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One moment.
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.
1im esprit? quelle est la source que tu as en toi ? La colère , la méchanceté , l'orgueil, le caprice dans ta recherche des joies temporelles , que cependant tu ïie trouves jamais. Dans les essences de ton esprit une inclination fausse , meurtrière , pleine de mensonges et de tromperies. Tel que tu as été sur la terre devant les hommes , tel est aussi ton esprit sortantdetoi,du corps corruptible des élémens.Làoii il restera quand ce monde passera , crois - tu qu'il sera uu ange? a-t-il une source angéliqne ? sasource est-elle dans l'amour, l'humilité et la douceur? est-elle, dans l'obéissance de Dieu , dans la lumière de la joie ? 44. O toi ! ame aveugle , avec ta puissance et ta pompe , pleine de méchanceté et de la colère du démon , tu es avec tous les démons dans l'abîme de l'enfer , si tu ne te convertis pas , et si tu ne marches pas dans les sentiers tles anges par un sincère repentir et une vraie pénitence de tes abominations , en sorte qne le sauveur et le briseur du serpent delà sévérité , de la colère , de la méchanceté du mensonge, de la tromperie , de ton orgueil inné et de ta cupidité , te rencontre et te prenne dans ses bras ; qu'il t'engendre de nouveau en lui , et te dépose dans le sein de la chaste sophie , pour que tu deviennes un ange ; sans cela tu appartiens à l'éternelle mort , tu es dans les éternelles ténèbres , et tu n'atteindras jamais le royaume de Dieu. 45. Ou bien , penses-tu que j'écrive sans lumière et sans connoissance sur la chute de l'homme? ne peut-on pas non plus voir dans récriture ce qu'ell* ( i8 ) en. iji
2dit sur cela? Que l'homme avant sa cliute a élé angélique dans son ame et dans son corps. Voyez ce que le Christ dit ( Mathieu, 22. v. 3o ) : ^^ /« résur^ reclion des morts ils ne se marieront point , et on ne les mariera point ; mais ils seront semblables au* anges de Dieu. C'est eu effet une pareille image que Dieu a créée au commencement , à sa ressemblauce, 46. Car, une ame colérique , méchante , orgueilleuse , pleine d'amour propre , meuleuse , voleuse , dérobante , meurtrière , impudique, immodeste, n'est point l'imaj^e de Dieu ; mais une ame humble, chaste, pudique, pure, gracieuse, qui, par son désir et son amour , s'incline vers le cœur de Dieu : c'est là l'image de Dieu dans laquelle l'esprit embrasé de feu s'élève de la volonté et aux yeux de la volonlé , dans la joie et la douceur. Là il se plait à communiquer à ses frères , la volonté de son esprit qui sort de lui; il aime à s'approcher d'eux, et comme on dit eu proverbe , à partager avec eux son coeur , ce qui arrive en esprit. Ici la joie s'élève dans l'éiernel élément , et les merveilles de Dieu i^onl manifestées dans la vierge sophie , à la gloire de l'éternelle base affective , et pour la louange de Dieu. Là l'ame joue sur la harpe de David , des cantiques divins ; là eniin s'élèvent les connoissanees dans la sainte , éternelle base affective , les couleurs dans l'élément , et 4es merveilles dans l'esprit avec les œuvres et les puissances. 47. C'est là l'image de Dieu que Dieu a créée .pour sa louange et pour sa joie , et il n'y en a au4:ime autue. Ne t'en laisie point représenter dVW
3par le fol antechrist 5 il u'y a absolument que cellela : ton corpset toname t'enconvainquent, aussi bien que le ciel , la terre , les étoiles et les élémens. Queltjuesoil Pobjet que tu considères , tout t'en convaincra. Si tu ne te convertis pas , et si tu ne t'inslalles pas dans cette image , ce quiestla fin pour la- <ïuelle Dieu t'a créé , tu rougiras devant toutes les itT^A " ^" p""'' ^^ *^" ^"'ï^^ ' ^-"d ta base affective dans l'esprit de l'ame res.era nue et sans corps: nous te disons ceci comme étant important et Jiautement connu dans la volonté de Dieu 48. Ainsi c'est une chose essenlielle à connoître pour nous,quelamisérablechulede nos premiers parens ; comment il est arrivé, du côté de Dieu nue .a colère soiten nous, et que nous devions mourir, .M de plus périr éternellement , si nous n'atteignons pas le bnseur de serpent. Mais pour donner uu court extrait de la chute,qui soit intelligible au lecteur, lequel pourroit ne pas atteindre à notre sens et à notre connoi.ssance , à cause de la simplicité de notre discernement froid , épais et lénél)reux, nous voulons l'expliquer brièvement el clairement, et lui communiquer aussi notre connoissance et notre intelligence, ainsi que nous en avons le droit, comme image divine. 49- Adam es. resté quarante jours dans la forme angélique avant sa chute, et en lui il n'y avoit ni jour n. nuit , non plus qu'aucun tems . quoiqu'il ne fut pas purement un esprit, tel qu'un ange : car «on corps éloi. de l'élément , qui n'est pas un esprit inlell.gent.maisIaconcréiiondauslavolontédeDiett !i |i! nu f, ( 20 ) c». J7* (ou le //mJi/0, lequel élément reste devant Dieu , et dans lequel demeure la cliasle vierge de la sagesse de Dieu ou sophie, qui manifesta Timage , et 3a créa de l'élément par le fiât de Dieu.
