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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.
133. Or nous reconnoissons à présent que nous n'avons point été créés pour engendrer terrestrement, mais célestement, du corps de l'élément pur qu'Adam avoit avant sou sommeil , avaiit son Eve , lorsqu'il u'étoit ni homme ni femme , mais seulement uue image de Dieu , pleine de chasteté et provenue de l'élément pur qui devoit de nouveau engendrer une image semblable à lui ; «mis comme il entra dans l'esprit de ce inonde , son corps devint terrestre 5 ainsi la génération céleste passa 5 et il liallut que Dieu formât de lui une femme , comme on l'a vu ci* dessus. 34. Mais pour que les enfans de la pauvre Eve fussent secourus, il falloit qu'il vînl une autre vierge et qu'elle nous engendrât un fils , qui fut alors Dieu avec nous, et Dieu en nous. 35. Au moment de la chute ; la parole de Dieu le père , et dans la parole, la lumière est eniree par l'esprit saint dans l'élément saint , dans la chaste vierge de la sagesse de Dieu et a formé le précieux pact de devenir une créature dauj ( 222 ) CH. 22é
2cette vierge; d'arracber au démon $a puissance dans la colère , et de lui briser sou règne ; or ce mêmeChisl voulut se lancer dans riiuinanilé perdue, et par son entrée dans la mort, séparer de nous l'enfer colérique et le royaume de ce monde. ])ieu le père a aussitôt manifesté dana le jardin d'Eden , après la chute , celle parole de h promesse de la semence de la femme. Là le Christ s'est aussitôt livré eu éternelle alliance dans le centre de la lumière de la vie ; par-là toutes les âmes humaines qui se sont approchées de lui , et qui se sont livrées jusqu'à la mort de leur corps , il les sépare de la colère de Dieu et du royaume de ce monde , et il les introduit dans l'élément pur paradisiaque 5 dans la chasle et pure vierge , pour attendre là dans une graude douceur que Dieu brise le règne de ce monde avec les étoiles et les élémens. Car alors l'élément pur se mettra aussitôt à la place de l'extra - génération. Là le nouveau corps doit croître et s'élever dans rame , dans le saint élément devant Dieu pour Télernité. 36. Si nous voulons maintenant considérer sa ^ivéc'ieusç homification^ uous devons bien ouvrir lesyeux de l'esprit , et ne pas penser aussi leireslrement , qu'on le fait à préseul dans Babel. Nous devons Lien considérer cummenl Dieu est devenu homme ; car l'écriture dit : Qu'il a été conçu sans péché, et engendré d'une vierge pure, Or , pense , toi , chère ame , quelle espèce de vierge c'étoit : car tout ce qui fjil né de la chair et «lu sang de cq monde, esl irapun C». 22. ( 223 ) et aucune vierge pore ne peut être engendrée de ce sang et de celte chair de corruption. La chute d'Adam a tout brisé ; tout est sous le péché; aucune vierge pure n'est engendrée de la semence de l'homme. El ce Christ a été conçu sans péché, et engendré d'une vierge pure. ^
337. Ici se tait le savant de l'école de ce monde j «t l'écolier engendré de Dieu s'avance pour enseigner sur cet engendrement. Car l'esprit de ce monde en connoît rien au-delà ; c'est une folie pour lui , et s'il va plus loin , ce n'est néanmoins qu'en Babel , dans sa propre raison. 38. Ainsi nous établissons selon notre connoissance, que la pure, chaste vierge dans laquelle Dieu est engendré, est la pure, chasle vierge devant Dieu, et est une vierge éternelle , ou la sophie. Avant que le ciel et la terre fussent créés, elle étoil une vierge et en outre entièrement pure sans la moindre tache; et celte pure, chaste vierge de Dieu s'est placée dans Marie, quand elle (Marie) a M créaturi^'e corporellement ; et son nouvel homme a été dans l'élément saint de Dieu : c'est pourquoi elle a éié bénie parmi toutes les femmes , et le seigneur a éié avec elle , comme dit l'ange. 39. Or , maintenant il nous est connu que Dieu esl tout en tous , et remplit tout , comme il est écrit : Ne suis'Je pas celai gui remplit tout ? Nous savons aussi que l'élément pur dans le paradis est sa demeure ; que c'est là le second principe , lequel est dans toute chose 5 et que les choses qui ne sont ( 2i4 ) CM. 22; qu'une génération ténébreuse de mort, ne le conjioissent pas plus qu'un vase ne connoît son polier; aussi ne le saisit -il pas ni ne le comprend. Car je ne peux pas dire , quand je prends et que j'embrasso quelque chose, que je saisisse le saint t'iément, non lH# q"<^ ^^ paradis ou la divinité; mais je sai.^i* rexlra-généFalion , le royaume de ce monde ; savoir le Iroisième principe et sa substance ;et par là je ne remue pas la divinité. Ainsi nous devons recounoîlre que le saint nouvel homme est caché dans Tancien , et cependant n'est pas séparé jusqu'au moment de la mort temporelle.
