire, da'is les trois règnes , comme cela a été dit. Or, puisque maintenant les trois règnes sont semés ainsi, dès lors ils sont aussitôt devant l'arbre de la tenfatiou , oà commence la dispute et un grand combat : la les trois règnes sont l'un dans l'autre ; ils éprouvent une grande ardeur et un grand altract l'un pour l'autre. L'élément , dans le paradis , veot conserver pure l'affection , et la volonté qui est dans l'amour , dans la teinture de la semence. Les élémens extérieurs , ou l'écoulement de l'élément veut «voir l'élément , et se mélanger avec lui : eusuiie r 4 ( 3o8 ) en. iç.
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.
1terior element; the element with paradise, and paradise is before God. The exterior seed has its essences which inqualify firstly with the exterior elements. The exterior elements inqualify with the exterior stars; the exterior stars inqualify with the exterior harshness, the anger and the wickedness; and the anger and the wickedness, in the harshness, inqualify with the origin of the first harshness of the infernal abyss 5 the abyss inqualifies with the demon. 32. That is why, O! man, reflect upon what thou hast acquired by the terrestrial body 5 thou art reduced to eat and to drink of the evil and of the good; which God nevertheless had forbidden. Here see into the base of the essences, and say not with the reason that it is simply for having been disobedient, that God has kindled himself, and that his anger cannot extinguish itself: thou deceivest thyself. If the clear divinity had kindled itself, it would not have made itself man in relation to thee, to lend thee its succour. Look only at the aim in eternity, and thou wilt find all. 33. Thus, by the copulation, the kingdom of the darknesses and of the demon is sown at once; and the third centre of the great ardour rises in concert. It is thence that the harshness and the house of the flesh are begotten; for the pure love which attains the element, and thence paradise, has a modest and chaste centre, and it is fixed in itself. 34. I give thee of this a just example to consider loftily and with attention. Look at two ( 3oG ) CH. i5.
2young people who have already attained the flower of the noble tincture in the matrix and the limbus, so that it be kindled: how much they bear one to the other a cordial fidelity, and a pure love even to this point that each of them would delight deliciously to share his heart with the other, if that could be done without danger and without dying! Now, that is the true paradisiacal flower, and this flower attains and inqualifies with the element and paradise. But as soon as they take one another, and that they give themselves to the copulation, then they infect one another mutually by their ardour, which is born of the external elements and of the stars, and which attains the abyss 5 and they become often sworn enemies one of the other. Even if it happened that the complexion were noble enough for there to remain still some love, it would nevertheless no more be so pure nor so faithful as was the first before the copulation; which love was full of fire, whilst that in the ardour is terrestrial and cold. It is indeed true that the one must keep fidelity, since without that there would be none; as it is recognised in several how afterwards, in marriage, one seeks debaucheries and prostitutions, and how one seeks the sugar that the demon casts into the noble tincture, if man abandon himself thereto. 35. Since one sees then here anew that God had not willed the terrestrial copulation, 2man should have remained in the love full of fire, which was in paradise, and beget of himself <^«- »^' ( 3o7 )
3But the woman was in this world, in the reign of the exterior elements, in the ardour of the forbidden fruit whereof Adam was not to eat. Now, although he ate of it, and that thus he has lost us! nevertheless it is with him as with a thief who has been in a delicious garden, and who has gone out of it to go stealing: now he returns thither, and would re-enter into the garden 5 and the gardener opposes himself to it. If he stretch a hand into the garden to have a fruit of it, then the gardener comes, and snatches the fruit from his hand; and he must, in his ardour and in his anger, go away from there. He returns no more to the garden 3 it remains to him only his desiring ardour, instead of the fruit. Behold what he has received instead of the paradisiacal fruit; we must now all eat of it, and live in the woman. ^(^^ Thus, I give you greatly to think what a man is; what man sows, and what grows in the seed, that is to say, in the three reigns, as this has been said. Now, since now the three reigns are sown thus, thenceforth they are at once before the tree of the temptation, where begins the dispute and a great combat: there the three reigns are the one in the other; they feel a great ardour and a great attract one for the other. The element, in paradise, will keep pure the affection, and the will which is in the love, in the tincture of the seed. The exterior elements, or the flowing of the element will have the element, and mingle themselves with it: then r 4 ( 3o8 ) en. iç.
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.