Fetching
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.
193. Vois: sais-tu comment un enfant devient chair et sang , et enfin une ame vivante? ne sais -tu pas que la teinture de la mère, lorsqu'un enfant doit être conçu , est la première qui arrive, dans le désir de la volonté entre l'homme et k femme. Lorsque la semence est semée , la teinture la reçoit dans la matrice , avec le mélange du limUs de l'homme. Et quoique la mère extérieure ne désire point d'enfant , mais souvent ne s'occupe que de son plaisir, cependant l'intérieure en désire, et est aussi la première imprégnée dans la teinture : ensuite elle attire le ri.T à soi, elle relient le limbus de l'homme , et devient enceinte. 94. Mais enlin cette teinture inqualifie avec tout le corps , et aussi avec l'ame ; car si elle est fidèle , alors elle atteint la vierge sophie de Dieu dans l'élément, et elle est vraiment la demeure de la sainte ame,dnns laquelle cette ame est soutenue et assistée de Dieu. 95- Or l'enfant inquoUJÎe avec la mère par toutes les essences , jusqu'à ce que la lumière de la vie s'allume 5 alors l'enfant vit dans son esprit , et la mère est sa maison d'habitation. Mais comme enfin l'ame de l'enfant est engendrée du limhu, , et iles essences de la mère , Ah% lors ^\\q est vraiment • l ^: ( 94 ) ^^- ^fi* moîtî^ h la more , qnoiqu'aiors c^Mr ame soit mainJerart deveiine à soi-même une piupi iéli^. 96. Ainsi de mê^ie dans le Ciirist , la volonté éloil vraiment de la rn>re lorsque Tanf^e lui îil l*anDonciation ; et la teinture qui re<^*ut le liinhut de Dieu , et qui le porta dans la volonté, de r..ç<m quVlle devint enceinte dans l'élément , étoit aussi de la mère : or , la divinité fut reçue dans la teinture de la mère , dans sa volouté , comme un autre enfant naturel.
297. Si donc , maintenant , l'arae de son enfant, laquelle est sortie des essences de la mère , est dans la trinilé sainte , comment i nafi,ines-tu ici que la sainteté de l'enfant , particulièrement sa liante lumière ne paisse pns briller clairement dans la mcrej que celle mère ne puisse pas vraiment siéger audessus de la lune 5 et mépriser le terrestre , comme ce!a se voit dans Tapocalipse ? 98. Car elle a engendré le salut de tout le inonde sans un mélange terrestre ; elle est wne. vierge de chasteté, hautement bénie par son lils JésusClirist dans la lumière divine , et dans la clarté audessus du ciel , semblable au trône des princes des iflnpes. En effet , d'elle est sorti le corps qui attire à soi tous les membres , c'est-à-dire, ceux qni sont les enfans de Dieu en Christ. C'est pourquoi elle a un éclat au-dessus de l'éclat du ciel , et l'éclat de «on ame est dans la trinité sainte. Là tous les autres enfans d'Adam, qui sont engendiés en Christ, soi;t aussi ^membres de cette famille dans le i>eul Christ. ^H. 18. f ^5 j 99. Ou bien imagines-tu que de celte mèr^ , je pas. Car la puissance de secourir ne vient que du l^reparlefils.enelFetdanslepèreseulemL et a source de la toute puissance qu'il prononce dan le hls , attendu que la .ertu de la puissance est dan le premier principe qui est le père lui-même : etle fi\s est son amour et sa lumière. 100. Ainsi la vierge Marie demeure aussi bien que tout les autres saints, dans le ciel, dans il ™''^"^^'---^M-e,etnonVsdan; la severe et aiguë puissance de Dieu le père 10.. Quant à ce qu'on a enseigné qu'elle a été reçue vivante dans le ciel avec son corps et son ame q.' elle peut ainsi s'occuper de nos misères , et Z
3porter devant son fils , Je voudrois bien savoir qu'elle Intel igence a du royaume du ciel l'auteur qui a inventé cela ; il a sûrement pris le royaume de ce njondo pour le ciel. 10.. J'accorde, et il est vrai qu'elle peu. réellemen. e.re dan. le ciel avec un corps se,Llab e à ce u. q, M„ïse e. Elie on, eu sur ir.o„,ag„e du Tabor,dans leur appari.iondevan, leChrist :savoir "" "°":'^"" :°^P' 'l- '"«'émen,. Le corp. corruptible appar.,e„,ala.erre.Si nousavions p»,danscecorps, rester en Dieu, Dieu ne seroit.,».^ ^. ^' "® ^^°^^ Pds devenu homme , et ne sero.t pas mort pour nous: cependant tous les 2"'- du Christ son morts . et virent néanmoin" Aussi .1 se peut que le corps de la vierge ait été changé en un corps céleste, était déposé le ter- (96} cto* i9» réstre. Qu'est-ce que cela fera ? Elle n'est nullement une divinité. io3. L'invocation des saints est entièrement contre la nature du premier principe. Elle [Marie] est bien avec Dieu , nous ne voulons point disputer ■urcela; nous voulons seulement observer que nous pouvons aussi aller près d'elle en son fils JésusChrist; alors nous aurons avec elle une éternelle joie, de ce qu'elle a été bénie parmi les femmes par la grâce de Dieu , de ce que nous voyons sur elle la verdoyante branche de lys , et de ce qu'elle est la znère de notre salut, de laquelle mère le salut est engendré par Dieu. Du purgatoire, 104. Le purgatoire inventé et si bien forgé, a réellement quelque base dans la nature ; mais de la manière dont on l'enseigne, c'est un vrai mensonge ; et en cela se trouve l'insatiable gourmandise de la bête colérique ; car elle s'est bâti làdessus son royaume du ciel , et la clef de pierre ( qu'elle n'a jamais eue ) , pour s'attribuer le purgatoire.
