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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.
1Tentées par la ciipidilé opéreront-elles parfailement cette justification ? par quoi veux-lu être régénéré? par ton mausim ou ton idole ? ou bien par la naissance de Jésus-Christ ? lequel est le plus près de la divinité ?Tes œuvres périssent , et te suivent comme des ombres ; or l'ame ne se nourrit d'aucune ombre: mais elle doit être ardente ; elle doit entrer par les portes de la profondeur , et par le centre de la colère de la mort , par la colère de l'éternelle alliance 5 dans la douce homification de Jéstis-Christ ^ devenir un membre dans le corps du Christ , et prendre de sa plénitude , et s'en subslanler. La mort du Christ doit être ta mort ; les essences du Christ doivent bouillonner en toi, et tu dois vivre dans sa source : ainsi tu dois être enlièrement régénéré en Christ , si tu veux resler devant son père ) autrement rien ne te servira. S'il y avoit quelque chose dans la profondeur de toute la divinité qui eiil pu t'aider,Dieu enanroit fait présenta Adam ; il n'auroit pas laissé, contre le cours de la nature, son cœur devenir homme ; mais il n'y avoit aucun moyen ni au ciel , ni en ce monde , sinon que Dieu devînt un homme : c'est pourquoi , je le dis cela sérieusement ; ainsi ne cherche aucune voie détournée dans Babel. 87. Dieu , à la vérité , a permis dans les premiers ♦ems beaucoup de choses pour la conversion des payens. Mais il n'a pas ainsi institué l'anlechrist avec ses cupidités , ses élablissemens , ses babils et ses décisions, où l'on a fermé la bouche à l'esprit de Dieu , pour qu'il 11e puisse plusse faire entendre > en. .8. j g, j
2mais pour que l'esprit de ce monde puisse parler et bal.r un royaume céleste sur la .erre, par de^ mstuulions et des déluges de paroles : c'est pourquoi auss.le royaume c.'-les.e sur la terre, n'é.an. point dans la hberté de l'esprit saint, doit é.re enchafué par de forts sern.ens ou des engagemens , afin quM puisse se subs.an.er commodément, acquérir de 1 embonpoint, et ne jamais se briser ; mais il est devenu par la une B.bel de confusion, e. il se brise lui-même dans la Confusion. 88. Si .u veux maiulenant considérer la vierge Mar.eavec son fils Jésus-Cl.ris. , alors tu trouvera comment par son «Is , elle est devenue juste et *amte : cependant elle é.oi. déjà parvenue à une grande perfec.ion , semblable à la claire étoile du n>a.,„ devaa. les au.res étoiles : c'est pourquoi auss. lange la déclare-.-il bénie entre les femmes , et (lit: Le seigneur est avec loi. 89. Mais elle n'avoi, point la toute puissance divine; car la parole que Dien promit dans le jardia d Eden , fleurit, en soi , dans la propre lumière ou la propre vie de cel.e parole divine, c'est-à-dire, dans le cen.ie de Dieu : et lorsque l'aube Gabriel dans sonmessage,s.imula, par l'ordre deDieu,ce.,è p.^role , elles'in.roduisi, dans la chaste vierge, dans . emen. ; „ou pas il est vrai . en.ièremenre. toutrestre , de façon que Marie dut é.re déinée. Non - car le Chnst dit lui-me.ue : />.„„„„„ „, „„,„, „„' '•-/ yue Uf,U de l',,o„un> g,U est .enu du ciel , et „ui «/ au cel. Les au ires doivent laouiei- au ciel par le il ( C)2 ) CH. 18.' Christ : le Christ est leur ciel , et le père est le ciel du Christ. Le Christ étoil dans le ciel , et aussi dans le sein de la vierge , dansce monde ; le monde avoil été fait par lui , comment le moude auroit -il pu le contenir ?
390. La vierge Marie le conçut , comme une mère son filsiclie lui donna les essences uaiurellesqu'ello avoit héritées de ses parens ;il les prit en soi dans la créature qui étoit Dieu et homme. Il retint les essences delà chair et du sang, de la matrice virginale de sa mère , dans le limbus de Dieu , dans l'élément , «ans endommager l'élément ; il fut par là une ame vivante, et le verbe étoit au milieu. La puissance, la hauteur ella profondeurdel'ame,atleignirenl jusque dans le père; et le rojraumc externe de ce monde étoit suspendu à l'interne , comme le sont au pur et saint élément , les quatre élémens , qui , à la coufiommalion se détruiront , et passeront par le feu. 91. Or, comme l'enfant est une autre i)ersonne ^ue la mère , et que l'arae de l'enfant n'est point l'ame de la mère -, il en est de même ici dans ce cas : car la vierge extérieure ne pouvoil comprendre qu'elle portât le sauveur du monde j mais elle recommanda cela à Dieu dans sa chasteté virginale; tout ce en quoi il disposeroil d'elle , ellevouloily acquiescer avec satisfaction. 92. Mais toi , monstrueuse créature antichrétienne qui veux tout dévorer , il faut que tu saches , au sujet de la sainteté de la vierge Marie, que cette vierge Marie est plus élevée, et a une plus grande plénitude de splendeur et d'éclat qu'un autre enfaat .rtt. 18. . t 93 ) ^'un autre corps. Quoique toi , malheureux, tu sois à peine digne que l'on te dise une telle chose, puisque lu as une cupidité dévorante , cependant , le conseil de Dieu l'a résolu : ce sera un témoignage' contre toi au dernier jugement*
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.