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.
133. Now we recognise at present that we were not created to beget terrestrially, but celestially, of the body of the pure element that Adam had before his sleep, before his Eve, when he was neither man nor woman, but only an image of God, full of chastity and come of the pure element which was to beget anew an image like to him; but as he entered into the spirit of this world, his body became terrestrial 5 thus the celestial generation passed 5 and it was necessary that God should form of him a woman, as one has seen above. 34. But so that the children of poor Eve might be succoured, it was necessary that another virgin should come and that she should beget us a son, who should then be God with us, and God in us. 35. At the moment of the fall, the word of God the father, and in the word, the light entered by the holy spirit into the holy element, into the chaste virgin of the wisdom of God and formed the precious pact of becoming a creature in ( 222 ) CH. 22é
2this virgin; to tear from the demon his power in the anger, and to break his reign for him; now this same Christ would launch himself into the lost humanity, and by his entrance into death, separate from us the choleric hell and the kingdom of this world. God the father has at once manifested in the garden of Eden, after the fall, this word of the promise of the seed of the woman. There the Christ has at once given himself in eternal alliance in the centre of the light of life; thereby all the human souls which have approached him, and which have given themselves unto the death of their body, he separates them from the anger of God and from the kingdom of this world, and he introduces them into the pure paradisiac element 5 into the chaste and pure virgin, to await there in a great sweetness that God break the reign of this world with the stars and the elements. For then the pure element will put itself at once in the place of the extra-generation. There the new body must grow and rise in the soul, in the holy element before God for eternity. 36. If we will now consider his precious homification, we must indeed open the eyes of the spirit, and not think as terrestrially as one does at present in Babel. We must well consider how God became man; for the scripture says: That he was conceived without sin, and begotten of a pure virgin. Now, think, thou, dear soul, what kind of virgin that was: for all that is born of the flesh and of the blood of this world, is impure C». 22. ( 223 ) and no pure virgin can be begotten of this blood and of this flesh of corruption. The fall of Adam has broken all; all is under sin; no pure virgin is begotten of the seed of man. And this Christ was conceived without sin, and begotten of a pure virgin.
337. Here the learned man of the school of this world is silent; and the scholar begotten of God comes forward to teach upon this begetting. For the spirit of this world knows nothing beyond; it is a folly for him, and if he goes further, it is nevertheless only in Babel, in his own reason. 38. Thus we establish according to our knowledge, that the pure, chaste virgin in which God is begotten, is the pure, chaste virgin before God, and is an eternal virgin, or the sophia. Before heaven and earth were created, she was a virgin and besides entirely pure without the least stain; and this pure, chaste virgin of God placed herself in Mary, when she ( Mary ) was creaturised corporeally; and her new man was in the holy element of God: that is why she was blessed among all women, and the lord was with her, as the angel says. 39. Now, at present it is known to us that God is all in all, and fills all, as it is written: Am I not he who fills all? We know also that the pure element in the paradise is his dwelling; that it is there the second principle, which is in every thing 5 and that the things which are ( 2i4 ) CM. 22; but a tenebrous generation of death, know it no more than a vessel knows its potter; also does it neither seize it nor comprehend it. For I cannot say, when I take and embrace something, that I seize the holy element, no more than the paradise or the divinity; but I seize the extra-generation, the kingdom of this world; to wit the third principle and its substance; and thereby I move not the divinity. Thus we must recognise that the holy new man is hidden in the ancient, and nevertheless is not separated until the moment of the temporal death.
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.