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.
193. See: knowest thou how a child becomes flesh and blood, and at last a living soul? knowest thou not that the tincture of the mother, when a child must be conceived, is the first that comes, in the desire of the will between the man and the woman. When the seed is sown, the tincture receives it in the matrix, with the mixture of the limbus of the man. And although the exterior mother desire no child, but often occupy herself only with her pleasure, nevertheless the interior one desires it, and is also the first impregnated in the tincture: then it draws the ri.T to itself, it retains the limbus of the man, and becomes with child. 94. But at last this tincture inqualifies with all the body, and also with the soul; for if it be faithful, then it reaches the virgin sophia of God in the element, and it is truly the dwelling of the holy soul, in which this soul is sustained and assisted by God. 95- Now the child inqualifies with the mother by all the essences, until the light of life kindles itself 5 then the child lives in its spirit, and the mother is its house of habitation. But as at last the soul of the child is begotten of the limbus, and of the essences of the mother, then it is truly • l ^: ( 94 ) ^^- ^fi* half of the mother, although then this soul is now become to itself a property. 96. Thus likewise in the Christ, the will was truly of the mother when the angel made him the annunciation; and the tincture which received the limbus of God, and which bore it in the will, so that it became with child in the element, was also of the mother: now, the divinity was received into the tincture of the mother, in her will, like another natural child.
297. If then, now, the soul of her child, which came out of the essences of the mother, is in the holy trinity, how imaginest thou here that the holiness of the child, particularly its high light might not shine clearly in the mother; that this mother might not truly sit above the moon 5 and despise the terrestrial, as that is seen in the Apocalypse? 98. For she has begotten the salvation of all the world without a terrestrial mixture; she is a virgin of chastity, highly blessed by her son Jesus-Christ in the divine light, and in the clearness above the heaven, like the throne of the princes of the iflnpes. In effect, of her is come out the body which draws to itself all the members, that is to say, those who are the children of God in Christ. That is why she has a brightness above the brightness of heaven, and the brightness of her soul is in the holy trinity. There all the other children of Adam, who are begotten in Christ, are also members of this family in the only Christ. ^H. 18. f ^5 j 99. Or dost thou imagine that of this mother, I not. For the power of succouring comes only from the father by the son, in effect in the father only, and the source of the omnipotence that he pronounces in the son, seeing that the virtue of the power is in the first principle which is the father himself: and the son is his love and his light. 100. Thus the virgin Mary abides as well as all the other saints, in heaven, in il ™''^"^^'---^M-e,etnonVsdan; the severe and sharp power of God the father 10.. As to what has been taught that she was received living into heaven with her body and her soul, and that she can thus occupy herself with our miseries, and Z
3bear before her son, I should indeed like to know what intelligence of the kingdom of heaven the author has who invented that; he has surely taken the kingdom of this world for heaven. 10.. I grant, and it is true that she can really be in heaven with a body like to that which Moses and Elias had upon the mountain of Tabor, in their apparition before the Christ: to wit, a body of the element. The corruptible body belongs to the earth. If we could, in this body, remain in God, God would not have become man, and would not have died for us: nevertheless all the 2"'- of Christ are dead, and live nevertheless. Also .1 may be that the body of the virgin was changed into a celestial body, the ter- (96} cto* i9» restrial being laid aside. What will that do? She is in no wise a divinity. io3. The invocation of the saints is entirely against the nature of the first principle. She [Mary] is indeed with God, we will not dispute upon that; we will only observe that we can also go near her in her son Jesus-Christ; then we shall have with her an eternal joy, that she has been blessed among women by the grace of God, that we see upon her the verdant branch of lily, and that she is the mother of our salvation, of which mother the salvation is begotten by God. Of purgatory, 104. Purgatory invented and so well forged, has really some base in nature; but in the manner in which it is taught, it is a true lie; and in that is found the insatiable gourmandise of the choleric beast; for it has built thereupon its kingdom of heaven, and the key of stone ( which it never had ), to appropriate purgatory to itself.
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.