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.
1a spirit? what is the source that thou hast in thee? The anger, the wickedness, the pride, the caprice in thy search for temporal joys, which nevertheless thou never findest. In the essences of thy spirit a false inclination, murderous, full of lies and of deceits. Such as thou hast been upon the earth before men, such also is thy spirit going forth from thee, from the corruptible body of the elements. There where it will remain when this world shall pass, believest thou that it will be an angel? has it an angelic source? is its source in the love, the humility and the sweetness? is it, in the obedience of God, in the light of the joy? 44. O thou! blind soul, with thy power and thy pomp, full of wickedness and of the anger of the demon, thou art with all the demons in the abyss of hell, if thou convert not thyself, and if thou walk not in the paths of the angels by a sincere repentance and a true penitence of thy abominations, so that the saviour and the bruiser of the serpent of the severity, of the anger, of the wickedness of the lying, of the deceit, of thy innate pride and of thy cupidity, meet thee and take thee in his arms; that he beget thee anew in him, and lay thee in the bosom of the chaste Sophia, so that thou become an angel; without that thou belongest to the eternal death, thou art in the eternal darknesses, and thou wilt never attain the kingdom of God. 45. Or else, thinkest thou that I write without light and without knowledge upon the fall of man? can one not also see in the scripture what it ( i8 ) en. iji
2says upon that? That man before his fall was angelic in his soul and in his body. See what the Christ says ( Matthew, 22. v. 3o ): At the resurrection of the dead they shall not marry, and they shall not be married; but they shall be like to the angels of God. It is in effect such an image that God created at the beginning, in his resemblance. 46. For, a soul choleric, wicked, proud, full of self-love, lying, thieving, stealing, murderous, unchaste, immodest, is not the image of God; but a soul humble, chaste, modest, pure, gracious, which, by its desire and its love, inclines itself toward the heart of God: that is the image of God in which the spirit kindled with fire rises from the will and in the eyes of the will, in the joy and the sweetness. There it takes pleasure in communicating to its brothers, the will of its spirit which goes forth from it; it loves to approach them, and as one says in proverb, to share with them its heart, which happens in spirit. Here the joy rises in the eternal element, and the marvels of God are manifested in the virgin Sophia, to the glory of the eternal affective base, and for the praise of God. There the soul plays upon the harp of David, divine canticles; there finally rise the knowledges in the holy, eternal affective base, the colours in the element, and 4the marvels in the spirit with the works and the powers. 47. That is the image of God that God has created for his praise and for his joy, and there is no4 other. Let it not be represented to thee of a
3by the mad antichrist 5 there is absolutely none but that one: thy body and thy soul convince thee of it, as well as the heaven, the earth, the stars and the elements. Whatever be the object that thou considerest, all will convince thee of it. If thou convert not thyself, and if thou install not thyself in this image, which is the end for which God created thee, thou wilt blush before all the creatures at the day of thy judgement, when thy affective base in the spirit of the soul shall remain naked and without body: we say thee this as being important and loftily known in the will of God. 48. Thus it is a thing essential to know for us, than the miserable fall of our first parents; how it has happened, on the side of God, that the anger be in us, and that we must die, and moreover perish eternally, if we attain not the bruiser of the serpent. But to give a short extract of the fall, which may be intelligible to the reader, who might not attain to our sense and to our knowledge, because of the simplicity of our cold, thick and tenebrous discernment, we will explain it briefly and clearly, and communicate to him also our knowledge and our intelligence, as we have the right, as divine image. 49- Adam remained forty days in the angelic form before his fall, and in him there was neither day nor night, no more than any time, although he was not purely a spirit, such as an angel: for his body was of the element, which is not an intelligent spirit, but the concretion in the will of God !i |i! nu f, ( 20 ) c». J7* ( or the limbus0, which element remains before God, and in which dwells the chaste virgin of the wisdom of God or Sophia, who manifested the image, and 3created it of the element by the fiat of God.
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.