1vented by cupidity will they operate perfectly this justification? by what wilt thou be regenerated? by thy mausim or thy idol? or else by the birth of Jesus-Christ? which is the nearest to the divinity? Thy works perish, and follow thee like shadows; now the soul nourishes itself with no shadow: but it must be ardent; it must enter by the gates of the depth, and by the centre of the anger of death, by the anger of the eternal alliance 5 into the sweet homification of Jesus-Christ, become a member in the body of Christ, and take of his plenitude, and substantiate itself thereof. The death of Christ must be thy death; the essences of Christ must boil in thee, and thou must live in his source: thus thou must be entirely regenerated in Christ, if thou wilt remain before his father; otherwise nothing will serve thee. If there were anything in the depth of all the divinity which could have aided thee, God would have made a present of it to Adam; he would not have let, against the course of nature, his heart become man; but there was no means either in heaven, or in this world, save that God should become a man: that is why, I say this to thee seriously; so seek no roundabout way in Babel. 87. God, in truth, permitted in the first times many things for the conversion of the pagans. But he did not thus institute the antichrist with his cupidities, his establishments, his habits and his decisions, where men have shut the mouth of the spirit of God, so that it 11can no more make itself heard en. .8. j g, j
2but so that the spirit of this world may speak and build a celestial kingdom upon the earth, by institutions and deluges of words: that is why also the celestial kingdom upon the earth, not being in the liberty of the holy spirit, must be enchained by strong oaths or engagements, so that it may substantiate itself commodiously, acquire 1 stoutness, and never break itself; but it has become thereby a Babel of confusion, and it breaks itself in the Confusion. 88. If thou wilt now consider the virgin Mary with her son Jesus-Christ, then thou wilt find how by her son, she has become just and holy: nevertheless she had already attained a great perfection, like the clear star of the morning before the other stars: that is why also the angel declares her blessed among women, and says: The lord is with thee. 89. But she had not the divine omnipotence; for the word that God promised in the garden of Eden, flowers, in itself, in the proper light or the proper life of this divine word, that is to say, in the centre of God: and when the angel Gabriel in his message, stimulated, by the order of God, this word, it introduced itself into the chaste virgin, into the element; not it is true entirely terrestrial, so that Mary should be deified. No; for the Christ says himself: No one goes to heaven save the son of man who is come from heaven, and who is in heaven. The others must mount to heaven by the il ( C)2 ) CH. 18.' Christ: the Christ is their heaven, and the father is the heaven of Christ. The Christ was in heaven, and also in the bosom of the virgin, in this world; the world had been made by him, how could the world have contained him?
390. The virgin Mary conceived him, as a mother her son; she gave him the natural essences that she had inherited from her parents; he took them into himself in the creature which was God and man. He retained the essences of the flesh and of the blood, from the virginal matrix of his mother, in the limbus of God, in the element, without damaging the element; he was thereby a living soul, and the word was in the midst. The power, the height and the depth of the soul, reached even into the father; and the external kingdom of this world was suspended to the internal, as are to the pure and holy element, the four elements, which, at the consummation shall destroy themselves, and shall pass by the fire. 91. Now, as the child is another person than the mother, and as the soul of the child is not the soul of the mother, it is the same here in this case: for the exterior virgin could not comprehend that she bore the saviour of the world; but she recommended that to God in her virginal chastity; all wherein he should dispose of her, she would acquiesce in with satisfaction. 92. But thou, monstrous antichristian creature who wouldst devour all, thou must know, upon the subject of the holiness of the virgin Mary, that this virgin Mary is more elevated, and has a greater plenitude of splendour and of brightness than another child .rtt. 18. . t 93 ) of another body. Although thou, wretched one, art scarcely worthy that one should tell thee such a thing, since thou hast a devouring cupidity, nevertheless, the council of God has resolved it: it will be a testimony against thee at the last judgment*
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.