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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.
170. Nous voyons que dans ce monde il y a du feu , de l'air , de Peau , et de la terre , et en outre le soleil et les étoiles , et que cela compose tous les êtres de [ce monde. Supposez aussi, par comparaison , que le père soit le feu de toutes lesconstellalions, comme il l'est dans l'élément pur ; que le fils, ou son cœur, soit le soleil , qui procure à ioules les constellations une vive lumière et une douce joie ; que Tesprit saint soit l'air delà vie, sans lequel ni le soleil ni les constellations n'exisleroient; et que l'esprit du grand monde, considéré tout ensemble 5 soit la chaste vierge sophie , qui est devant Dieu , lequel esprit du grand monde donne à toutes les créatures de ce monde , par l'inûuence des étoiles, l'affection, le sens et le discernement : c'e^ ainsi en effet qu'il en est dans le ciel. 71. La terre terrestre se compare au ternaire saint, dans lequel est Vaquaster céleste, ou la source aquatique, entendez dans la terre céleste, que j'appelle l'élémenj , parce qu'elle est pure. Aina Dieu est un esprit , ^élément pur est la terre céleste , car il estsubstanciel -, les essences dans la teri-e céleste sontleparadisde la végétation ;et laviergede la sagesse,ou sophie se compare ainsi au grand espnt de tout le monde céleste, et elle ouvre les grandes merveilles, non-seulement dans la terre céleste, en. 21. ( 237 ) iniiis aussi dans la grande profondeur de la divinité. 72. Car la divinité est insaisissable et invisible , cependant compréhensible; mais la vierge est visible, comme un pur esprit, et l'élément est son corps , qui s'appelle le ternaire saint , la terre sainte.
273. Or , dans ce ternaire saint est entrée la divinité invisible, en sorte qu'il y eut là un mariage éternel, et qu'ainsi, pour parler par comparaison, la divinité fut dans le pur élément , et que l'élément fut la divinité; car Dieu et le ternaire sont devenus une même chose, non pas en esprit, mais eu substance, comme le corps et l'ame; et de même que l'ame est au-dessus du corps , de même aussi Dieu est au-dessus du ternaire saint. 74. Voilà donc ce qu'est la vierge céleste ou la SOPHIE dont l'esprit de Dieu a parlé dans les ancieni sages ; et le ternaire saint est noire vrai corps dan? l'image , corps que nous avons perdu ; et que maintenant le cœur de Dieu a pris à soi comme corps. Or , ce noble corps , aussi bien que celui de la chaste vierge de Dieu , a été posé sur Marie , non pas comme un vêlement , mais entièrement puissant dans ses essences , et cependant incompréhensible aux essences de ce monde , de la chair et du sang dans le corps de Marie ; néanmoins compréhensible à l'ame de Marie. Car l'ame raarchoit dans le ternaire saint. Mais elle ne pouvoit pas encore sortir de la colère , et cela ne pouvoit avoir lieu que dans le brisement du terrestre par le céleste , dans la mort du Christ. !'l ( a38 ) CB. 32, 7S. Ainsi la parole dans le ternaire saint s'est ensevelie dans la terrestréité et a pris à soi ou reçu dans le Xemspresorii, c^est-à-dire, à rexpiraUon des trois mois , une vraie ame des essences de Famé de Marie , comme tous les hommes ; non pas du ternaire saint. mais notre ame. Cependant elle n'a pas pris notre corps souillé^ dans lequel le royaume de ce moxKle est lié avec le péché.
376. Ala vérité Chrisi a pris à soi notre corps nafar«/, mais ne l'a pas mélangé avec le ternaire saint. Car la mort pointe dans noire corps ; le ternaire saint étoil son cœur , la mort de noire mort , et sa destruction. Dans le ternaire saint éloit sa divinité. Or, c'est ce même homme qui est venu du ciel, qui s'est révêtu du terrestre , et a accompli l'œuvre de la rédemption entre le céleste et le terrestre ; alors rame a été séparée de la colère et de l'àpreté. 77. Tu ne dois pas dire que le Christ entier soit venu du ciel avec son corpa et son ame. Il n'a apporté aucune ame du ternaire saint ; la vierge céleste ou SOPHIE étoit l'ame dans le ternaire saint, et il l'a apportée, comme épouse à notre ame , ainsi que tout ce livre en fait mention. 78. Que me serviroit qu'il eût apporté une ame étrangère? Rien : mais qu'il ait introduit mon ame dans le ternaire saint , c'est ce dont je me réjouis ; ainsi je peux dire : L'ame du Christ est mon frère , et le corps du Christ est la nourriture de mon arae. Comme il le dit ( Jean 6. chap. v. 55. ): Ma chair es! vraiment viande , et mon sang est vraiment breuvage. cih 12, ( 239 ) 79. Venez ici , contentieux pasteurs de Babel , ouvrez vps yeux , et pensez à ce que sont les testamens du Christ avec le baptême et la cène. Je veux en effet vous l'enseigner , si vous en êtes dignes , quoique j'écrive pour les enfans du lys. C'est pourquoi , que chacui» regarde 011 il aborde ; cela mérite réflexion. 'Nous ne dédaignons point l'intelligence des anciens , elle peut avoir été engendrée très pure dans le commencement ; mais nous trouvons comment l'antecluist s'est établi en sa place , et a transformé les créatures en Dieux.
