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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.
125. Car là il n'y a aucune lumière, ni de la part de ce monde , ni de la part de Dieu ; mais Venflammement de son propre feu en soi-même est sa lumière , qui consiste dans un effroyable éclair de colère , lequel , en soi-même , est une inimitié. Cependant le tourment est très diversifié, selon ce dont l'ame s'est chargée ici bas. Pour une telle ame, il n'y a aucun remède : elle ne peut aller dans la lumière de Dieu ; et, quand même St-Pierre auroit laissé plusieurs milliers de clefs sur la terre , aucune ne lui ouvre le «iel, car elle est séparée de l'alliance de Jésus-Christ. Il y a une entière génération ou région entre elle et la divinité , et il en est comme ôvec l'hoiame riche. Ceux qui veuleut venijr de là ( 110 ) CH. 19;
2ici, ne le peuvent pas. Cela doit loulefois s'entendre des âmes impénitentes, qui se séparent do leurs corps dans l'hypocrisie , sans élre régénérées. 36. Mais il y a une grande différence entre les âmes ; c'est pourquoi aussi le départ d'ici n'est pas le même. Quelques unes par le repentir, et une vraie pénitence de leurs mauvaises œuvres , par leur foi établie dans le cœur de Dieu, ont été régénérées, daus le tems de leur corps , par la génération de Jésus-Christ ; et celles-là, aussitôt la brisure de leur corps, déposent tout ce qu'il y a de terrestre 5 elles déposent aussi la région des étoiles ; elles saisissent dans leurs essences du premier prin- .cipe, la miséricorde de Dieu , le père, daus l'aimable amour de Jésus-Christ. Et même pendant la durée de leurs corps, qu'elles tiennent des essences de l'ame , si elles puisent dans les souffrances et la mort du Christ , elles restent aussi dans les portes du ciel, et leur séparation d'avec le corps est une entrée joyeuse dans l'élément; elles y sont en la présence de Dieu , dans un paisible repos , attendant leur corps sans impatience : car là, recroîtra ce paradis, qui agrée si fort à Tame , mais qui ne produit aucune fontaine , jusqu'à ce que le premier Adam en soit de nouveau remis en possession, comme avant la chute. 27. Les œuvres de ces âmes saiutes les suivent aussi dans leur teinture de l'esprit d'ames , ians le saint élément, de façon qu'elles voient et r •connoissent combien elles ont opéré de bien ici bas 5 et leur plus gx^°^ attrail , et leur désir dans leur amour CH. 19. f jjj j est d;opérer conlinuellement du bien , quoiqu'elles «e puissent plus rien sans le corps paradisiaque, quelles recevront d'abord à la restauration; mais leur source est un attrait pur ,et un délicieux bienêtre.
3a8. Cependant il faut que tu sacl^es que les saintes âmes ne sont pas ainsi dénuées et sans facultés : car leurs essences sont de la forte puissance de Dieu , du premier principe. Quoique maintenant elles n'en fassent pas usage, à cause de leur grande humilité devant Dieu , où elles attendent toujours leur corp, dans un paisible repos, avec une grande abnégation • cependant leur amour et leur attrait est si grand ' que plusieurs fois elles ont opéré des prodiges sur \l terre parmi les croyans, qui ont placé ainsi forte* ment en elles leur, amour et leur désir. Là , une sainte teinture a saisi l'autre , de façon qu'ainsi des prodiges se sont opérés par des fidèles vivansjcar pour la foi rien n'est impossible. 29. Et il n'est pas difficile aux âmes saintes , (^ui sont séparées de leur corps , d'apparoître à laVorte foi des vivans : car la ferme foi des vivans , s'ils sont nés de Dieu , atteint aussi le royaume du ciel dans Je saint élément , où les âmes séparées ont leur repos. 30. Enfin , si une ame séparée de son corps par la mort , a été ici, dans ce monde , un flambeau et un promulgateur de Dieu , si elle en a converti plusieurs à la justice , alors elle paroît aussi devant les saints vivans , quand leur foi s'attache aussi forteaentà elle 5 et il n'y a rien d'exlrao^di^aire qu'an tr©^ ( lia ) tH. 19.
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.
125. For there there is no light, neither on the part of this world, nor on the part of God; but the inflaming of its own fire in itself is its light, which consists in a frightful flash of anger, which, in itself, is an enmity. Nevertheless the torment is very diversified, according to that wherewith the soul has charged itself here below. For such a soul, there is no remedy: it cannot go into the light of God; and, even though St-Peter had left several thousands of keys upon the earth, none opens heaven to it, for it is separated from the alliance of Jesus-Christ. There is an entire generation or region between it and the divinity, and it is as with the rich man. Those who would come from thence ( 110 ) CH. 19;
2hither, cannot. That however must be understood of the impenitent souls, which separate themselves from their bodies in hypocrisy, without being regenerated. 36. But there is a great difference between souls; that is why also the departure from hence is not the same. Some by repentance, and a true penitence of their evil works, by their faith established in the heart of God, have been regenerated, in the time of their body, by the generation of Jesus-Christ; and those, immediately upon the breaking of their body, lay down all that there is of terrestrial 5 they lay down also the region of the stars; they seize in their essences of the first principle, the mercy of God, the father, in the amiable love of Jesus-Christ. And even during the duration of their bodies, which they hold from the essences of the soul, if they draw in the sufferings and the death of Christ, they remain also in the gates of heaven, and their separation from the body is a joyous entrance into the element; they are there in the presence of God, in a peaceable repose, awaiting their body without impatience: for there, that paradise shall grow again, which pleases the soul so greatly, but which produces no fountain, until the first Adam be anew put in possession of it, as before the fall. 27. The works of these holy souls follow them also in their tincture of the spirit of souls, in the holy element, so that they see and recognise how much good they have operated here below 5 and their greatest attract, and their desire in their love CH. 19. f jjj j is to operate continually good, although they can no more do anything without the paradisiac body, which they shall receive first at the restoration; but their source is a pure attract, and a delicious well-being.
3a8. Nevertheless thou must know that the holy souls are not thus destitute and without faculties: for their essences are of the strong power of God, of the first principle. Although now they make no use of it, because of their great humility before God, where they await always their body, in a peaceable repose, with a great abnegation; nevertheless their love and their attract is so great that several times they have operated prodigies upon the earth among the believers, who have thus strongly placed in them their love and their desire. There, one holy tincture has seized the other, so that thus prodigies have been operated by living faithful ones; for to faith nothing is impossible. 29. And it is not difficult to the holy souls, who are separated from their body, to appear to the strong faith of the living: for the firm faith of the living, if they are born of God, reaches also the kingdom of heaven in the holy element, where the separated souls have their repose. 30. Finally, if a soul separated from its body by death, has been here, in this world, a torch and a promulgator of God, if it has converted several to justice, then it appears also before the living saints, when their faith attaches itself also strongly to it 5 and there is nothing extraordinary that former ( lia ) tH. 19.
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.