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.
170. We see that in this world there is fire, air, water, and earth, and besides the sun and the stars, and that that composes all the beings of this world. Suppose also, by comparison, that the father is the fire of all the constellations, as he is in the pure element; that the son, or his heart, is the sun, which procures for all the constellations a lively light and a sweet joy; that the holy spirit is the air of life, without which neither the sun nor the constellations would exist; and that the spirit of the great world, considered all together 5 is the chaste virgin sophia, who is before God, which spirit of the great world gives to all the creatures of this world, by the influence of the stars, the affection, the sense and the discernment: it is thus in effect that it is in heaven. 71. The terrestrial earth is compared to the holy ternary, in which is the celestial aquaster, or the aquatic source, understand in the celestial earth, that I call the element, because it is pure. Thus God is a spirit, the pure element is the celestial earth, for it is substantial; the essences in the celestial earth are the paradise of the vegetation; and the virgin of the wisdom, or sophia is compared thus to the great spirit of all the celestial world, and she opens the great marvels, not only in the celestial earth, en. 21. ( 237 ) but also in the great depth of the divinity. 72. For the divinity is unseizable and invisible, nevertheless comprehensible; but the virgin is visible, like a pure spirit, and the element is her body, which is called the holy ternary, the holy earth.
273. Now, into this holy ternary is entered the invisible divinity, so that there was there an eternal marriage, and that thus, to speak by comparison, the divinity was in the pure element, and the element was the divinity; for God and the ternary are become one same thing, not in spirit, but in substance, like the body and the soul; and just as the soul is above the body, likewise also God is above the holy ternary. 74. Behold then what is the celestial virgin or the SOPHIA whereof the spirit of God has spoken in the ancient sages; and the holy ternary is our true body in the image, body that we have lost; and that now the heart of God has taken to himself as body. Now, this noble body, as well as that of the chaste virgin of God, has been laid upon Mary, not as a garment, but entirely powerful in its essences, and nevertheless incomprehensible to the essences of this world, of the flesh and of the blood in the body of Mary; nevertheless comprehensible to the soul of Mary. For the soul walked in the holy ternary. But it could not yet go out of the anger, and that could have place only in the breaking of the terrestrial by the celestial, in the death of Christ. !'l ( a38 ) CB. 32, 7S. Thus the word in the holy ternary has buried itself in the terrestreity and has taken to itself or received in the prescribed time, that is to say, at the expiration of the three months, a true soul of the essences of the soul of Mary, like all men; not of the holy ternary, but our soul. Nevertheless it has not taken our soiled body, in which the kingdom of this world is bound with sin.
376. In truth Christ took to himself our natural body, but mingled it not with the holy ternary. For death points in our body; the holy ternary was his heart, the death of our death, and its destruction. In the holy ternary was his divinity. Now, it is this same man who came from heaven, who clothed himself with the terrestrial, and accomplished the work of the redemption between the celestial and the terrestrial; then the soul was separated from the anger and from the harshness. 77. Thou must not say that the whole Christ came from heaven with his body and his soul. He brought no soul from the holy ternary; the celestial virgin or SOPHIA was the soul in the holy ternary, and he brought her, as spouse to our soul, as all this book makes mention of it. 78. What would it serve me that he had brought a foreign soul? Nothing: but that he has introduced my soul into the holy ternary, it is that whereof I rejoice; thus I can say: The soul of Christ is my brother, and the body of Christ is the nourishment of my soul. As he says it ( John 6. chap. v. 55. ): My flesh is truly meat, and my blood is truly drink. cih 12, ( 239 ) 79. Come here, contentious pastors of Babel, open your eyes, and think of what are the testaments of Christ with the baptism and the supper. I will in effect teach it you, if you are worthy of it, although I write for the children of the lily. That is why, let each look 011 where he lands; that merits reflection. We disdain not the intelligence of the ancients, it may have been begotten very pure in the beginning; but we find how the antichrist has established himself in its place, and has transformed the creatures into Gods.
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.